Three weeks since the last treatment and things are looking good for Christmas.

I ate my first Sunday roast for five months last Sunday, and it was good - not quite tasting the way I know it should, but 90% normal, as are other things now. Last Friday I could actually get the taste of Tomato Ketchup for the first time in months.

A bottle of ale tastes 98% the way it should, and a friend gave me a really good bottle of ‘Single Malt’ the other day which tastes perfect - couldn’t wait til Christmas to try that!

There are bits of me that still don’t feel right - lingering side-effects - I still get out of breath going up stairs, and the Warfarin dose I’m on is a third of what it has been for the past three years, so there is still stuff circulating in me that hasn’t cleared yet.

I’m still taking a lot of things gently - my colleagues continue to do a great job at church.

Years ago I would have been trying to do five mile runs by now to get back in shape. But I’m not going there. I will wait until the New Year before doing anything, and then take advice on some gentle rehab. to get a decent fitness level maybe by Easter. The thing I really want to get back to is jogging outdoors again on warm sunny Spring/Summer days - I love it!

Our ten month old grand-daughter stayed the night for the first time last Saturday night - that was a first for Helen and me, an she was amazingly good! She has been a bright ray of sunshine for Helen and me, even through the most difficult times.

On the darker side, it would be very easy to start blanking out the last year as if parts of it hadn’t happened but I must live with the on-going reality of no more than a 60% chance of long term survival. That is what the expert told me, and that has to be my reality for the next few years until someone gives me a different prognosis. The narrow line between confronting the brutal facts and the faith that I will prevail in the end needs to live on in me for some time to come. My seventieth Birthday party in 2019 is the goal - that is, if nothing else gets me in the mean time!