Health updates to start things off. Monday was my quarterly blood test, followed by the renewal of my tablets two days later; all straightforward there, except for my weight continuing in the wrong direction. I undertook my second long walk of March and the result was a surprising 43 seconds off the start time of the first long one to the top of the hill, back at the start of February. I was hoping for 30 seconds and was taken aback with the end time! The weather here in the southeast has been increasingly better this week and almost like summer, only with a slight chill. Therefore, once up there, I took a longer route back home, across the top of the hills, then down a cycle path / country pathway that runs diagonally down and brings me out near ‘stage 1’ of the overall walk route. Stunning scenery with views out over the coast towards France and also along the southeast coast towards Dymchurch and beyond. Very pleased with that time, but it required a notable push on my part and one where I had an increase in the pins and needles at the bottom of my legs; fair to say that the muscle issue and pins and needles may be connected. Let’s see how the timings come out for the rest of the month.

As we near almost 2 years since I begun my chemo regime, I still have some reminders of the impact of that cocktail of joy being put into my body. Whilst a lot of my physiology has returned to a semblance of normality, some aspects have not. One of the longest lasting side effects is on my toe nails, which I have mentioned a few times in these Blogs. At the weekend, I had to take some corrective action on the growth of one of those, as it was beginning to cut into my toe itself. The nails are much, much slower to grow and on my right foot, the top of the big toe nail still has some of the ‘double layer’ nail. That is notably thicker than the rest of the nails and it has given me a few issues over the past 2 years. I managed to rectify the issue, but in doing so, had to get through 2 hurdles. 1 is the cutting of the thicker nail and shaping it to remove the core issue. 2 is the need to bend over and reach one of the furthest extremities; that caused me additional back pain, further up my back, as the cutting exercise was not quick. Thankfully, I have physio this coming week, which will hopefully my back on track and alleviate the pain. Sometimes the smallest of things..............., alongside reminders like these of where I have been in this journey and how far on things have improved.

I had another key consultancy day on Tuesday, with a good amount of progress made on some tasks. I also had another hair cut this week and whilst it is now very much a routine thing, it only feels like yesterday that the need was not there at all, plus the early stages of careful hair management, when it started to return.

On Tuesday, I had the first combined meet up with Howard and Matt and we had a fun night out at a local place. Whilst there, we treated ourselves to dessert and as part of that, we asked the waitress for a recommendation. Her reply was, “Well men of your particular demographic usually pick X”. We went with that suggestion, but for the rest of the evening and into the days after that, we had a good laugh at our own expense, when recounting her words. The reaction to that even drove Howard to choose the ‘younger option’, when he was out later in the week (we had asked her what ‘younger people’ choose, when she came back with the actual desserts). Great to catch up with all of us and our lives and nice for them to give up their time to spend with me.

The main book focus remains as it was, with a further 10 biographies completed, although there was less time to get them done in the past week. Overall, on track and I even managed some time on another 2 book projects.

Sandra and I took some time over the weekend to get out and about a little and survey some places close to us that we have not ventured to yet, despite living here for almost 30 years now. The weather was superb and we wanted to make the most of it, following the dreadful winter.

Overall, a week of forward motion, in almost every key aspect that I am focusing on and hopefully this will continue; amazing how the overall mood changes, when the sun comes out!

Thank you for the unrelenting support for these weekly ramblings.

Regards

Peter