The festive season has started early at Henry Road. The Sunday before last, we hosted our first extended family festive gathering with the Bristol branch of the Wride clan. Last Sunday we did the same again, enjoying a festive feast with the Frome-based branch of the family, who kindly acted as courier bringing with them the wheelchair offered to us by Mandy, one of our Facebook meso friends. Thanks again, all of you!
This weekend, we have taken break from festive feasting to make some progress on other Christmas preparations - producing our first batch of Christmas cards and choosing presents. How very different from this time last year, when we were still reeling from the news that Steve's life expectancy was thought to be a "small number of months" and could only manage a very low key festive season, with electronic greetings rather than home produced cards and no socialising......
This year's festive socialising begins again tomorrow, with visits from our friends Andy and Dave dropping in on their back home to the Peak District via Oxford, and Agnes calling by en route to Luton airport before she flies back home to Budapest. On Tuesday, it's the turn of more friends from our student days - Keith and Glynis - combining a short break in Oxford with a visit to us before heading back to Bury St Edmunds. More visitors are coming next weekend, so lots to look forward to! That means a lot to us, now we are spending so much time based at home.
On the health front, Steve's not sure whether the mucus-thining medication is working, but he's still coughing a lot, whatever. Over the last few weeks our son, who is staying with us at the moment, has also been soldiering on with a bad cough. Just as he started to get better, it was my turn to joining the coughing choir and keep our poor neighbours awake at night....Hopefully, we are both past the infectious stage by now. Wouldn't want to pass on this bug as an unwelcome Christmas present to our visitors....
So...its beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. Present deliveries in the pipeline; off to get the tree some time later this week; cards to write and post...
....But amongst the mesothelioma community, the people who had the very best Christmas present this year are fellow meso warrior Mavis and her husband Ray. The "Keytruda" immunotherapy drug trial she has been on at the Royal Marsden has worked for her. Her last scan showed no active cancer. Mavis and Steve were diagnosed with mesothelioma around the same time in 2009, so we have been walking hand in hand on this journey for well over six years now. We are so pleased to hear Mavis's news! Lou in Australia is having similar positive results. Quite a Christmas miracle in its own way - what better present could you wish for? If only Steve was eligible for immunotherapy trials....
But there's no point in "what ifs" - we need to live in the here and now and make the most of this festive season. Bring it on, as they say. Here's hoping for some more miracles x
This weekend, we have taken break from festive feasting to make some progress on other Christmas preparations - producing our first batch of Christmas cards and choosing presents. How very different from this time last year, when we were still reeling from the news that Steve's life expectancy was thought to be a "small number of months" and could only manage a very low key festive season, with electronic greetings rather than home produced cards and no socialising......
This year's festive socialising begins again tomorrow, with visits from our friends Andy and Dave dropping in on their back home to the Peak District via Oxford, and Agnes calling by en route to Luton airport before she flies back home to Budapest. On Tuesday, it's the turn of more friends from our student days - Keith and Glynis - combining a short break in Oxford with a visit to us before heading back to Bury St Edmunds. More visitors are coming next weekend, so lots to look forward to! That means a lot to us, now we are spending so much time based at home.
On the health front, Steve's not sure whether the mucus-thining medication is working, but he's still coughing a lot, whatever. Over the last few weeks our son, who is staying with us at the moment, has also been soldiering on with a bad cough. Just as he started to get better, it was my turn to joining the coughing choir and keep our poor neighbours awake at night....Hopefully, we are both past the infectious stage by now. Wouldn't want to pass on this bug as an unwelcome Christmas present to our visitors....
So...its beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. Present deliveries in the pipeline; off to get the tree some time later this week; cards to write and post...
....But amongst the mesothelioma community, the people who had the very best Christmas present this year are fellow meso warrior Mavis and her husband Ray. The "Keytruda" immunotherapy drug trial she has been on at the Royal Marsden has worked for her. Her last scan showed no active cancer. Mavis and Steve were diagnosed with mesothelioma around the same time in 2009, so we have been walking hand in hand on this journey for well over six years now. We are so pleased to hear Mavis's news! Lou in Australia is having similar positive results. Quite a Christmas miracle in its own way - what better present could you wish for? If only Steve was eligible for immunotherapy trials....
But there's no point in "what ifs" - we need to live in the here and now and make the most of this festive season. Bring it on, as they say. Here's hoping for some more miracles x
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