When, many many years ago (19, but who’s counting? š ), my doctor uttered those two words, “mieloma multiplo,” I thought he’d said: “melanoma.” 
The Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls and crystal-clear green/blue pools located on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. it’s an absolutely beautiful spot…highly recommended…My photos don’t do it justice, but you can check online for MUCH better ones.
We spent an entire morning there, walking slowly up the hill, taking in the views, stopping to admire the waterfalls and pools, aaaah and the colors!…and taking lots of photos, of course!
It usually takes about 45 minutes (each way) to complete the uphill walk without stopping, but how can you NOT stop? It’s simply stunning everywhere you look. The walk is deemed āMediumā for difficulty and includes a few river crossings over stepping stones, one of which would be quite slippery in wet weather…so please be careful!
One of the main things that slowed us down were the other visitors. The Fairy Pools were absolutely packed. Since it was an open area, though, that didn’t pose a problem, not a physical one, I mean. HOWEVER, since we didnāt want crowds of people to end up in all our photos (and the same, Iām sure, was true for them!), we had to wait for people to move out of the way, to let us by in some of the steeper areas, and so on.
It took a bit of time and a lot of patience. I don’t want to sound whiny: it was actually a perfect people-watching occasion…and at one point we even came upon a photographer who was wearing a kilt. Always fun, that!
The best moment, though, was when I looked down into one of the pools, almost directly below my feet, and watched in wonder as a sopping wet young man (a Scotsman), wearing nothing but bathing trunks and sneakers (compare that to Stefano who was wearing four layers of clothing, including a Gore Tex jacket!), climbed up the steep ravine. After reaching the top, he walked right past me and, to my complete surprise, JUMPED, as you can see in the ONLY blurry photo (above) that I managed to take with my cellphone. What a scary (exciting, too, I admit) moment! Jumping off those steep rocks to land with a splash into one of the Fairy Pools isn’t something that I would recommend, for sure…unless you know what you’re doing. This guy did, of course. But…brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, just the memory makes me shiver…
Before I forget (!), though, today’s anecdote has to do with our arrival. As we pulled into the Fairy Pools car park, which was almost full at the time (we got the last spot, right at the top), we noticed a sign telling us we had to pay to parkā¦
While Stefano parked, therefore, I went off looking for an attendant or for a pay-and-display machine. I looked and looked, up and down the car park, but found…nothing except cars full of tourists looking for a spot…
Then I saw a Scottish guide standing by his van, waiting for his group of tourists to return from the pools. I figured heād know what to do, so I went up to him and asked if he could tell me how/where to pay for our parking spot. He answered that the car park was free since it was a Sunday.Ā 
Perfect!
I thanked him and prepared to go back up to the car to tell Stefano.
As I turned away, something on the ground caught my eye. A coin. A British pound. I pointed it out to the guide and said, āyouāve dropped a coin.ā Before I could bend down to retrieve it for him, he said, āNo, that coin isnāt mine. Itās yours!ā I retorted, āno, itās not. It must be yours.ā
He grinned and, bending over to pick up the coin, said:
āIf you find a coin, you’ll be lucky for an entire day. But if you find a coin and give it to a friend, you’ll be lucky for the rest of your life…ā
He handed me the coin…
Instead of going on and on about each place we visited in Scotland, Iāve decided to put together a series of anecdotes, cute or funny things that happened during our stay there.
First, though, here is a descriptive list of most of the places we visited, starting from Glasgow and ending in Edinburgh:
Ā I have a couple of videos of that encounter. Lots of fun. Oh, and I shouldnāt forget to repeat (see my September 4th post) that we had tea in our first ever cat cafĆ© in Glasgow, the Purple Cat CafĆ©. I noticed it as we were driving around trying to reach our hotel. The navigator gave us the wrong directions, so we ended up driving around in circles a couple of times. And at one point during these “circles,” I happened to notice the sign, “Purple Cat CafĆ©.” If it hadnāt been for that batty navigator, we would have missed the cafĆ©. Sometimes things justā¦happen! For a good reason, I mean! šĀ 
We spent three days there. It was here that I got quite high after a tour of one of the distilleries, and Stefano tried to make friends with what he thought was a hen but instead was a rather upset rooster. And we were also able to go have a look at the Kidalton Cross, see photo below, on the right, one of the finest and best preserved early Christian crosses, carved probably in the second half of the 8th century AD.Ā 
, mainly so we could go on a all-day boat and bus tour of Mull, Staffa and Iona, three small islands with different types of appeal. We also visited a nearby fantastic ruined 15th century castle, Kilchurn CastleĀ (see photo on left), as well as a few other ruined castles (Dunollie, Dunstaffnage, and Stalker) in the area.
theropod 170 million years ago more or less. You can find this footprint, marked by small stones by some kind-hearted person, at the An Corran beach at Staffin. The best time to view dinosaur prints, by the way, is in the winter, when they aren’t covered by algae. Since it wasn’t winter (although it was cold enough, at times!), we didn’t find that many…
Anyway, now we can say, ābeen there, done that,ā plus we got to spend an entire day at a Highland Game in Drumnadrochit, which was heaps of fun, sort of like being at a HUGE family reunion (the Scots are so friendly!), with adorable young girls doing traditional dances in kilts (see photo), big strong guys in kilts throwing extremely heavy items up in the air, bagpipe marches and competitions (see photo), and a final kilt race (I tried to get Stefano to participate, but he refused, I wonder why…….)…
Yes, lots of fun. Highland Games, highly recommended!
I couldn’t help ending this long series of photos with one of a “Skye” goat that had just moved off the road so we could pass. He doesn’t look too pleased about it, does he?
That’s it for today! It has taken me a very long time to go through all my photos and get around to pulling together this first post…but I’ve had to deal with Peekaboo’s problems, too, in addition to other stuff, so that’s my “excuse.” Incidentally, Peekaboo is doing very well on cortisone. She’s walking almost normally now…I mean, she isn’t walking in pain (or in “prevention of pain”), that is, in slow motion, with her back end almost to the ground. No, she is walking slowly but surely now. She even jumped onto Stefano’s desk a few days ago!!!
I’m giving her cortisone AND curcumin. In the beginning, I was giving her just the cortisone, afraid that the curcumin might have a negative impact (you never know when you mix two things together…), but I found the opposite to be true. When I give her both (not at the same time, of course!), she walks much better and is clearly in no pain. I’ll be discussing this with the vet later on today…
First, the news about Peekaboo. When I met with the vet a few days ago, he repeated that we wouldn’t be able to give her the current anti-inflammatory drug forever. Too bad, since she eagerly takes it in her wet food in the morning, and it seems to have no side effects. Oh well.
He suggested I substitute it with a drug called Contramal, which is basically Tramadol, and with another one that contains quercetin (I checked it out, it’s okay, so she’s on that now).
Tramadol is a different story. That’s the drug that Piccolo was on for some time last summer, and I am CONVINCED (although I have no proof, except for my own observations) that it played a role in the circumstances that led to his death. He had at least two strokes and went blindā¦and this all happened while he was on that drug. Now, sure, the strokes and blindness could have happened anyway. As I said, I have no proof. But do we want to risk the same thing happening to Peekaboo? No, we don’t. Stefano and I completely agree on that point.
So I needed to come up with a Plan B…another pain medication that would work as well, but without all the side effects.
After some online research, I found a possible solution on an official U.S. vet website: CORTISONE.
I called the vet surgeon, and, after various missed calls on both ends, we finally spoke yesterday. He agreed that it would be okay to put her on prednisone for little more than a week. I gave her the first dose this morning. Too early to tell if it is going to work, but my fingers are crossed…
Now for the second story, which is sort of related to the above. This really happened to me this summer while we were in Scotland.
First, some background. As many of you know, Iām allergic to cats, but I’m so in love with cats (as is Stefano) that we live with seven furry ones. In order to breathe, though, for years Ā I used a cortisone inhaler and always had emergency Ventolin on hand. Wherever I went…
Still do, actually. You never know.
Then, a few years ago, I read the story of a myeloma patient whose numbers improved, especially (as I recall) his red blood count, after heād taken methylprednisolone for a cough that wouldnāt go away. I don’t remember the details, and even though Iām positive I wrote a post about this experience, I can’t find it now. Oh well.
The point is that at the time I thought that changing over to oral cortisone was an absolutely splendid idea. I mean, I’d be able to deal with two problems at once: my asthma and possibly some of my myeloma markers. Super!
With the approval of my family doctor, I began taking a low dose of Medrol. To be honest, I donāt think it has had an impact on my markers (Iād probably have to increase the dose to have such an effect), but it has changed my life in other ways. For example, I’m breathing much better and almost never need to use Ventolin, which can be tough on the heart (increases the heart rate)ā¦No more cortisone inhaler, either.
But then we made our reservations for Scotland, and I had another brilliant idea.Ā Since I wouldnāt be exposed to cats there, I figured it would be a great time to take a breather from cortisone, which one shouldn’t really take long-term. And so I began decreasing my already low dose of Medrol, day by day. You’re not supposed to go off cortisone suddenly, not even if you are on a low doseā¦
July, however, turned into the month from hell after we found out about Peekabooās oral melanoma. I became completely focused on her and on what to do to save her life. I was so distracted by what happened to our cat that I’m now certain I didnāt decrease my daily dose of Medrol in the proper manner.
By the time we left for Scotland, I was off the Medrol entirely. No breathing problems, no side effects of the sort described online (vomiting, etc.), yippee! Yes, yippee. But almost immediately I began having difficulty walking. Pain. Pain located in my legs and feet. At times, it was hard to bear. For some reason, it got worse at night and often kept me awake or even awakened me. The only thing that gave me some momentary relief was aspirin.
In the beginning, Stefano and I ascribed the pain to my leading an essentially sedentary life. Of course my body would react to suddenly walking almost all day for kilometers, right? That made sense, but only in the beginning…not after the first week had gone by. By then, I should have gotten used to all the walking. Stefano also leads a mainly sedentary life, and he had no difficulties in that sense. Besides, nothing like this had EVER happened to me.
I began fearing that it might be the myeloma starting to rear its ugly head. That thought tormented me now and again, despite Stefanoās reassurances.
Well, now that weāre back in Florence, now that Iāve done a bit of online research, Iāve discovered what happened. Luckily, it has nothing to do with myeloma…
It has to do with my having stopped taking my Medrol without paying enough attention. Stupid of me, very stupid, but then again I have a “good” excuse: Peekaboo…
Solution: Iām back on the Medrol. And, quelle surprise!, the pain is gone. Gone gone gone. Iām sleeping just fine, have no problems walking, and so on. Life is good again. Ah, if only I’d figured this out while we were on holiday…No matter, I really enjoyed our tour of Scotland, pain or no pain!
Cortisone is a great drug when you need it, but it doesnāt come without (potential) consequences, especially if you decide to stop taking it for whatever reason. If you do want to stop, please take my advice: make sure that you donāt have any life distractions that might interfere with properly decreasing those daily dosesā¦
I have certainly learned my lesson, that’s for sure!!!Ā šĀ
We’re baaaack! Back in Florence with our kitties, that is. Actually, we’ve been home since last Wednesday, but I’ve had lots of things to do, PLUS my computer wasn’t working properly, so Stefano spent the entire weekend fixing it, checking it out, updating programs, and so on. I’m so lucky to have him (in so many ways!)!
About our fabulous holiday in Scotland…so hard to decide where to begin…And so I’ve made a partial list of some of my fondest memories, as follows:
Speaking of encounters: one morning, while walking through a wood on our way to visit a ruined castle, we came across a doe and her two fawns. They popped out of the trees right in front of us. We froze, they froze, then the mother jumped across the path and disappeared into the trees. The rather fearful fawns just stood there looking at us (especially the one that isn’t in this photo). My biggest regret is that I was so startled that I didn’t start taking photos until the fawns began following their mother…Plus, it was a bit dark down there, so, yes, all my photos turned out fuzzy, as you can see. No matter…Fuzzy or not, these photos will remind me of that magical moment…
The Purple Cat CafƩ in Glasgow (see photo of one of the 26 rescue kitties that live there). Trust me to come upon a cat cafƩ (our very first cat cafƩ, too) entirely by chance!
Going on a tour of a whisky distillery. Note: I don’t drink alcohol, generally speaking, although I don’t mind an occasional sip of a good Brunello di Montalcino. Stefano, however, is a whisky connoisseur, and so we spent three full days on the isle of Islay, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, which is well known for its distilleries–Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and a bunch of others. I finally gave in and accompanied Stefano on a TWO-hour (!) tour of Ardbeg, at the end of which some very amusing things happened. Upcoming post, upcoming post… šI’m slowly going through my 2240 photos (Stefano took more than that: 3400 photos!) and will get around to posting a few of them…as soon as I have a bit of free time. Not this morning, though. This morning I’m meeting with the vet surgeon to talk about Peekaboo. When we got home from Scotland, as the cat sitter had warned us, Peekaboo wasn’t walking very well and spent most of the time in her comfy cat bed. On Friday I called the vet to see if I could increase the dose of the anti-inflammatory/pain drug, but he said no and also told me that we can’t keep giving her this stuff forever…He said we should meet to discuss the situation. Hence this morning’s meeting…
The day after we got home from Scotland, I began mixing some curcumin with her wet food. After just a few days, she began going downstairs and is now also walking a bit better…
This may be the solution…Another topic I’m going to address with the vet. I doubt he’ll be impressed, but you never know…
Anyway, lots to do and think about…And so many photos to go through! š