My Unplanned Sabbatical

…and better still….

Today has been an improvement.

Slept well and woke early for a day I hope will remain ok.

Petra and I watched a movie “We have to talk about Kevin”, not the best choice if you wanted a bit of light relief. The story of a mothers struggle to connect with her son when she knows something is not quite right. Powerful and well acted but depressing. I wont tell you about it, its worth a watch if you feel like reaching for draino for a drink.

My cancer psychologist called for a chat and wanted to know if I felt like jumping off the kitchen table. I said I was OK. Had she called two days ago it would have been a darker conversation. She did make a good suggestion that the current combination of medication I was on may not be right for me and suggested a couple of alternatives that I will discuss with the oncologist when I next see him.

I shared with a friend this morning how it is strangely quite emotional when you start to feel good again. Even though its just incremental. You have pushed through the yuk and you are regenerating. More good cells survived the black bag and they are fighting back, springing into life. You feel the energy and strength returning. It is a bit of a rush. I hope to start to exercise again later this week. That is the sign I am back.

I have been scheduled for a CT scan on the 10th of May to determine my progress with the treatment. For the first time I will know what has been going on inside. Clearly hopeful for some degree of remission and positive news to anchor the next 3 months. I was told last week that I will need to go the full 6 months so I am keen to see evidence that the black bags have been doing more than just making feel like crap. The news that I have to go the full 6 months was a little depressing as for some reason I had convinced myself that I would most likely only need 3 months.

I found out today that the next group therapy session has been scheduled for 31 May 2012 and I will attend that. Keen to see what skippy has been up to.

I have also attached a clip of an upcoming advertisement that will appear on TV to start to increase awareness that Lymphoma is increasingly a young persons disease and as with most things in the battle for funding you need to make lots of noise to cut through to get noticed and supported. Its is pleasing to see that the association is starting to get some traction.