These boots are made for walking

I've waited until now before writing because I wanted to make the most of being mobile. Sunday morning I woke up, looked out of the window and saw that is was dry. I'd had a good sleep and decided it was time to explore and get some exercise. Every day since then I have walked more and more each day, covering 37km over 5 days. Initially locally, then reaching further afield. This walking soothes my soul, keeps me fit, gets me fresh air and occasionally gives me some surprises.

The hospital is part of the University of Debrecen campus, there are a lot of international students, so it was not so surprising that I found a Panini bar which I returned to several times for breakfast, lunch and coffees. I was spoiling myself, and why not? Today I am not allowed out anymore as my white blood cell count has dropped, an expected effect of the chemotherapy.

I also explored the Botanical Gardens and the Nagyredei Park. It was good to be away from people and be amongst the trees. I discovered the park had some beautiful, enormous fir trees, and was filled with statues of Hungarian poets, one with a bookcase reminding me a quote by Cicero “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”. I've never read Cicero, by my friend Andy had it as his Skype mood message, and I always liked it. A bookcase in a park, what better?

But it was my final walk which was the most interesting. I was attempting a loop of the whole university campus and surrounding parks. I checked out the newly built Debrecen football stadium (it's always interesting to see how the government is spending our money). It's beautiful, by the way. I particularly loved how they built around the trees, even making holes in the structures to encompass them, although I suspect there is no tree growing on the pitch. Passing through the hospital car park, around 4pm, I was hailed down by a woman with an unusual offer: "I've got sex, would you like some?". I politely declined, but walked away smiling wondering who picks up a prostitute in a hospital car park in the middle of the day, and wondering where they go, back to the ward?

Since Sunday I've been feeling great. My Ukrainian roommate left and I enjoyed one uninterrupted night's sleep until I was joined by a nice but a little too talkative Hungarian roommate. Katie has visited twice, which has been a joy. It would be nice if I could see her more, but it's a 400km round trip for her, so not sensible to do more often. On Wednesday we ordered Korean food from a restaurant I had discovered on one of my walks. It was like a date, the food was good, the company the best and no one disturbed us. Perfect.

After the chemotherapy they have been monitoring my white blood cell count. On Wednesday it dropped to the right level to be able to start the Colony Stimulating Factor injections, which help to increase stem cell production, the idea being that I will have 8-10 million stem cells per kg for the collection, which they hope to do next week. I also received the news that they would like to start the stem cell transplant this year too, I had been led to believe it wouldn't be possible before January, but it will be good to get this all behind me. The drawback is that, there won't be much of a gap to spend time at home, and when I get the transplant I'll be quarantined in the hospital for 2-3 weeks and then at home too for a while, which will certainly involve Christmas and probably Rosie's, Amy's and my birthdays at the start of January. This makes me sad. I missed Amy's 3rd birthday when I was in Sweden and she was ill in Hungary, I didn't expect to have to repeat that. But this is more than about a few birthdays, and once this is over I'll be pushing my foot down to the ground on the accelerator pedal of life. And I'll be starting with cake!