Follow up

Sorry, I missed writing about when we went home for a couple of weeks and how well Alan did cutting the front paddock on the ride-on even though he's not supposed to drive even that!!

Anyway we have been back in Sydney for the past 2 weeks for the "follow up".  Not quite the results we were hoping for but not too bad either.  There are a couple of "white spots" which have appeared outside of the removed tumour area, it could be the effects of the radiation treatment or possibly another tumour.  They say it is too early to tell so we have to come back at the end of November for another MRI - hopefully this one will show that it's only scarring.

We have an appointment in Lismore next week with the local oncologist who will be giving Alan his next lot of chemotherapy and monitoring his progress but here we are playing the waiting game again.

I'm trying to persuade him to go to UK and Europe for Xmas but he's not getting very enthusiastic over the idea.  Still.......I'll keep going and maybe I'll find something he'd like to do (it takes a while for him to get his head around things).  Tasmania, Norfolk Island, Tahiti, Vietnam.............the possibilities are endless. Heres hoping.

We've been on the water again today - ferry to Darling Harbour for lunch, light rail to Central, then train to Milsons Point - it sure is great not having to use a car!!!!!

When we get home I'll post some photographs - once again sorry for not being so slack on the updates and thanks again for caring.

What will be - will be!

This is a difficult post for me - we made the decision to put the house on the market.  Who knows if it sells or how long it will take but we know we will not be able to manage it on our own.  We also know that we wouldn't be on our own as we have such a great community here, our friends and neighbours have already offered their assistance and would do it willingly............but it's not the same. It's not so much the physical aspect but rather the frustration of not being able to see properly.  Don't get me wrong, he is adapting well and we know there are people who cope very well with vision problems.  We just have to find him other things to do and enjoy.

Alan and my brother, Tommy, doing what they love!

One of the reasons we love it here.

The end result (sorry, photos are in wrong order but I don't really know what I'm doing!)

On a more positive note, Alan continues to do well - a lot more tired than before but nonetheless coping well.  He is losing the extra weight put on while he was taking steroids and is almost back to normal.  It takes a lot out of him just to have visitors, the mental strain of showing how "good" he feels. We are not too concerned, as we've been told more than once, that this would happen.  I still make him take a walk each day, not to have a coffee in a boutique cafe though, but to the mail box and back up the hill!  If you've ever walked up our hill, you'll know how hard that is!! We walked over to the dam paddock yesterday and disturbed a pair of ducks with their family of tiny ducklings racing between the water lilies.

We leave on Saturday for another 2 weeks in Sydney and a review with the oncologists which we hope will give us good news regarding his progress. I'll keep you posted.

Home again!

Sorry to take so long to update the blog, I know some people are depending on it for updates.

We flew home on Sunday after about 8 weeks away (to tell you the truth, we are not quite sure where "home" is anymore).  Well, we've been back for 2 days and it's all a bit overwhelming.  We love this place, have put our heart and soul into making it our own, and have such a great community but maybe the time has come to move on.

Alan is still doing so well, more tired than before, but we were told to expect that.  He functions really normally although it takes much longer to do ordinary things than it used to.  That's the trouble when you've always been used to being a go-getter, it makes it very difficult and frustrating to slow down.  

We have a month off the treatment so, like any drug taking, your body needs to adjust when you take the drug away, hence the tiredness.  This will be followed by 6 months of double strength chemo before we can see if the damned tumour has been eradicated.  The next MRI at the end of this month will give us a small clue as to how it's going so far, fingers crossed. It's a very anxious time.

Little things are proving very difficult at the moment but we are staying positive and looking forward to a new stage in our lives.