June update and some thoughts...

Well here we are, I've left you alone for a while and we've all gotten on with life.  Let's get the health update out of the way - I saw Tony on Friday and he was happy with all of my bloodworks, general health and that my lymph nodes were fine.  As he said, in general I would know if I'd fallen out of remission.  So that is good news.  Yippee.

I had also collected Kathryn from the airport that morning, she has now returned from the USA with her brand new degree in hand.  She is back with us at home (a culture shock I'm sure), looking for work and the next stage in life for her.  Liz and I did a quick one week visit to the USA during May in order to be present at Kathryn's graduation - you can't miss something like that!  We crammed a lot in to 7 days. Graduation, help KT pack up, drove from California PA to Washington DC for a couple of days, drove to New York city for three days and then the big flight home leaving Kathryn in NYC with her besties.  Hayley recently successfully completed her first Practical teaching placement - she did very well and seems a natural.  Kyle is in his last year at school and has recently finished some exams.  He also qualified for Triathlon age group sprint world championships, to be held in London in September.  So he is going to be busy with school, training (if he can shake the illness he has had for a while) and the Worlds.

Comment on MCL
It's been an interesting few months on the medical side of things. When we started this journey we resolved to do everything possible at that time - hence the heavy chemo and the auto stem cell transplant, our thoughts being that new treatments are being developed all the time.  Recently we've seen very promising drugs being put through testing and being given special status in order to allow them to quickly progress to approval - in the USA!  Australian approvals apparently tend to hang off of European approvals more so than the USA.  So once approved, we here in Australia need to hope that the Aussie approval process is equally adaptive.  You may ask why? the main thing about the new drugs under test is that they have reduced side effects and are less toxic - a movement in the right direction.  I do know of people who are in tests for these new drugs and it does sound promising - but as usual not necessarily a panacea!!

"The cancer to have"
Recently our former Queensland Premier was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma - blood cancer if you prefer.  Of course the press were into this big time and as usual were using their limited knowledge of the subject matter.  A facebook friend wrote about the article and the way it was presented.  Please have a read and hopefully increase your awareness of the impact that these illnesses can have.

"Today we learned that our ex Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, to the reporter who stated if you were to get any cancer this is the cancer to get....this remark angered me to the point I had steam coming out of my ears....what a load of B S no cancer is good be it blood cancer or a solid cancer. Yes some Lymphomas can be cured but many of us have been doing battle for many years with numerous relapses. To that reporter come live in the life of a NHL cancer patient going through chemo and a bone marrow transplant. Because Anna Bligh is a high profile woman she will get all the attention....but think of the quiet fighters out here doing battle on a daily basis not knowing what the future holds for them. I am sorry she has cancer I hate CANCER but this is not an easy cancer to beat. We need to educate the public. I don't usually get on my soap box but I have friends who have Hodgkins and that is supposed to be easier to beat than Non Hodgkins and they are fighting for their life ~~~ Cancer is Cancer no matter what flavour~~~~~"

Thanks for reading.

January update

10/1/12

Happy New Year folks!
Well December came and went and I didn't update you - you can take that as no news is good news! We all hope that you've had a great Christmas and New Year - we certainly did!

I'll update you on my health quickly - day 157 post transplant - woop woop! Everything is good (even the mindset!) - I had a review early December and then once again today.  Bloods are all clean and my counts are approaching normality - platelets being lowest which were at 140 (up from 130 in Dec) with the norm at 150.  So this is all very encouraging and a relief to us all. 

I do say to people "I'm in remission and long may it last" because that is where we are in terms of the impact this disease has on us all - unfortunately it's remission not cure - however it appears that successful treatment is moving more towards a potential for the 'c'.  So recently I have been lucky that to some degree I haven't even been thinking about the illness - this really helps the mindset.  In a couple of weeks I'm having my port removed (from my chest) - this is done under local and is something of a farewell to an old friend, which was dependable throughout all of the former treatments.

Mellon doings
Liz had a milestone birthday in November with a party with many friends.  She enjoyed it once we were at the party!

We've had a lovely trip to New Zealand, returning home on New Years Eve.  We toured through the North island on a pre-planned tour which showed us a lot of the top spots that must be seen. Relaxing, informative, beautiful and sometimes exciting.  I won't bore you all with the details but an idea is as follows:-
Bay of Islands - beautiful, swim with dolphins, very wet bike ride, drinkies!!

Auckland - the city and Segway tours.

Coromandel Peninsula - beautiful, dodgy Garmin navigation, great walks, changeable weather (well it was NZ!)

Waitomo - CAVING!! (yay!) - glow worms, blackwater rafting, fantastic streamway.

Rotorua - smelly hot springs, mud baths, geysers, cultural presentation and Hangi meal, Liz and Kyle rafting the Kaituna river and the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world - 7m Tutea Falls.

Taupo - a short float plane ride, low oil pressure, another float plane another ride!!!! Nice accommodation, water out of the light fittings! another nice accommodation!!  Beautiful, big storm.

 

Huka Falls above

Napier - Christmas day - pressies, beautiful dinner - chilling & drinkies!

Wellington - the windy city, literally! Te Papa museum, catching up with long time friends Karen & Paul - brilliant and a lovely dinner with drinkies.  (the only photo is below courtesy of Karen - thanks mate - notice you avoided getting your piccie taken!)
                              
Christchurch - home from home with Lesley & Barry, catching up with Lesley's Mum and Dad - smashing people.  Great walks, sad city centre and surrounds, interesting container Mall, "old-time" chats.

1600 kilometres!  1000 miles in old money.

Hayley flew from NZ to Fiji with "the Girls" and had a great week sunning themselves and chilling.
Kyle is currently in Sydney competing tomorrow in a triathlon, he'd like to qualify for the world championships in England in September -watch out blighty!
Kathryn is in Arizona on training camp with the Cal U team.

Liz and I are on holiday next week also (chilling out!) and we are planning a USA trip in May for Kathryn's graduation.
Some piccies of New Zealand above - I'll update you in about 6 months so that I don't bore you all with more holiday chats!!