I have cancer, and I am having so much trouble keeping friends abreast of developments that I decided to try blogging as a solution.
My hobby/amusement/distraction from the above is technology, so I may well bore you with that sometimes for a change!
Simple: none. I've still got my hair, although I've noticed that there are quite a few more extraneous loose ones in my food, on my clothes, and generally around the place; I'm sure Chris's hair looks thinner:-) I do also feel more tired, but this is to be expected. So, instead of coming home and sitting down, we went out in the garden and drank tea before I had a go at weeding the drive.
Cromwell Hospital
I had an email from the Cromwell this evening to say that I have to wait for eight weeks after the current treatment before proceeding with Gamma Knife. They have arranged for me to have an MRI scan on 12th October, and if I'm suitable for treatment that will take place on the following day.
And in the meantime...
...I've asked my consultant what restrictions there are on flying. If we have to wait eight weeks (less a couple to get over the worst of the current treatment).
Medical update Precisely nothing (thank goodness).
Anyone lost an Enya CD?
A while ago I repaired someone's laptop, and in the process took an Enya CD called "And Winter Came..." out of the CD drive. It has been hanging around here ever since while I try to recall whose PC it was. That isn't happening, so if anyone reading thinks it is theirs, please let me know.
Any now for something completely different
I've recently finished reading a book which was given to me by a friend, and it made a big impression; so much so that I've decided to share it here. The reason I have hesitated is because it is a work of Christian fiction, and until I received this book I didn't realise that such a genre existed. I'm also well aware that not everyone who reads this blog would describe themselves as Christian, and I've no desire to sermonise anyone.
The book is called 'The Shack', by William P Young. Be prepared for a plot which involves the murder of a young girl, the appearance of God as a large black woman, and an altogether unsettling read. I found myself upset, amused and challenged in equal amounts. Yes, it's very American; yes, the writing style can be a bit schmaltzy, yes, it isn't attempting to project true theology; For all that, it rattled some of my cosy preconceptions, and didn't take that much time to read. For details, and the views of other reviewers, have a look at the Amazon listing: http://tinyurl.com/nlvy63. If anyone would like to borrow my copy, just let me know.
Absolutely nothing new to report I'm afraid, apart from the fact that travelling in the back of Gwyn's car is something of a luxury experience; it certainly smoothed out the bumps along Seven Mile Straight!
Yesterday I threatened to start making stuff up - today I can honestly say I'm too tired; sorry about that.
Again, little to report. The symptom build-up is much more noticeable; feeling queasy and tired. Apologies if I nod off in the middle of a conversation with any of you (more so than usual, that is).
It's also nice to be back home in one's own bed. Tomorrow Gwyn is taking me to Bristol (what a nice man to risk his leather seats:-). If tomorrow is as straightforward as today I may well have to start inventing stuff to blog, as I know what sensationalists you all are!
We are staying in Bristol tonight, and are making a bit of an occasion of it by meeting my sister and nephew, who hail from Banbury. They seem to have had great fun visiting the SS Great Britain, a rusty metal boat parked in the centre - so oddness does run in the family:-).
Medically, there's nothing to report. The treatment machine broke down so there was a 45 minute delay, but hey, what's the hurry anyway?
Thanks to all for your various emails and comments. You may not realise it but they are a great encouragement. TTFN.
Today has been a real treat; we've done a bit of this and a bit of that; to be more precise; had another go at clearing the garage (which I love doing because it feels so worthwhile but has no end - and so is endlessly worthwhile:-); almost finished wiring up the outdoor Victorian pedestal light for the church; had a very enjoyable visit from Alastair, the vicar; and generally engaged in a variety of displacement activities (sorry Alastair, I don't mean you are...)
I've also submitted to having my picture taken with my buff - with a very poor grace, I hasten to add. Christine seems to think it will keep Danielle quiet - all I can say is that I thought her memory of teenagers would be better than that:-(
So, 40% complete! I can't say I'm sorry it's the weekend; the M5 only has so much to offer by way of variety; today it was dense traffic as people made their ways down to their holiday homes. I'm looking forward to a rest for a couple of days.
The first treatment symptoms have started to emerge; nausea, tiredness, and mild headaches. Still at least I've got my hair for a while longer.
I had a phone call from the Cromwell today following up on my referral from Bristol; they wanted me to go up for an MRI scan using their protocols, which I take as a slightly positive sign that I may be suitable for treatment with Gamma knife; there's no real reason why it should be positive, but in the absence of any other indication, it might as well be a good sign as bad! Unfortunately I can't go on Tuesday, and the consultant has gone back to Sweden for a few days, so this will be delayed for a while. This may be a good thing anyway, as the effects of this treatment need to settle before they can assess suitability for Gamma Knife.
It's interesting that yesterday's post elicited not a single public comment. I must have something to learn about judging my audience; perhaps you aren't all subscribers to New Scientist or Geeks Monthly:-)
Every so often something appears in my mailbox that makes me think "I must share this with humanity" which means you, dear readers! The latest nugget came from a weekly newsletter from PC Pro, which I subscribe to, and which is partly responsible for some of the advice that I pass on to you. However, this particular nugget is not PC-related.
It comes in the form of a link to some videos made in 1974 for Cornell University, and features Dr Richard Feynman giving some 'classic physics lectures'. However, even if physics did for you at school like it did for me, please don't stop reading yet! This is how PC Pro describes the videos
What I find even more amusing is that Bill Gates and a friend were going on holiday together and wanted to take some videos with them - now I don't know what sort of stuff you take, and please don't tell me, but physics?! When Bill watched these he immediately bought the rights to them, and through a Microsoft project has posted them for all to see, which is why you can watch them now.
To watch the videos, go to Project Tuva. If you are prompted to install something called Silverlight, please allow it. Thereafter, enjoy! Even the introduction is worth watching, so if you go through it all you have about seven hours of material to plough through. I've watched the first one and certainly intend to view the rest!
The Bad
Have you ever wondered what PC repair shops get up to when you take your PC's in for fixing? Not me, I hasten to add! This story in the same email will make your hair stand on end! The moral is, back up your data (where have you heard that before?!), delete it from your hard drive, and try to go to someone who is recommended!
I'm going to cheat and slip in another Bad, this time about premium rate phone numbers, which are often used for support calls (such as to HP, Gwyn!). There is a little-known way to circumvent these; it's not foolproof, but it's worth a try; go to this SayNoTo0870.com. Enter the 08nn phone number in the phone number box, and see what alternative landline numbers it throws up. You can also enter the name of the organisation and see what it throws up. We have certainly saved money using this facility, so good luck!
I'm afraid it's more of the same today, thank goodness. The journey was uneventful, I went in for treatment early, and then went for a very pleasant lunch at Browns Restaurant.
A little Google tip
I know I bang on about Google rather a lot, but then it is a very clever business proposition. If you push me I'll start lecturing on the future of computing (it's called The Cloud) and Google are right at the front of it.
Anyway, I digress. On a more mundane note, I wanted to point out a feature of the Dalwood website. As some of you may know it now has a calendar on the home page. If, like me, you have a Google email address (and therefore account), you can also have a Google Calendar. By clicking on entries in the Dalwood calendar, or any other public calendar, I can opt to have them inserted in mine! So, no excuses for being late for church now! Just think of the potential if all Dalwood organisations had their own calendars - no more being late for Corrydale rehearsals; oops, must go and wash my mouth out...
There's really not much to report; we went to Bristol, narrowly missing an horrific accident in which a lorry ploughed into the back of a Highways Agency Incident Support vehicle; the tailback was still there when we came back five hours later.
The treatment was unventful; there had been machine problems so there was an hour or so delay, but we are used to that. I shouldn't start to notice side-effects for a few days, and the hair loss may take a couple of weeks. Still, in anticipation of that event, and because of the inordinate interest aroused by the hat issue, I've had some pics taken of the various items we bought. Unfortunately, due to the fact that they make me look like a barrel of lard with a handerchief on my head, you are going to have to wait a while longer before seeing them:-)
No, it's not a cryptic clue for some fiendish quiz - it summarises my life over the past few days.
Pain Clinic
We saw Becky Baines, a consultant at the hospice in Exeter this morning to review my pain medication regime. As you know I've been keen to make this appointment for a while, as I'm convinced there are better ways of dealing with the pain than amputation! It was a really useful session, but also quite challenging in some ways. Have you ever tried to describe a certain pain, in terms of location, nature, and what brings it on? Anyway, whatever I said seemed to make sense to Becky, because she looked at the current medication profile and suggested several changes that may help, and may also allow me to use my leg more than I have been at present - avoidance of use being perhaps the best strategy I've had available until now. I was amazed to hear that one of the drugs I started taking only recently (at her suggestion) has quite a lot of headroom in the dose. I'm on 300mg per day, and the most she has ever used is 2700 mg per day! She also looked at the morphine dose and recommended an increase, and also suggested switching to a larger dose tablet - 100mg instead of 20mg. You'd be surprised how tiresome it can be to take 11 tablets of a morning or evening, so cutting the number by 4 will be very welcome. Anyway, it will take a couple of days to phase in the changes, so I'll keep you posted.
Driving licence
Today we posted my driving licence back to the DVLA, as having a brain tumour means I'm no longer allowed to drive:-(. Furthermore, Christine checked the DVLA website, only to find that failure to notify them carries a £1,000 fine! That seems a bit harsh, on top of losing the licence! I've had a full licence since October 2nd 1966 - isn't it odd how useless bits of information like this stick in one's mind? Ah well, if the Queen can get used to being driven, I'm sure I can.
Hats I'm now the proud owner of three new hats, or rather, two hats and one 'buff'. The hats are pretty ordinary skull caps, but the buff is amazingly complicated. At first sight it looks like an ordinary tube of cloth, but there are so many ways of wearing it that it has its own instructional video in the shop, and also a website! Please watch the video on this site - it really is quite mad! I'll consider posting some pics after I've had a practice with them all.
Life has been quite busy since I last posted on Wednesday. That evening we were invited around to Michael and Sue's for 'Gewurtztraminer and onion tart'. I took this as a small snack and drink before returning home for our supper; not a bit of it! We staggered the fifty yards home, hours later, under the influence not only of the Gewurtz, but another bottle and a lethal dessert later.
I'm sure I hadn't recovered from this by next day lunchtime, when we met at the Venn ranch for a Majorca trip reunion. Of course, the food and drink were themed accordingly, and yet again a good time was had by all. Unfortunately we had to leave to drive up to Bristol for an appointment first thing this morning and, in my role as back seat driver, I really couldn't drink much more than a glass of sangria:-)
When I had radiotherapy to my neck, at the start of this year, it involved making a plaster cast of my head, from which a plastic mould was made. This is used to keep the head and neck still and precisely located under the xray beam. The process took about half an hour with the plaster; about three hours and a couple of elapsed days in the workshop to make the plastic mould, and a second visit to check the fit before treatment could start. This time we were confronted by a perforated purple plastic sheet in a frame, which was immersed in water at 70 degrees for two minutes and then clipped to the table and moulded around my head . There was an eight minute wait while it cooled and set, and that was it - a mould ready for use next door under the planning xray machine! The new process saved a couple of elapsed days, a second visit, and hours of technician time.
I don't really understand the physics of x-ray but gather that these machines include a feature called 'skin sparing', whereby the radiation envelope is weaker at the skin than it is inside the body. However in my case I have quite a few lesions on the skin itself, which I was going to have surgically removed. The radiotherapy consultant suggested that, by wrapping a layer of material around the outside of my head to act as a false skin, the skin proper would receive a full dose, and hopefully the lesions would be removed at the same time as the internal lesions are treated. Obviously I couldn't see what was happening from inside the mask, but I could hear lots of tearing of material, and cutting of sellotape, while the extra layer was applied. I couldn't help but be amused by the contrast between the high-tech equipment and calculations being employed to calculate the dose of radiation required, and what sounded like the cast of Blue Peter having a field day with old egg boxes and sticky tape!
We also sorted out the appointment times for the next two weeks, which included slipping the start date to Tuesday, thus enabling me to keep the long-awaited and twice-postponed appointment at the pain clinic in Exeter.
The only thing left to organise now is a hat, or hats to cover my naked scalp when the hair comes out. This apparently happens about three weeks after treatment starts. I haven't been especially attracted to some of the ideas put forward by some of you, especially in pink; the problem is that everything I look at on the web is being modelled by someone thirty years younger and a lot more handsome than me - why don't they get Joe Public to wear this stuff, I wonder?!
Time for a little light relief after the recent heavy stuff, I think! Following a recent clear-out at home, in which we sold several books (mostly technical manuals) on Amazon, I wondered if any of you have heard of or used this facility to get rid of unwanted items? It really is quite easy, especially if you already have an Amazon account.
First, go through your bookshelves to identify items which may be saleable; enter the title or ISBN into Amazon, and check how many of them are for sale 'Used'. If it looks as if there may be a demand for the title in question, then decide on a selling price - I usually pick a number slightly lower than the bottom price - and then enter the details requested. That is basically all there is to it! Of course you may find that there are hundreds of copies available at 50p, you may decide that it isn't worthwhile :-) .
One category of books that apparently sells well is children's books. So, if you are hoarding things that you read as a child, you may find that they are in demand from others who also had them when they were young!
Amazon do take a commission on each item sold, but the main benefits of using them are that they handle all the payment administration, and books just sit on their site until they sell or until they are withdrawn.
Bypass Vista; go straight to Windows 7!
As some of you already know I have been running a pre-release test version of Windows 7 for some time now, and believe it to be far superior to Vista in many ways; speed, usability, and stability, to name but three. Today is the first date on which you can pre-order Windows 7,which becomes available on 22nd October. Microsoft have authorised a small number of retailers to sell W7 at heavily discounted prices, depending on the version that you are interested in. For example, W7 Home Premium, which will suit the majority of home users, is for sale at around £50, as opposed to the predicted full price of £150. W7 Professional can be bought for around £90 instead of £250. One good thing about these licences is that they are full retail versions, which means that they can be re-used on other PC's if you upgrade your machine. Most licences are OEM (Other Equipment Manufacturer), which means that they are tied to the PC you buy and cannot be moved to replacement machines.For more information about this offer, and about the features of each version, go to http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx. I should warn you that the number of licences available is limited; I tried to buy from ebuyer this morning as they were slightly cheaper than other places, only to find that their allocation of 300 licences had gone within a few minutes of being available this morning!
You are eligible for this offer if you already have a genuine copy of XP or Vista, and your PC meets the minimum hardware specification. To be sure, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/upgrade-advisor.aspx and download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool, which will check your PC's hardware configuration.
Medical update
The Oncology Centre have confirmed that my planning appointments are this Friday morning at 0930, and treatment starts on Monday. All I need to do now is decide whether I want a wig (probably not), or what style hat I want to protect my head; I quite like those turbans which we see all the time on the news, although they are usually worn by the bad guys :-)
I’ve also just received by email in the past few minutes a draft copy of a referral letter to the Cromwell, asking them to consider me for Gamma Knife treatment. Presumably my consultant has thought about this since yesterday and has decided that this is the more appropriate of the two advanced treatments which are available. It sounds as if this could take place in early August, immediately after the whole head treatment.
Sorry for the length of this post, but, like buses, news seems to arrive all at once!
George
The consultant we saw today is a radiotherapy specialist with particular interest in skin and brain lesions, so could hardly be more appropriate for the current situation.
We first looked at the MRI results; of the six visible tumours the largest are in areas of the brain affecting speech, the sight of one eye, and emotions/personality. What effects these could have in combination doesn't bear thinking about, although some of you may think I've had them for years:-). I am currently symptom-free, and the size of the lesions is relatively small, which hopefully means we have caught them early.
We then discussed four treatment options:
Do nothing
Whole brain radiotherapy
High power, localised stereotactic radiotherapy or radiosurgery
A combination of options 2 and 3
Option 1: Do nothing
It is impossible to predict an outcome of doing nothing as any one of the brain lesions, or a fresh one elsewhere could develop.
Option 2: Whole brain
Because of the number of tumours present the odds are that others will develop in the same region. Whole brain treatment is the best way of preventing latent tumours from developing, but it only has a 50% success rate with larger lesions.
The main side-effects are hair loss and tiredness, which is occasionally extreme.
This is a relatively new form of treatment. It is available in Bristol under the NHS, but only for up to two tumours. This is because tumour numbers higher than this usually suggest that more will develop, and it is therefore not seen as cost-effective overall. I can but agree with this.
It is available privately at places such as the Cromwell in London, and also in Sheffield (although there it may be a similar but different technique called Gamma Knife radiosurgery.
Option 4: Combine options 2 and 3
I am very fortunate in having medical insurance, although 99% of my treatment to date has been NHS, and we cannot praise it too highly. We therefore decided to select this option, which will involve two week's daily treatment in Bristol, and to ask for an opinion at the Cromwell about the advisability of having option 3 thereafter. If we go ahead it is likely to start next week, and we will stay over in Bristol to cut down the impact of travelling.
We also asked at what point it would be appropriate to transfer to a centre nearer home, and discovered that Taunton will soon be staffed to cater for my needs. I intend to pursue this as the time, cost and wear and tear implications of travelling to Bristol are quite high.
Communion at 0900 (made it!), followed by a relaxed day doing little except weeding an area of the drive under an oak tree. It has been bothering me for ages now, so it was rewarding to finally get out and tackle it.
Whilst at church we were invited to a barbecue in the village this evening, from which we've just returned. It was good fun, but we knew the time had come for us to leave when members of Corrydales started singing along to a 1961 pop compilation CD; after all, I was only 12 at the time, and Christine was 8, so we could hardly be expected to know the words:-).
Thanks to all who offered support and best wishes after my previous post. They were, and continue to be, much appreciated.
I had a call this morning to give us the results of the scans earlier this week. The results are mixed. As far as my trunk is concerned, there has been little change, and one lung lesion has gone altogether. Unfortunately the brain scan was not so positive: I have about six nodules in the brain, which were not evident on the previous January scan.
If there were just one or two lesions then the usual treatment would be surgery. However given the number present the proposed treatment plan is for me to see the radiotherapy consultant in Bristol on Tuesday, with a view to targetedradiotherapy, possibly followed by surgery. There is no point in pretending that this is not a set-back; brain lesions can develop slowly, but can also turn aggressive very quickly, which can, depending on location, lead to sudden loss of function or senses.
From our point of view, Christine and I feel that it is important to take each day at a time, and to listen to what the doctors have to offer by way of treatment. The prognosis and outcome are little changed by this news, and I feel are best left in God's hands. I know you will all continue to send us your best wishes and prayers, for which we thank you. I should have more to tell you after Tuesday, but am unsure that there will be much to add before then.
On a more positive note, I am hopeful that the addition of the latest nerve painkiller is having a beneficial effect, as the pain has been noticeably reduced in the last couple of days. I won't really know if this is the case until I've built up to the full dose by the middle of next week, and have reduced the extra morphine that I'm currently taking down to the planned level.
This morning at around 11 I arranged to have my MRI and CT scans in Bristol next Monday. Shortly thereafter I received an appointment to see the Orthopaedic consultant (also in Bristol) next Wednesday. By 12 the Chemotherapy consultant had confounded the entire plan and brought the scans forward to this afternoon so that he could see the results before going to California on Friday! So, despite having visitors arriving this evening who couldn't be contacted, we made the familiar trip north yet again.
The scans themselves were unremarkable, if you discount the fact that an MRI head scan feels and sounds as if you've got your head in a cement mixer which is being cleaned out with bricks, and the injection they give you for a CT scan makes you feel warm all over and leaves a funny taste in the mouth. The doctor who put the cannula in my arm clearly needs practice, preferably on an orange, before I let him near me again. Trouble is, when you are on the table, arms out-stretched, with no-one else to appeal to within earshot, you are rather at a disadvantage.
Anyway, we are home now, visitors suitably greeted and tucked up in bed, so I can drivel on to you about my disrupted day. The plan from here is that I should get the scan results on Friday, and the Wednesday appointment should give me more information about the orthopaedic options available to me, including amputation.
Not content with the above, we've also received an update to my pain control prescription and I now have another potion to take. The capsules look an innocuous grey, but it takes a week to build up to the full dose so I suspect their bite is stronger than their bark! I've also received my referral to the pain control consultant in Exeter, and can ring tomorrow to make an appointment.
This all feels like progress, and the prospect of being able to get control of the pain has bucked me up somewhat. As ever, thanks to all who contacted me with good wishes after reading my recent downbeat entry. And now, good night!
I never cease to be amazed by the power of Google. In this case, it's the Insight facility, which allows one to look at what people have searched for, by date or period, by country and/or sub-region of said country! To have a play with this, go to the Google Insight Search page and, well, play! It's good fun and it's free - and possibly quite scary! Tell me what you think.
Turning to yesterday's posts, I'd like to thank everyone for the various emails and other supportive responses. For some reason I'm reminded of a Tony Hancock sketch from the 60's. Tony was acting the role of an aircraft mechanic who was servicing a plane when it took off with him clinging to the outside of the cockpit, yelling blue murder. The pilot (Sid James or Kenneth Williams?) pulls the canopy back and asks "Where's your stiff upper lip?" "Under this loose flabby chin!", came the response.
No-one commented on the fish-tank, or realised that by holding the mouse over the tank you can get the fish to swim towards it. You can even click the spanner to change the number and colour of the fishes! This is a one example of many 'gadgets' which can be attached to a blog, but perhaps you're all too busy to play with the fish. I won't bother to switch them for Soduku...
I've been mulling over the absence of news, which still seems to upset the adrenaline junkies amongst you, and wondering what I could write about. In the end I decided to ask you if any of the ideas that have occurred to me would be of interest.
Today, for example, I've spent researching various technical things which interest me. I may have mentioned to some of you that it appalls me that computers which are thousands of times more powerful than when I started in the profession should run so slowly because of the sheer inefficiency of modern software. A lot of this is down to $icrosfoft and Windoze. I have been looking for a suitable alternative, preferably free, and have settled on something called Ubuntu. The software it is descended from was invented by a Finn called Linus Torvalds in the 60's. He has since been named as one of the top 100 Finns ever - can anyone (apart from George Marshall) name any of the remaining 99? :-)
Along the way I've had to look into various technical details, such as how to create 'virtual' CD/DVD drives, which run hundreds of times faster than real ones; and how to store the large number of passwords and account details which I've stored on your behalf when rebuilding your systems - let's face it, most of you don't know them!
Now I can accept that such stuff is way too geeky for normal folk, so I wonder if instead you might be interested in something like using an alternative browser to Internet Explorer. I use Firefox for the most part, because it's quick, reasonably secure, and can be customised in all sorts of ways to suit my way of working. For example, I can block all pop-ups and unwanted adverts, automatically delete my browser trail at the end of a session, and add features that I find useful. One that I'm experimenting with at the moment is Stumbleupon, which lets me set my areas of interest, and then compare the sites I've found useful (or not) with those of others who share the same interests. It looks like a great way of harnessing the help of lots of people to help me with my research!
If neither of these are interesting, I may have to fall back on telling you how I am. To be honest, I'm a bit down at the moment. I think this is because we seem to have run out of treatment options. Up to now life has been one long round of appointments, treatments, and waiting to see whether or not the cancer responds. We now know that nothing out there has any effect, which is both a relief - chemotherapy and radiotherapy are not in the least enjoyable - but also rather dispiriting. Having said that, today we have decided to ask for a referral to the Exeter Pain Clinic, which is easier to get to than Bristol; and to have a few of the more irritating scalp lesions removed for the sake of comfort.
On one level, I'm not unhappy about the situation; I'm confident my immortal soul is in Good Hands. On a human level however, I worry about my nearest and dearest, and the group of friends that we have come to value during our time in Dalwood.
So there you have it - a choice between the absurdly irrelevant stuff with which I choose to distract myself, or the very un-British practice of being open about one's thoughts and feelings. If neither of these appeal, other ideas are welcome!
Have you ever had writer's block? Have you ever suffered from a complete failure of imagination? Have you ever had a couple of days where nothing much happens? Then you will understand the feelings of this blog-writer. Unfortunately he has received several messages from readers who deem inactivity a crime. I've decided that the only thing I can do is to point out that, from my point of view, having nothing to report is A GOOD THING! It's true! - no new aches, no new pains, lumps or bumps.
However, bear with me. I'm expecting a new round of scans and other diagnostics in the next couple of weeks. It is my firm intention to continue to bore you rigid - wish me luck!
I haven't got anything of note to report today, so I'll limit myself to saying thanks to all who emailed, rang and/or posted in response to my last couple of posting. Even amongst a fairly small readership I am amazed how many people know others in a similar situation, or have a friend who is a pain control specialist, or some-such other useful connection. For one thing it helps me not to feel quite so medically isolated, and for another it gives me avenues to pursue before having to decide on something quite so drastic as amputation.
Somebody else wrote to say that reading the blog helped them to put their own worries in perspective - which also helps to make the effort worthwhile. You really are a great bunch of folk!
If tomorrow is as news-free as today then I'll give you all a break for a day or two. The only alternative is to post about topping and tailing the blackcurrants kindly donated by Mr Major, or about my home-grown technique for repairing the workshop ceiling. Interested? No, I thought not!
It's not often that I've known the readers of this blog to be lost for words, but the last post seems to have achieved that! To be fair, several of you have responded by email, and your comments have been useful. Some of you have even known people in a similar situation, which is amazing.
From our point of view, we intend to take our time, investigate all the options, and only decide what to do after we feel we understand the situation as well as we can. In the meantime, please don't go quiet on me or I'll think I've offended you!
If you all need cheering up, why not go and have a look at the Darwin Awards? There's something there for everyone. You can even leave me a comment telling me which is your favourite award (please?).
