Premiere In A Glam Alex Perry Frock!

On Monday I went to the Alex Perry shop in the Strand Arcade to try on a variety of dresses and eventually picked a gorgeous retro-looking dress in charcoal wool and black lace.

Last night I wore this beautiful dress to the premiere of Australia's Next Top Model (Series 7) at Fox Studios! I won tickets to the premiere via the ANTM facebook page and took along my sister Helen. It was really good fun, hosted by Josh Flinn (ANTM model mentor, Alex Perry publicist and all-round nice guy).

We said hi to Josh at the end and he remembered us from Alex Perry head office and sent us up to the after-party - a bonus! We had to maintain a modicum of cool, so didn't take any photos at the after party, and I didn't take any photos at the beginning, as I should have done, so don't really have many photos to put up here, but it was a great night! We were probably a bit shy, so didn't really speak to anyone, just soaked up the ambience :) Sarah Murdoch was there, looking tall and stunning, as usual. Alex Perry spotted my dress immediately, even in conversation with others, and indicated that he loved my look - answering the question as to whether a designer knows all of their dresses and can spot them at 20 paces! Charlotte Dawson, looking glam and chatting to footballer Sam Burgess, also commented on the dress, how lovely it looked, how very flattering and how she has the same one at home! All very exciting, I have never really had anyone comment favourably on my outfit before, let alone two celebs - maybe I should be wearing designer clothes more often...

Helen and I ready to go out to the premiere:

The red carpet:

Josh Flinn and I:



Good Days & Bad Days

Last week was pretty busy, plenty of ups and downs (mostly downs, admittedly!)

On Monday sis and I went to the head office of Alex Perry (designer of stunning dresses for the non-Aussies / non-interested) as organized by the lovely people at SC Johnson to pick out a glam frock to wear to a premiere event (event TBD). It was lots of fun (even if all the samples were size 8 and therefore only fit one boob!) especially since it was Josh Flinn, model mentor from australia's next top model, looking after us :) Unfortunately I couldn't get the dress that I wanted in my size, so I need to go to the retail store, but I'm looking forward to that too!
 On Tuesday, I saw the oncologist and got the scan results back - not unexpected, but not good news - the liver mets have worsened and I have multiple bone mets too (chest, ribs, back, hips), so the tablet Chemo is not working, or at least it is not doing enough. So on Wednesday it was back to the hospital for more IV Chemo - I am now on carboplatin + gemcitabine, once a week for two weeks then a week off. I was also given an IV bone treatment called Zometa, which tries to slow down cancer growth in the bones and strengthen them - I'll get this treatment every three weeks. We managed to get the IV in the hand this time, but I am scheduled to get a port put in to make the IV process easier going forward.

I have been in some pain, especially at night, particularly in my lower back and legs. I was getting up during the night to have a bath to try to ease the aches and pains, and struggling during the day to walk normally and get on with life, even with the pain medication that I had. So when on thursday the oncologist called to check that everything was ok, she suggested going into palliative care for a few days to get the pain under control and come up with a plan to manage it going forward. I agreed that if Thursday night wasn't any better I would go to the hospital on the Friday to check in (as if it is a hotel or something!)

Thursday night wasn't any better, another 4am bath, so at 10am Friday I got myself in a chemo bed until I got a bed in the oncology ward at about 5pm. Pain control was via morphine injections (via a "butterfly" into a vein on my stomach) every 4 hours and then whenever I felt I needed it, plus medication to deal with the joyous side effect of morphine - constipation. Every four hours means every four hours, even during the night, so I was being injected at midnight and 4am. The first 24 hours included vital signs monitoring every four hours too - getting blood pressure, temparature etc taken at 4am isn't highly recommended. Especially when the nurse is up for a chat, when to be honest I would really be rather sleeping. I'm a sensitive little soul too, well I must be, because I found the seemingly endless noise (IV machines beeping became a personal favourite) to be a form of torture. It was also decided that I needed to be kept in until Tuesday in order to determine the necessary doses of painkiller then transition to the "at home" method - patches (like nicotine ones for those giving up smoking). I think on the Monday I must have looked like I was about to cry in my sleep-deprived state when they said I needed to stay another day, so I did get a private room for the last night, which was an infinite improvement on being on the ward. Overall, I can recommend the RPA for their care (the food isn't bad either!), should anyone be wondering.

So, I'm back home now, with a pain medication plan that seems to be working.

In other news, I was supposed to have chemo yesterday but my white blood cell / platelet counts were too low so my body couldn't do it, so it has been postponed until next week. Also, I'm getting my port put in tomorrow (a plastic ring that sits under your skin and provides access straight into the vein). Not looking forward to having it done, even the information leaflet description is a bit gruesome, but I can see the advantage of not running out of places to put needles, since it seems that there will be a few more of those in my future...

Volcano

i have now seen an active volcano and I can definitely say that it was pretty amazing! We went to Mt Yasur on Tanna Island, Vanuatu - billed as "the world's most accessible volcano". It last had a full eruption about 25 years ago, but it is constantly active and shoots up molten lava from 3 vents 10-20 times every hour. The lava pit was about 50-100m below us, and the lava was being thrown several hundred metres in the air then coming back down to land all around the rim and back in the pit. When we visited it was at level 3 (of 5), which was pretty good as it meant it was active but we were able stand at the top and peer in - when it is level 4 you can only watch from the car park, and when level 5 I think you have to stay back in the village! On the path at the top our guide pointed out a rock about the size of a sofa that had landed there about 3 weeks ago and the path was strewn with rock of various sizes, so you tell that it is fairly active.

Pictures and even video can't really do justice to the experience, but I'll post a few anyway to give an idea:

Our 4WD in the ash field with the volcano in the background:

Rosie and I posting postcards at the volcano postbox (in Vanuatu they like "extreme post" - there is also an underwater postbox!)

Lava eruptions:

I tried to add in a video of a little eruption but after an hour uploading it failed so I don't think that will be possible! It was very impressive though, honest :)