This latest update is covering the past two weeks, due to some time practicalities.

During the final week of September, we had some work done on the house, which required us to move a lot of items around, then once the work was done, put everything back again. That took up most of the weekend which started October and was a mix of the physical moving of every single item, alongside taking time out to rest. The longer term impact of this overall situation remains evident on my stamina and ability to do things which would have been done in half of the time, before this. There is also the pain management / recovery, which was a notable factor, especially on my back. That overall impact and time consumption, plus a very busy week at work, did not allow the usual time I take to pen the next update.

I was able to rectify my medication situation at the start of that week, with a return trip to collect the ‘missing’ meds. I did not realise until I got home that the prescription had changed (doubled), which was surprising, as there is usually a discussion with the consultant before key changes are made. I enquired the following day, whilst staying on my existing dosage) and after some calls to different departments, I had confirmation that it should have been the normal dosage, alongside an apology from the pharmacist. I still had no future schedule of blood tests / ongoing medication, except for the meeting with the consultant in early November. That too was rectified at the end of this current week, with a new 3-weekly routine schedule arriving by post; on that front, all is back to ‘normal’.

The ongoing back issues / pain resulted in us deciding to change our mattress, with a view of obtaining a better level of comfort. That started okay, but very soon descended into a ‘wrong choice’ and resultant detrimental impact on the back pain, which affected other areas of the body too. We made a return trip to the supplier and have changed over to a different choice, but will be with us in 2 weeks, so some interim adjustments until then. Whilst my health situation is driving choices / changes like this, the importance of a good (well, as good as possible) night’s sleep is far more necessary than before. I have not had an uninterrupted night’s sleep for sometime, but ensuring that rest can be obtained and an increase in the pain is diminished as much as possible, is key to the day to day ability to do normal things. This is an issue for many people, with or without health issues. We are hoping the new choice will help get us to a better outcome, but we’ll see in a few weeks time.

Besides the above, I have had fluctuating side effects, such as the sensitive hands (with the stiffness in my fingers) and feet, plus some variable slight swelling to my lower legs. The slowly returning eyelashes continue to present their issues and it is fair to say that my eyesight has certainly been damaged. I do not know if this is part of the side effects of the chemo, connected to the eyelashes and the issues they are causing, or just a general decline with age. What I do know is, prior to receiving treatment, I was lucky to have had very good eyesight, without the need for glasses, which was good, considering the almost mid-50s age bracket.  

Following on from the ‘Peterday’ which took place a couple of weeks ago, some of the initial follow on catch ups and lunch plans are underway, with the first of these taking place this coming week; others are being planned currently. This is a very nice outcome from that larger get together and I count myself lucky to have a number of friends and former work colleagues whom I can count as sincere friends.

The end of this week was a catch up of a different kind, but of the same base ilk of the above smaller planned catch ups. As life progresses, we go through many changes and sometimes that includes significant changes in locations where we base ourselves. That was the case for myself, Sandra and our young children more than 25-years ago, when we made the decision to seek a life different to the one we had experienced up to that point in Northern Ireland. With any change, we will lose contact with people, whilst meeting new people and forging new friendships (as the recent get together shows). I have however, managed to stay in touch with some friends from my school days, some of whom have also moved. One of those friends (Danny), goes wayyyy back to primary school, with my next ‘oldest connection’ is Davy, that started in my early teens and days of discovering of youth cultures - for us, it was the Mod culture. The next ‘oldest connection’ is Wings, which is a slightly later evolution of the Mod days, but one where we both obtained our mobile independence, via our Vespa scooters. We spent many weekends driving around various parts of Northern Ireland (usually accompanied by rain!), creating many memories and having a lot of fun.

Wings joined me this weekend at our home, which was a great catch up and we had the ability to recount many superb memories and also update each other on former contacts that we both had / have in our wider circle. As touched on above, sincere friends are a rarity and Wings is counted among them. Despite the changes in location and the fact that we have not physically met up for 36 years, we have stayed in touch during that time. It was great to catch up and recall days where we both had less grey hairs, carried less weight and did not carry the degree of responsibilities that adulthood brings. Another enjoyable get together with my circle of friends and we were blessed with great weather too.

Overall, the balance adjustment continues, with some gains, some declines, but hopefully we can tip that balance with the changes mentioned.

Thanks for the continued interest and support from all of you.

Regards

Peter