I'm still here...

I don't think I have ever left it so long between writing something on this blog, so I will endeavour to be more prolific in future.

Since last time, obviously Christmas and the New Year have long gone and we are looking forward to the spring and summer. It's going to be a busy year, this year, both at work and at home.

At work, something I have been working on for nearly 6 years is now coming to fruition, but it's a struggle just to get it all "over the line". One, or rather, several big efforts required and it will be there.

On a personal front, the year gets better and better as it goes on. We are off to New York in a couple of weeks, having fortunately spent the last of the AirMiles before the changed. (I have written about this before). There are some interesting developments happening on that trip, not least of which is that we have set up a meeting with some of Ann's long lost cousins, unknown to us until about four months ago. It's going to be a very interesting day on Ellis Island with them and we are both really looking forward to it.

There has also been a very interesting email from one of my friends who lives in NY - if a proposal comes off, it will be terrific. I will write about it after the event, just in case it puts a hex on it...

In June we have rented a cottage on the edge of Europe on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Really looking forward to being out there. We saw the islands a couple of years ago when we were on Skye, but this will be the first time out that far. They are on the same latitude as the top end of Nova Scotia and the southern shore of Alaska, but fortunately, much warmer than either. Looking forward to some great sun-rises; will just mean very early starts given that we are there more or less at the longest day. Ha ha.

In October, the Leica Challenge roadshow hits Copenhagen on "Kulturnatten" weekend. On the Friday night the city is awash with cultural activities all night, so it should be very interesting. We have booked a restaurant for the gang already and will have 30 people there for supper. I'm sure there will be more there for the Challenge, but finding space for everyone on that weekend is very difficult.

Finally, the year culminates in Ed and Nicki's wedding at the end of November. How exciting is that?! More about that nearer the time, no doubt.

So, maintenance Nr 9 of 12 has been and gone and by the end of July, that will be the end of them. It's almost exactly two years since I started my chemotherapy and I have been going back there no more than two-monthly ever since. I am seriously going to miss the sessions there in what must seem a perverse kind of way. The good thing, apart from the wonderful people there, is that you know that some one will check you over every other month. I don't know what the "Watch and Wait" regime will be after the summer, but I'm sure it won't be more than once a quarter, if that.Maybe I don't need to return until I become symptomatic again. We will see.

This maintenance should, in theory, have added 30 months or so to the remission period after the first treatment, which means that with a fair wind, it might be another 3 or 4 years before I need to have a second round. The haematologist said that he can probably get another 10 or maybe 15 years out of me on current technology, so that's not so bad. There are plenty of people around who don't make it that far.

Chin up!