What a Year!

This post is scheduled for 9pm UK time which is coincident with the start of the New Year in Tanzania. 2017 is not a year I want to remember in so many ways and yet it will be hard to forget it too. It ended much the same way as it was spent i.e. in …

Christmas Cold

It had to happen eventually. I rather wish it hadn't happened at Christmas. In recent weeks I've been getting ready for the festivities. Present and food shopping and decorating the house. Making use of the extra time I have this year as I continue to recover from the effects of the chemotherapy. In the last …

Mum

Today is a day of celebration. It's Mum's birthday and I won't say how many years. It also marks the end of my time in Lincoln as later this weekend I will return to MK. I can't express how grateful I am to Mum for providing a home for me over much of these past …

Why Lincoln?

I was released from hospital a day earlier than expected and given transport back to Lincoln. It is here I will be staying for the coming few weeks as I recuperate. Lincoln is my family home. It is also the UK hospital where I was first diagnosed and treated for Myeloma. When my wife (Anita)  …

Transfusion

The featured image shows my room from the outside. The long thin widows nearest to the grey tiled building are mine. As my neutrophils have continued to rise up to 0.6 at last count. The engrafted stem cells developing into neutrophils, red blood cells and platelets among other things. I have also had GCSF injections …

Time Shifts Slowly

A matter of routine. The days morph into weeks. One week down already. A long and slow descent. As my cells die slowly.   Within this room I lie. With four familiar walls. Shuttered window viewpoint. On Autumn world outside. It's a limited life.   Here in isolation. Yet not alone at all. Friends and …

New Norm

The ring of the alarm. 7 am Morning comes too soon. On a good night I've been up twice. But sometimes thrice. Early hours ablutions. Within minutes they are up. Wife an daughter. Showers, hairdryers, dressed, breakfast out. The hustle and bustle of a typical morning followed by Silence. The house is quiet. Maybe another …

Rebuilding

Having been overseas for three years and having no intention of returning to Britain, it has been quite a shock to the system to be back here. Now, as we adjust to the reality, we are in the process of rebuilding our UK lives. Anita has secured her old job in Milton Keynes (in fact …

Free

I'm free. I have no scheduled appointments at hospital for many weeks ahead. 😃 Today I met with my consultant who does not need to see me again until October, after my Stem Cell transplantation has taken place. That leaves only my scheduled stem cell harvesting in late August and the transplantation in early October.  …

Umbilical

It's just about a week now until the family leave Mwanza. I'm looking forward to seeing them back in the UK - it's over three months since I bid my wife and daughter farewell on that twilit Kenyan Easter Monday Morning. Yet at the same time as I am excited to see them - there …

Brother

It's nice to be able to connect with family and today my brother and sister-in-law are up in Lincoln. A good chance to touch base. After a trip to to Go Outdoors to pick up a cycling jacket we had a chance to have a Costa Coffee and a chin wag.  No iced drink following …

Overbooked

The practice of overbooking flights and the consequences for those affected i.e. us

A Strange Father’s Day

For the first time in living memory I am a Father alone on Father's Day. I know it's a commercial thing (unlike Mothering Sunday) but even so it has amplified the absence of family. My own Father died in 2006 of Motor Nueron Disease a rapidly developing disease which took him from an active man …

Just In Case

We left Tanzania on the 2nd April, for a family holiday in Kenya. I would not return again.  When I eventually returned to the UK for treatment on the 18th April I came with a small bag of holiday clothes totally unsuited for the British Spring. I was able to add a small number of …

Doldrums

It would be fair to say that life is becoming routine. Six weeks after my return to England and three weeks after I was released from hospital there is a new equilibrium.  Life has changed do much in the past month and as the tornado disperses I am now finding myself in a calmer place …