Strength-building...

A few days on and I continue to feel a little better every day. We went to the hospital yesterday for some occupational health tests - to check that my cognitive functions had returned to where they should be (they were way off in the first few days after surgery, which was quite disconcerting). The test results were very positive and the therapist saw no need to book any further sessions. So, after a week of sudoku, word-searches and other puzzles, the iPad has pretty much paid for itself. I just need to keep working on some short-term memory stuff and I should be pretty much back where I was. So, after a week of sudoku, word-searches and other puzzles, the iPad has pretty much paid for itself, (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! Ok, not that short term!)

I'm trying to do a little more each day in terms of getting stronger. Despite my steroid-fueled appetite, I haven't quite returned to my normal weight, but I'm also conscious that I don't just want to add weight in all the wrong places. So, today we went for a great walk in one of the local regional parks. I think a good hour of walking and lots of fresh air did me the world of good. My Dad says I still walk too fast, so I'm going to take that as a good sign!

Coming up this week we have an overnight visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. For those of you not familiar with it, this is one of the US' leading teaching hospitals and we're so fortunate to have it just a couple of hours away from here. At this stage, we're going for a second opinion on the proposed treatment plan, and also to get a foot in the door in case we need their help further down the line with other potential treatments.

I start the combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment next Monday. The radiotherapy will run for approximately six weeks and I'll take a pill-form chemotherapy at the same time. Then there'll be a period of increased-dosage chemotherapy only, (I'm not exactly sure how long at the moment). There'll be testing and monitoring performed throughout to see how it's going. This is the current best standard of care to treat this kind of cancer and, from what the doctors are saying, Anna and I are optimistic that as many factors as possible are in our favour.

Thanks again for all of your comments and messages of support. A good friend brought some Guinness home yesterday, so I'll keep working on the strength-giving properties of that and my recently-extended reading list! Until next time, much love.

A short birthday message

When I suggested that I might post today as it's my birthday, Anna asked me who I thought I was..."the Queen?".

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and say that today was a good day. I was given some wonderful gifts this morning from Anna and the boys. A mug and coasters personalised with the boys artwork from school were particular highlights.

I went to pick up a few new dvd's under the "movie-expert" eye of my Dad. We then spent a very pleasant hour or so sitting in the sun on the dock and catching up on family talk. Just meeting the boys from the school bus is a small highlight of these days. Dinner at a good Irish pub in Excelsior, complete with Guinness ("for strength" so the old ads say) rounded off a good birthday. Here's a few photographs from the day...

I also wanted to thank you all for the continued comments, book recommendations, and messages of support - it makes this blog as fun for me to read as it is to write.

Better sleeping (or calmer books!)

Thanks to all of you for the comments and encouragement after the first post the other day. I'm continuing to feel a little stronger every day, enjoying all the extra food that the steroids force (!) me to eat, and trying to fit in a little light exercise each day. Newcastle's win over Everton today didn't do the spirit any harm either!!

One of the main side-effects of the steroids is that I don't sleep right through the night, so I'm getting plenty of midnight reading done. The thing I've had to improve though, is the intensity of my reading material. I was in the middle of 'Angela's Ashes' when I went into hospital and stupidly continued to read it in the first few days post-surgery.

It's an excellent book, telling the moving story of Frank McCourt's childhood during 1930s and 1940s Limerick, Ireland. Much of the narrative focuses on the day-to-day struggle of the family to find sufficient food and clothing, especially as Frank's father was an alcoholic who either couldn't hold down a job or drank his wages on the way home each week. The problem for me was that my mind was not the most settled and I had a number of weird dream sequences of wanting to go back in time to give food and clothes to the McCourt children or wanting to create some kind of home for them here on the lake. It was all very bizarre and probably not ideal recovery reading.

Next up was Lance Armstrong's outstanding autobiography 'It's not about the bike', chronicling his comeback from testicular cancer at the age of 25 and his subsequent seven tour-de-France wins. It's an incredibly inspiring story and I took a lot of positive energy and ideas from it, but again, I'm not sure it was the most settled reading for my sleeplesss nights.

So, last night, armed with a saucer of lavender oil and a copy of Elizabeth Hay's 'Late Nights on Air', I enjoyed a much more settled sleep. It's a novel set in a radio station in the northern Canadian town of Yellowknife and, although it sounds odd, the words just seemed to fall off the page into my mind, without making a sound.

I guess I'll work on this for the next couple of nights, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. All other calming book recommendations warmly received.

A New Beginning (for the blog)

So, I started this blog a year or so ago to record some of my travels and photographs to share with family and friends. That was great fun and I just enjoyed a few moments reliving some of those great trips. I think it now makes sense to use this space, for a little while, to write about the new ‘journey’ ahead of us, whatever that may bring.

I’d like to have a way of sharing some thoughts and progress with friends and family and I thought that this might be a little more discreet than Facebook. Some days I might write more than others. I figured you could just choose if/when you’d like to come and read it. I’m so fortunate to have amazing views of the lake from most rooms of the house, so some days it may be no more than just a couple of comments about the changing of the season.

Today is my fourth day back at home, post-surgery, and the first few days recovery have been much better than we expected. There was a suggestion in the hospital that I might stay in for a week or so and our surgeon was right to stand strongly against that. He wanted me out of harm’s way and believed I would recover much more quickly at home. He was absolutely right to suggest that. Even just the option to take a short walk around the circle can make a big difference to my state of mind.

I’m continuing to work on improving my cognitive functions, which meant we had to buy an iPad in order for me to practice sudoku, word-search etc. Unsurprisingly, that’s descended into a challenge between Anna and I to get our word-search times down as low as possible! (Any excuse to get her hands on the iPad, if you ask me!)

I’ve got my full appetite back and now just need to work on filling out again a little bit. I lost more weight than I expected even just with a few days in a hospital bed. ‘Operation big buns’ starts here...

We’re meeting with both the surgeon and the oncology department tomorrow to discuss the next steps in the plan. Obviously, Anna and I have many questions but still a whole lot to learn about this condition and the best ways to tackle it from here onwards.

Please feel free to interact - ask questions, make suggestions, heckle etc. I’d like it to be a conversation, not a monologue.

I just want to sign off with a truly heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to all of you who have contacted us over the last week or so. It’s been quite an emotional journey and we both drew enormous strength from your messages of support and love. We’ll never forget it.

Until next time, with much love
Barry