April 2022 M was a real hero throughout Rounds 1-4. He continued to work 3 days a week for Citizens Advice. Helping others helped him to put things into perspective and gave him a focus away from his own problems. Both of us working part-time kept a sense of normality in our lives, whilst leaving long weekends free to visit family and 'go places' And go places we did, as far north as Yorkshire and Durham and down south as far as East Sussex. We met family 'half-way' where necessary and took our dog with us on every journey. M found after Round 1 that he could eat 'normally' again with little or no pain and we enjoyed pub Sunday lunches with all the trimmings. The side effects I called 'the nasties' and they were nasty. But they were survivable and M could stand up to them with a bit of grit and determination.
After 4 rounds, the CT scan showed some shrinkage to the tumour and nodes and no change to the liver lesion and 2 lung nodules. The cancer was designated 'stable'. Not a cause for wild celebration, but we were nevertheless told that this was 'good'. However, it would be necessary to continue with the treatment, probably until Round 6 or 8. We had a short break to visit our daughter who was pregnant and expecting her daughter and our 1st grand-daughter in June. To hold his first grand-daughter was M's first major milestone and it was not long away. This would spur us on.
