Cycle 4.

Cycle 4 has begun, with predictable results. Feeling a little under the weather but nothing I am not familiar with.

A couple of unknowns have come up:

1. My SED rate. which had dropped precipitously from the 90s to the 20s (Good), has risen into the 30s. There is no rationale for the climb and we will have to wait for my next PET scan in a couple of weeks to confirm that it is nothing ominous.

2. I have developed a pain in my chest when I take a deep breath, my excellent Doctor's and Nurses are monitoring this development so I am not unduly worried, I am taking Warfarin so I am somewhat insulated from pulmonary edema which if you recall the clot in my shoulder is something that could occur.

So a few clouds in an otherwise clear sky, nothing to worry about now, lets hope they blow away.

halfway

Today marks the halfway point in my planned chemo schedule. It's a pretty big milestone for me as I feel like the long tab up hill is now a gentle jog down the other side, still I wish my Bergen were lighter and I wasn't carrying the LAW, if you know what I mean?

Observed my minutes silence at 11, not quite the same, not being at the Cenotaph and all, but nonetheless 'We will remember them'.

Hope the Dukies had a smashing weekend and sank a pint or two for absent friends. As with every year, I am planning on attending next year.

FYI the Duke of Yorks Royal Military School is the high school I attended from 11-18 yrs of age. It's a boarding school so the friends I made there are firm friends that I will never forget. Once a year, around Remembrance Sunday, the old boys of the school return to participate in the remembrance parade and regret the amount of alcohol consumed the night before. It's a fantastic weekend that always leave me longing for simpler times.

Signing off now before I start rambling about how the Army was just an extension of boarding school .......

Don't any of you bastages laugh

Went to see the surgeon concerning my butt lump.

The general consensus of opinion is that it is 'not' a tumor, but something called a fistula.

I know, I know, it sounds like I have been participating in jolly naughty botty pranks, but the reality is that it has probably been there since my clumsiness in Bosnia; my butt was pretty much peppered by the mine and the military doctors told me they could not get all the shrapnel out of my body, although it would probably work its way out eventually, I guess this piece has been stuck for some time.

The plan is to wait until my chemo is complete and then remove the lump in a minor surgical procedure, something else to look forward to.