Tough love

Strange day. House full of workmen, paint fumes and dust so was glad to get Audrey packed off to nursery!

I had to start some new medication (crazy hormone situation) today and had awful side effects on the last lot I tried which resulted in me stopping them after one day. So I was really worried today but so far so good (slight headache/sick feeling but that's all). Time will tell I guess!

Did some work but found it hard to concentrate as had some bad news about a friend who has been struggling with alcohol addiction. He has been in and out of the Priory over the past few months but keeps falling off the wagon. He now tells us he has colon cancer as a result of all the drinking and that the prognosis isn't good.

I went to see him this afternoon and he was a shell of a man. He was still drinking (drunk when I got there), smoking like a chimney and hasn't eaten in a week. I found it so hard to see him that way and tried everything to get him to go back into rehab. The problem is he has been lying to all his friends a lot recently about various things - claiming he's been mugged (turns out he had blacked out from drinking), that he's moving away (just a cry for help he isn't moving) etc. so it's hard to know if the cancer is another fabrication for attention. But I had to take it at face value as I have no choice. It was a tough conversation/afternoon. I can only pray what I said got through to him as if he keeps drinking (cancer or not), he won't be here much longer.

Home for a major clean up before picking Audrey up. After a dark day in many respects the news that one of my friends Lucy had her little boy Kit today was a welcome relief. And Audrey was so cute at bathtime in her new dressing gown (a present from her Nana). Focusing on the positive things!