Time to try and assess where I am and how I'm doing. Lots on the Macsite for me to think about. Concluson is that we are all different in the disease we have to face. Nothing is standard and variations from day to day in this person make no sense sometimes.
Good day yesterday. Walking better so that I went out without a stick. Went to the supermarkets for the weekly shopping with my wife who is finding walking extremely difficult at present. She never gives up and insists on doing things to keep up her spirits and prove she can. Planned to do a walk through the village today, carrying nothing and swinging my arms to try to restore some balance and rhythm to my walking. But I had to do some local shopping instead and many things around the house. The weather is about to break again so the walk has been put off.
I called the "Leucocyte Team" together, (henceforth referred to as The Team, who are, of course my immune system and its cells), and congratulated them on the improvement in the state of my pelvic bones. I also sounded a note of caution that the Enemy were only defeated in their recent advance and had not gone away. I listed some of the sites to be watched carefully and inspected for insurgent activity at surprise intervals. These included the right iliac rest, the rami that fractured, the sacrum that aches quite a lot at the moment and the prostate gland itself where the armed revolt started. The team, helped by Tamulosin, have done a great job on my urethra, (urinating tube), as both nights and days are much better in that department. I will continue to do the breathing and visualisation exercises to oxygenate the areas where the Team are working as much as possible.
The abiraterone that is my mainstay of treatment costs, I believe, £3,000 per month or £36,000 per year. I am so lucky that the NHS is willing to provide this for me. But is it right to spend so much on one person of my age?(81) This sum would provide a good pension for someone of 65-70yrs. Is it right that my fellow taxpayers should contribute to my survival at this cost? The NHS is always short of money, as we know, because it is impossible to satisfy an open-ended demand and decisions have to be made. I don't have the answer but I am profoundly grateful. I suppose I am in the same position as a benefit claimant whose existence is supported by the taxpayer and whose benefits are subject to political debate at this time. Nothing, not chemo or radiotherapy should be taken for granted or claimed as a right.
