oncology visit

05 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in cancer, hospitals

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Ever since “Lost Saturday” I’ve been quite concerned about the abdominal pain I’ve been experiencing since the beginning of November. I thought for awhile I’d figured out the source of it, but then it shifted, and now it’s worse than ever… really, wtf?

Anyhow, I finally got to see an oncologist today to request my annual PET-TAC scan (it used to be every 6 months), and that was fine. Or as fine as things can go when you are talking to a doctor you’ve never seen in your life, and you are talking about your life… In this case the doctor put in the request, but then she said to me that this would probably be the last time I will need to have scans. Ummm… what? No more annual scans? Why not?

This is a photo I took back in 2009 to show the scars I’d been left with after the 3 slice & dice abdominal cancer ops (there was also a subsequent non-cancer related surgery in 2011, following the same scar lines). So that area of my ever-ageing body is pretty much a big mess. If there are reasons (adhesions?) that I have PAIN all the time now… why can’t anybody tell me this? It’s very frustrating. All I can do now is wait for the next PET-TAC.

a day in jerez

04 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in andalucia, food & drink, getaways, sherry

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Sometimes the best plans are the ones that are barely planned at all. I had started thinking about last year’s Birthday Month, when I took a short getaway trip each week of January to celebrate my big 6-OH birthday on the 7th (one day is never enough 😉 ). Anyhow, it seemed a bit much to celebrate 61 in the same way – but wait until I turn 65! – and yet I still wanted to do something special. So I decided that taking a day trip each week this month would be a fun thing to do. Then I realized that I was already in the middle of the first week and still hadn’t planned the first day trip!

Then by chance I got a “follow” on Instagram from Bodegas Fernandez Gao, an up and coming winery in Jerez I’d been interested in learning more about and, although I knew they still weren’t offering tours, I asked if I could pop by for a visit – and they said yes! So that sealed it. I decided to go to Jerez for the day. And of course I immediately got in touch with my friend Tomoko to see if she wanted to meet up. It turned out that there was already a little party planned at one of my favourite bodegas and I ended up getting an invite. But after our visit to Fernandez Gao we decided to stop off at Las Bandarillas for a quick lunch before heading over to Urium.

I can’t remember the number of impromptu fiestas I’ve stumbled upon at Bodegas Urium. At this point that place really feels like my second home in Jerez. This time expat pals Paul & Anne had arranged a little “sherry and Christmas cake” thing at the bodega, that ended up growing… and eventually included me and Peter.

It was a fabulous bodega party, with everyone (I think maybe 25 of us?) all standing around a long food-laden wooden table with sherry glasses in hand, all talking, all catching up. Some people I met for the first time, but it was mostly meeting up with old friends. Afterwards Paul, Ann and Tomoko joined us in the center of town for a “penúlitima” before we had to catch our train home. A perfect day out.

hope 2019

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in cancer, health & happiness, hope, life stuff

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Continuing the “tradition of hope” that began back in 2009 with my first ever Photohunt entry on January 3rd. The theme that week was “hope” and I put up a photo of my battered old daybook turned to January 3rd 2010 with the words “STILL HERE!” written on it. Having just finished a second stint of chemo a few months previously this felt like a very bold – and hopeful – thing to do.

Anyhow, since then I have posted a similar photo on this date each year. So, as always, here’s hoping that I will still be here January 3rd 2019, and will see this page in my book… and smile just like I did this morning.