Dear All
It's been a long time since I last sent one of these broadcast emails. The last one was just after the first of the six sessions of my second round of chemo-therapy; back at the end of April.
A number of you are up to date with what happened and with the good news I got this week — you can switch off now — but to some of you I have been remiss in writing too (I apologise for that) and you can read on if you want to.
The chemo-therapy was a bit rougher than the first round, perhaps in part because it came directly after the two lung operations. I had a lot of different side-effects, not all at the same time though, but there was nothing I couldn't manage. I didn't lose my hair this time which greatly pleased me.
The worst problem was a massive attack of lethargy. I lost most of my energy; both mental and physical. Physical wasn't such a great problem as I've never really been one for the energetic life, but I disliked the inability to concentrate on anything. Spent a lot of time re-watching old videos during the day and sleeping twelve, or even more, hours at night.
Anyway the chemo-therapy came to an end and about six weeks later (so at he beginning of August) I suddenly perked up. Everything came back. I was able to rush up stairs and spend long hours doing reasonably serious work on the computer. It was such a welcome change.
And then this week I went back to hospital for a check-up. They did scans of just about everywhere (I am still trying to get my hands on the picture of my whole skeleton) and took at least an armful of blood for testing. This was on Monday. Then on Tuesday the Professor came into my room with a big smile on his face and said "I think you can guess the news from my smile". Anyway there has been no recurrence of the cancer. Not in my mouth or neck, and more importantly now, not in my lungs. While I still need to have checkups on a regular basis and still there is no absolute guarantee this has nevertheless increased my chances hugely.
Such a difference from the check-up at the beginning of the year when the news was all bad. I've been putting on weight too and am now out of the anorexic level. Crossed the 60 kilos mark a couple of weeks ago and feel much healthier.
And what does it mean to me? Well I have this feeling of being able to get on with my life. I shall be teaching a class at Webster University here starting in a couple of weeks and that will take me up to Xmas and will also refill the coffers a bit. I'll also be investigating what surgical possibilities there are for correcting the mouth problems I have so that I can perhaps get off the yogurt only diet and perhaps be able to pronounce the letters "G" and "K" (one of the worst words for me is "Google" but there are many other similar obstacles).
And now the other news; not such good news I'm afraid. Margaret is in a bit of a limbo situation — an ultra-sonic scan showed new problems in her neck area but the doctors doubt whether what the scans show is serious. She will have an MR scan in a week or so to clarify the position.
And the really bad news was concerning Liz, Margaret's twin sister. She had a cancer of the oesophagus which was not able to be treated and she died a month ago. I had not seen much of her for quite a few years and was somewhat surprised at how much this loss disturbed me. But the whole family had always got together at Christmas and earlier, before we both retired, I saw a lot of her at work and she was always a 'feature on the landscape'. The English community here in Vienna is small and nobody is ever that far from anyone else. She will be missed.
Many thanks to you all for your support over the last few months — I'm sorry that I didn't always find the energy to keep in touch with some of you.
Love to all
David
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