28 December Christmas celebrations are over, but the memories aren't

I notice from the last entry that it has been quite a while since the last update. Sorry, but like everyone else I have been quite busy. In fact I recently said to Brian "Goodness I really need to sit down for a while" Duh... I spend all of my days sitting down... 

I am very glad to say that after a period of medication adjustment, my back pain has eased considerably (due to a large increase in the nerve drug Lyrica). This was such a relief as I was determined to be able to enjoy the Christmas worship and family get-togethers over Christmas. I haven't forgotten (how could I) that it was on Christmas Day a year ago that things 'crashed' for me - with an ambulance trip to hospital, leading to tests that soon identified kidney cancer and the spread into four tumours in my spine and left pelvic bone.  
I am so thankful that I could thoroughly enjoy Christmas this year.
Unfortunately Brian is still struggling to find the right relief for his pain, so there are more appointments shortly to continue the explorations. I will also have further CT scans in January to check how things are progressing, so our lovely new January calendar is already starting to fill up with appointments. 

It was so lovely to have Simon and Caitlin spend some days with us over the Christmas period. Sonya and Scott also bravely tackled the 8 hour trek from Albury to Portland with their four children, and together with Adrian, and Dale and Kodey, all the 'chickies' were home for Christmas this year! This of course lead to a delightfully chaotic but enjoyable time. 

On Boxing Day we drove to Melbourne for our traditional 'Miller' post-Christmas gathering. We have been doing this for over 30 years - and have all treasured this opportunity to catch up and see the 'rellies' that we often haven't seen from one year to the next. Instead of sharing Christmas gifts with each other, we all bring along 5 photos of the past year, and 'share' these happenings. It's lots of fun!

Enjoying the sharing of photos at the Miller gathering.

Today Brian and I travelled back home - just in time to say goodbye to the Albury crew who are heading back tomorrow (except for the 2 girls who are having extra holiday time in Portland). After such an enjoyable time, I have no shame in admitting that yes, I really am quite weary!

Here we all are on Christmas Day (minus Dale who unfortunately was at work). Note the amazing 'fruit tree' made by Caitlin for the children to enjoy and eat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I simply have to conclude with the following letter and drawing. It was written the other day by Lauren, who will turn 6 shortly. She is writing to her sister Emily, who died at 11 weeks of age (before Lauren was born), and she also refers to 'Lacee' - her cousin who also sadly died when she was 9 days old. Those precious little babies are so lovingly remembered, and the children talk about them often. Dear little Lauren (wearing a red crown in the above picture) has such a compassionate heart, and sometimes sheds a tear for this sister that she never met.

"Dear Emily, I just want to tell you I made this card by hand. I really miss you. I hope you are having a great time with Lacee. Now have a merry Christmas next year, Love Lauren"

11 December

It's been a little while since I've updated this blog so I'll try to catch things up.
I was very happy to finally discontinue the steroid drug about 2 weeks ago. 
The good news: is that some of the obvious side-effects I had been experiencing (face/ankle swelling, flaky skin etc) have almost gone! I am grateful!
The bad news: is that I have had a gradual increase in back pain since that time, including some fairly debilitating days. Grrr
After putting up with it for some days, I was encouraged by a friend to seek help now! 
So I did. As a result, I was blessed to have an appointment with the pain management doctor who 'just happened' to be in Portland this past week (on her one-day-a-month visits to Portland) and 'just happened' to have a time slot for a home visit on Thursday. She's a woman of action, and likes to leave with an action plan - and I like that! I'm now on a helpful slow release NSAID drug, and she has also ordered xrays which I'll have on Monday - basically to check that there is no disease in the left ribs (where I feel the pain). Hopefully that will not be the case, and the cause of pain is much more likely to be nerve pain. I'll know more next week. 
The amazing thing is that just when I have had a more challenging week, I have had unexpected surprises - phone calls, visits, flowers, and even a trip with a friend to IGA for a slow browsy shop-up (quite a treat for me, when Brian is the usual shopper!).

Meanwhile, although we are not as actively involved in a lot of end-of-year activities, we have been busier that usual. That's good, and we try to take part and contribute where we can. 

Back in January, we had planned to renew our side house fence, but of course that didn't happen with our lives in turmoil after my cancer diagnosis. So it happened this past week, and despite Brian's aching body (from assisting in the removal of the old fence), we can now look out at a brand new fence. Now there's just a few jobs that need to finish it off (moving some dirt and sand etc) but Brian can just potter along and do it in dribs and drabs as none of it is urgent. I'm just glad the big job is done. 
 
Brian continues to take things a day at a time - some days being better than others.         Last week he had a skin lesion removed from his ear and that has proved to be cancerous, so we'll have to be vigilant from now on. When I think about it, in the 60's we didn't give too much thought to sun protection - no hats or sunscreen, lying out in the sun while listening to the tranny and sunbaking, sometimes with added baby oil to increase the tanning potential (goodness, that's like preparing a body for roasting!) and bemoaning when our skin would readily burn. Abusing our bodies certainly brings consequences,albeit so many years later. 
I sometimes wonder about the source of my own cancer - but I won't ever know that as I don't fall into the high risk categories for kidney cancer (being an overweight smoking male!)

The boys in action (while I watch from the lounge window)