Sandy Bay looking toward the firing range at Straight Point.
I hadn't realised quite how low I felt at the time of the last post. Things have, however, taken a consderably better turn: the full report on the repeat scan result after two cycles of chemotherapy shows "improvement in all areas" - all of the affected lymph nodes in my chest and throat have shrunk measurably. While I know it's not going to be a permanent fix, at least it means the planned palliative treatment seems to be working, and I'm very hopeful for it to be "game on" for 2013.
I'm getting pretty used to the new beardless hairless me. Many more people are saying that the lack of beard takes a decade off me, so I might keep it that way. I'm unclear at this stage how long it'll be before I can get hair back; it is actually growing, as is my beard, but only as a white down that's not worth cultivating. It's refreshingly low-maintenance as well.
Meanwhile, Irene and I went out today for one of our regular walks along the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast: a couple of buses to Exmouth, then along the beach toward Sandy Bay and back. We originally planned it as a bit experimental; at this instant I'm pretty tired at the mid-point between two chemo treatments. But it was one of those beautiful clear high-pressure autumn days, and I was feeling so good that when we reached Orcombe Point - the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast - we carried on along the beach to Sandy Bay.
Unfortunately things went wrong then; the land path back over the cliffs was so muddy, and a hoped-for detour through a cow-field even muddier, that we had to turn back to Sandy Bay and retrace our steps back along the beach, adding an extra two miles to the round trip. The overall walk came to just under eight miles: while I was slowing down by the end, it's very encouraging considering the chemotherapy and that I haven't had a proper walk for a couple of months.
- James
