5. Silly Season

A couple more weeks now and the doctors say I will be in what's called 'haemotological remission'. Basically, my blood levels will have gone back to normal and would appear ok when a test has been taken. Funny how it can just be hidden like that and I will still know a potential killer is waiting to be let loose. My white blood levels have been fine after the first 3 weeks on Gleevec and have been fine ever since so the docs are now giving me 3 weeks off until I come back and see him...not until 2006! Great news...

November and December have been pretty crazy...so much happening in the silly season. Kas's birthday has finally arrived after year/months/days of talking about it. Was really good to see her so happy and temporarily keep her mind off me. I had organised tickets for the two of us to go to Rome before CML was around so I wasn't going to let that stop me. My Christmas party was in London and for me to get to Rome, I had to fly back to Scotland first...with my lack of London traffic knowledge it all nearly didn't happen with me arriving to a 9:50am flight at 9:55am. More worried about getting my man bits chopped off for missing our holiday! Anyway, the flight was ok and landed in Scottish snow, repacked and headed to Prestwick en route to Italy...wasn't until we got there and about to board that I realised (actually I was reminded) that I had forgotten my medication! Now I was going to lose my man bits...

After Kas having a few well deserved double gins, I slowly managed to claw my way out of the dog house. And we thought this weekend was going to be hospital free... The next morning I thought was going to be a crazy one, I wandered up to the end of the road to a chemist opposite the Spanish Steps. With luck not on my side lately, the lady behind the counter went to the back room and came back out holding the medication I required. There's going to be a catch I thought seeing I don't have a prescription and I also hadn't shaved, leaving me with a dodgy porno moustache...40 euros was the response. Woohoo! She handed me the drugs and the next minute I was back in the hotel room with the biggest grin on my face... bring on Rome!!

December was just as mad with parties, work, playstation etc... but the best news was being invited to join a Clinical Research Study at the Royal Infirmary. The professor in charge is among the world's best and the study I will be on is for me to have a mini-allo transplant after 6 months of Gleevec use. The meeting went well with my dad, Kas and I. There were a few terms she used and some explanations that went over my head but the key thing to happen was to determine if they can A. find me a suitable matched donor and B. how well my biological response is to Gleevec. Mid-January 2006 will hopefully tell me more with both sets of results expected then...

Christmas eve came around so fast. I hate always hearing 'wow, time really flies' and 'I can't beleive it's already been a year since Christmas!'...but truth was, I couldn't. Obviously time is always the same, it just seems faster because of how much busier you actually are. Since October 19th, my head has been pounding with an overload of information. I believe that when you hear you have something wrong with you, ie cancer, you have to arm yourself with all the info you can handle to find out what is best to combat it. Simple...information + self belief + courage = survival. I find my self listening and reading other people's stories alot and the only part I ignore I anyone else's negative experiences. Everyone else's experience and perspective will be different from the next...

Christmas was harder than most for obvious reasons - I was spending it over 10,000 miles away from my family and friends from Oz. I know my family want to be near me and I also want to show them I'm going well and still looking as muscular as Arnie (more like Arnold from Different Strokes). It's just good for me and my family to have Kas's folks here. They give me an endless supply of support...and food! Was really great to spend a cold Scottish Christmas with Smith Family...hopefully the Sinclair and Smith clans will get together for a joint Christmas party next year.

New Years eve tomorrow - can't believe it's been a year since New Years eve! 2006...holy shit!I wonder what's in store for the year to come...