We are at the first full week of January 2026 and for us, not off to a good start. You may recall that I had a blood test on the 29th of December. Dr Rahman phoned on Friday afternoon to tell us that the PSA results have jumped from 2.6 in November to 7.9 now. That is a notable increase and twice the ‘normal’ level. He is requesting some urgent scans to determine what is fuelling the increase.
As I am sure you can all appreciate, we are in the utmost of mental turmoil. Since then, I have been down every conceivable ‘rabbit hole’, as has Sandra and my children. It is 3 years since we were given the initial confirmed prognosis (10th of January 2023, with Friday’s phone call being the 9th of January). We are well and truly back to square one and begin another wait for the scans and then their results, which he hopes to have wrapped in the the next 4 weeks. In the meantime we are trying to get on with normal things, but that is proving a tad challenging. I will not spend too much time boring you with the full extent of the thought processes we are in, nor the anxiety, as there is not enough space here to articulate that all!
The other health related aspects were 2 walks that I managed to fit in around very poor weather in the past week. We had very cold weather in the first half of the week and the first walk on Tuesday was 13:23 - impacted a little by the frosty paths going up the hill. After a heavy wind and rain storm that lasted 3 days, I managed the second one, which was 13:14. That was 24-hours after the call and lots of thought processes going on during that one!
Around all of that, I continued to focus on the outstanding elements of Volume 7. I am almost done with the photos (just awaiting 2 more potentials from another historian) and have now numbered and placed all of the 25 maps within this volume. There is some small additions to be made to those, but they will not take long. Next focus will be to begin the actual corrections from the proof reading work.
In summary, not a week we wanted, but the reality of where we are / all part of living with this disease. There in lies the key point - right now, still breathing and a lot to get on with!
Your continued interest is very much appreciated.
Regards, Peter