So excited

That's it, number 6 done and dusted, as I type this. Just a few weeks after effects to go, then I can concentrae on getting better and stronger. Hopefully thats all anyway. The good news is my blood markers have continued to fall, nearly halving again. I am now awaiting for a date for my next set of scans which I hope to show that we have reallyerradicated a lot of the tumours and got on top of, or better still beaten this.

I must take this opportunity to say thank you to the nursing staff here at the Nuffield in Guildford, they have been brialliant, helping Sarah and I to feel relaxed. Thats not easy when I have had so many needles inserted, litres of blood taken, strange drugs to be adminsitered, and enough pills to keep a nightclub going for a few nights! They even had to change their shift patterns as I am first in and last to leave, which is after their normal finishing time.In the picture on the left are Maggie, Shelia and Imelda, Micky was unfortunately off today. Thank you very much ladies!

The last week has been very starnge to say the least for me, and has highlighted I really need to get my brain in gear. Firstly, the tiredness continued untill Wednesday, which also happened to be the day my sense of taste came back, luckilliy this was whilst having a pub lunch of tanmdori chicken, Sarah knew without asking as she could tell by my smile. The tiredness did not fully go, but was better, although the afternoons were the worst. BUT its my brain I worry about, I am showing all the signs of getting old, I don't know what's more worrying, that or the wait to see the oncologist in May!! Let me explain. I have always tried to work and aim at little steps on this journmey, some short term, some mid term and some longer term. As the news has got better, I have naturally been focusing on the longer term ideas, and this is first instance where I have come unstuck. I decided I wanted a coupe of grape vines for my greenhouse at the allotment, which would not fruit for 2 years. So I was looking over the a couple of websites and found one which had a red and a white at the right price. I book marked it to purchase after I had discussed it with Sarah. We then discussed it and agreed it was a good thing to do, so back I went to the internet, but by now I had found a site for the British Vine Society. We had a long email exhange and I agreed to buy 2 vines from them, the cost was lower and the support was much better. The two vines duly arrived, except they sent 1 red and 3 whites. Never mind I thought. 2 days later Sarah comes home and says there is a large box by the front door for me. We get it in and open it, low and behold, it has 2 vines from the first company. Now I remeber looking and bookmarking it but at no time do I remeber actually getting my wallet out and paying for them!!! so now I have 2 in the greenhouse, the others I have planted out and will set up a trellis, so look out for Vino de Marsh, from the sunny side of Redhill, with a lovely bouquet of nearby water treatment plant!

Unfortunately that was only the beginning. I also have been looking at a site called Approved Food, this is a site that sells food items which are near to there best before date ie still good to use for a long time, but difficult for shops to sell. They have a wide range of unusual items, sometimes in catering packs, which for my large family is ideal. This time I know I placed the order, and was very happy with it. at least I was untill the next day when I received the order confirmation email, showing I had ordered 11 packets of Dr Otker's lemon jelly. Now this would not be too bad normally, as we all eat jelly, unfortunately this was a catering pack, so each pack made 100 jellys, what on earth am I going to do with 1100 portions of lemon jelly!!! So I quicklly phone them to explain and I am promised that the order would be amended and I would have a call confirming it had been done, along with a refund. However the call didn't come so I emailed, detailing who I spoke to and the issue etc. Tuesday there is a knock at the door, and there is the courier with 3 VERY large boxes for me. We take them in and open the first one, oh no, 11 packets of jelly. They did not alter it after all. We open the next box, and whats this, another box of jelly, that makes 12, or 1200 portions if you like. Also in this box is the pick list. We open the 3rd box, and there is another pick list. OMG, they have sent the order twice, once as originally ordered and one with the amendments. So we now have double of everything I ordered. ARGHHHH. I get the iPad out to email them, and notice I mail, which I read first. There in my mailbox is an email from them, to confirm they had indeed chnaged the order and refunded my money. So for the grand total of £30, including shipping, I am now surrounded by items with a retail value of £250, not a bad result after all. Funny enough I have not sent the email, and will wait for them to contact me, which they have not yet done.

More to follow later this week, if my brain reminds me, enjoy the sun everyone

Mothers Day

So here we are, it's Mothers Day, and its a good time to do an update. Let's start with my treatment and the latest news. Well it is more good news, on Thursday I had a meeting with my urologist to follow up on my catheter removal. Well the good news is that I don't need to see him again, he has signed me off. Not only that, but he re-confirmed that my blood counts are very much in the normal range for someone of my young age, and that as I am still on treatment, they may get even lower still. But what was most encouraging was discussing possible follow up treatments post chemo, which of course are the descion of the oncologist. His view was that I would stay on my 3 monthly injection and close monitoring for up to 2 years, and provided no issues arrive,then I could come off the injection, I am not counting any chickens but to say I would be happy with that outcome is an understatement! It also seems I am an unusual case, nothing new there then. It is extremely rare for someone my age, in very good general health, to walk into his surgery, and actually have the problems I had. Then make such good progress towards recovery in such a short time. You all know me, well most of you do, but I like to do things differently!

Against that good news, the ongoing chemo is starting to have an effect as I have mentioned before. Mainly it's the tiredness, which is starting to last longer. Normally by now I am back to normal but it is starting to edge over into this last week. Nevermind, only one more dose to go. As I have a busy week planned, in fact I only have Tuesday free, I will try and not let it get in the way.

I'll end this quick update by wishing my Mum, and Sarah's Mum, happy Mothers Day. Of course I also wish Sarah a happy Mothers Day from the kids. In fact Max has already given Sarah his present, a load of washing, by being sick in his bed at 1am this morning!

Morning all

Number 5 done, could say done and dusted but not quite yet. It's definately getting tougher, the culmination of the chemo seems to be having a small effect but this is tempered by the fact I have one more treatment left planned. 3 more weeks!

I have definately been tired this last week, but the biggest difference has been my sense of taste, yesterday I coud not taste anything, and for a foodie like me, thats hard. Sarah made a great looking cottage pie for dinner followed by a rice pudding, think it was good, certainly looked it, and smelt good, but to me, it had no taste at all. Everyone said it was good and the empty plates showed it was. We took the kids and the dog to Earlswood Lakes for a walk as the weather was so good. I stayed in the car and read the Sunday papers, enjoying people enjoying themselves, and waited for them to come back, ice creams and all. Next week I know I coud join them, so it's just frustrating I coud not yesterday.

Biggest shock this last week was Max deciding that he has not done enough exercise, this morning he was up at 6, and went for a run with the dog. Must be something in the air .....

Not huge amounts planned for this week at the moment. Most exciting thing that springs to mind is seed planting. Will let you know of anything more exciting!!

News flash - The results are in

Good news yesterday, all my bloods are now back in the normal range, and this is with 2 cycles still to go! The oncologist is very happy with the results, they are better than he hoped for. The upshot is that provided the scans after the last round support this, which he has no reason to doubt, then we have managed to control it as much as possible. Follow up treatment would be a regular injection and monitoring, then I can get on with the rest of my life, no radio therapy, no more chemo. Currently planning to get back to wrk in June, and the charity bike ride is panned for September, so watch out I will be chasing you for sponsorship. Shame it's my bad week otherwise the champers would be out, never mind will save that for next week.

One more down, one more to go

Hi all. Back in for treatment number 5, only one more to go after this - yipee!!. Have not got my blood test results yet, look out for an update later tonight or tomorrow, hoepfullt its good news still. I also hope that I can have the chemo, as I had a cold last week which has left me with a cough, but they do not seem to worried. Last week was one of my best weeks, both physically and mentally, I think having my catheter out has a massive part to play, did not realise how uncomfortbale it was and how it was stressing me, still its gone now, hopefully for good. We went shopping last Friday and when I saw this t-shirt, I just burst out laughing in the store, and had to have it. Sarah has just taken a photo of me wearing it




It has Bugs Bunny and Elma Fudd on it, and Elam is asking "Has Anyone seen my hare?" Most appropriate don't you think? Good to see I am still laughing and smiling

I had such a busy week last week its all a bit of a blur, but here's the highlights. I managed to get another business sponsor for my charity scooter trip, Finns the local motorbike shop. I also managed to find my scooter and also rode it home from Hampton, next to Hampton Court. Like me its an old un and a good un, just needs some TLC LOL. The pic below is of the new/old scoot along side my big bike, which is under the cover, there is quite a size difference!

The guy I bought it from, said he had put enough fuel in it to get me home, so Sarah followed me for some of the way just to make sure all ok, then left me to it. Now I hadn't ridden a bike of any sort since the end of October and it was great to be on 2 wheels again, but the attitude of drivers hasn't changed, as i was nearly knocked off about 5 miles into the ride. On short section of duel carriage way, a learner driver was in the outside lane on the exit from a roundabout, now this scoot has a top end of about 55mph, and it takes a little while to get there, but it was still faster than the learner. Also in the outside lane was a Jag. driven by an older guy, with his lady next to him who was held up by the learner. Being a considerate sort of biker, I held back to allow the learner to pull infront of me back to the inside lane. now they or the instructer did not move back and this frsutrated the guy in the Jag, so low and behold, he indicates he is moving left, and nearly hits me. Now as you know I am not a small person, and was also wearing my dayglo yellow jacket, so am quite visable. I hit the horn with my left hand and waved "politely" to let him know I was there, and what would happen to him if he did not back off. Luckilly he saw me and moved back. Now all this was witnessed by Sarah, and was a good indication of the risks I take to be on two wheels, but boy did it get the adrenaline running! Shortly after this we got to the A3, and were stopped at the traffic lights. I told Sarah to go on ahead as all was good, the bike purred along at 45, no problems at all. Sarah left me and we got onto the A3. Now hindsight is a great thing, so all those petrol stations we had passed should probably have been visited to fill up, to be on the safe side. So you can imagine how I felt as just after starting on the A3, the bike began to buck and surge, oh no, I am out of fuel!! I managed to find a safe place to stop, no mean feat on that road, and called Sarah. She was several miles ahead, but turned round, tooted me as she passed down the other side of the A3, and came back a short while later with a new petrol can for me, of course it had petrol in it too. Refueled, we set off again, and safely made it home with no more drama's.

On Wednesday, we had a day out to Ikea in Croyden. We plan to decorate the kids rooms later this year and wanted to look at wardrobes for them as we have something quite specific in mind and Ikea had something is stock which seemd to fit the bill. We also took Mum with us to give her a day out. We arrived at about 10am and first things first, went for breakfast and coffee. Now I struggle to walk far or fast at the moment, and this was bought home acututly when I had to ask mum to slow down! She won't rush anywhere and walks very sloe, but I amde her look likme Ussain Bolt. After breakfast we finally got back to shopping and after the long meandering path Ikean take you on, just to try and sell you more stuff, we got to the bedroom furniture area. After looking at the wardrobe we had seen online, we decided it was not very good, and had another look around. We found something much more suitable, but at twice the price, oh dear, in both senses of the word.Still we know what we need now. We spent at least 2 1/2 hours wondering around, and then guess what, its time for lunch. Ikea's meatballs, chips, gravy and red sauce are one of the wonders of the culinary world, they are superb. After that we then went to B&Q to get the last bits for our last major event last week, the grand allotment dig weekend.

Saturday dawned gery and overcast, after two weeks of lovely weather, it was not what I wanted to see. The forecasts were mixed, the BBC xsaid heavey rain all day from 10am, the iPad said patchy rain. We decieded to press ahead. I was there from 9.30 setting up the Cafe - tea/coffee/soft drinks/sauasage and rolls/and a good selection of cakes. 10 am came, as did the rain and our first helpers. It did not look good, but everyone wanted to get started, so start we did. I don't know where the BBC gets its forecasts from but they need to get better, because the rain left by 11, and by 12 we were all in t-shirts, as the weather turned lovely. Can't say the same for Sunday mind! I cannot say thank you enough to all involved, but the plot went from a right mess, into a lovely looking place. With all the beds weeded and dug over, compost spread, broken fruit cages removed, and bags of rubbish packed. So a very big thank you to Mum (tea lady), Sarah and our kids, Ross & Alison & Flynn, Daph and Norm, Tara, Lisa, Clare, Morgan, and Wendy. I have added a photo albulm on the right hand side of the page, before and after photo's, or you can just click here.

About to sign off now, as just had the second lot of chemo started and lunch will be here soon. As usual this week, probably will not post again, apart from update on scans, til the weekend. Hope you are all well.