Cancer Remains Dormant

Monday, 4 February, my brother and I met with registrar Dr Sarah and then Dr Lisa.  My liver continues to function normally and the CT scan shows one lesion reduced from 36mm to 30mm and the other being monitored increased by 2mm to 56mm.  They regard this along with other information as showing the cancer remains dormant.  My next appointment is March 27 and will be a blood test and discussion with Dr Lisa.  It is now nine months since my last chemotherapy.

As each appointment approaches I endeavour not to think about it much.  And after I find out the result I feel a bit down.  It seems an anticlimax.  I am very grateful that the cancer remains dormant.  Logically, I want each appointment discussion to be about the cancer remaining dormant.  However, emotion sits in the background.  Another thing I notice is that I am more niggly and touchy as the appointment approaches.

Our daughters-in-law continue to progress fit and healthy through their pregnancies.  We now know there will be two granddaughters.  While two moved out, four of us remain in the home, however, my brother arrived last Wednesday for a two week visit – so our home remains ‘packed to the rafters’.

Barbara is flying to the US for two weeks with her family from 9 February.  Before she returns I fly to Dubai and am working in Abu Dhabi for a day and visiting friends Pam and Allan in Uganda during the first week of March.  At the end of March Barbara and I, with our friends Steve and Lesley are spending a weekend in Canberra including taking a hot air balloon ride.

Three major items over the last two months I would like to report upon are Christmas, backyard work and Country Music Festival in Tamworth.

Christmas

Our family Christmas celebration was on Sunday December 23 to allow for family members doing other things on Christmas.  The Club 55 Heyco Christmas was very enjoyable: entrée of scallops, roast shoulder of pork and vegetables main course and trifle dessert prepared, as usual by the Heyco siblings.  A raucous and fun time was had opening the presents.  In a very civilised manner our celebrations ran from late morning to early evening.

On Christmas Day the Heycos were invited to a daughter-in-law's family home for Christmas dinner.  Twenty-eight people gathered together.

Backyard Blitz

From before Christmas and into the new year the major project was removal of the old shed and replacement with a new 3.75 x 3 x 2 metres shed.  The new Easy-Shed has a sliding door and two louver windows.  It was not that easy to assemble and took many hours and reading of instructions.  The walls and roof parts were separately assembled and then erected.  I could not do this on my own.  Barbara, our three sons and our friends from Kuala Lumpur assisted.

After the shed was erected I built a workbench and set of 3 by 2.1 by 0.9 metre shelves and a vertical unit for holding garden tools and a portable bench.  Working with various tools and using bolts and screws I thought of my Dad as many of the items were his.  I laid bricks for garden edging, mixed concrete, laid pavers and sifted dirt.  Pete and I fixed the fence post beside the back gate by digging out the bottom section of the broken post, cementing in a new post base and bolting the top part of the old post to it.

The shed this afternoon

The shelving already filling up

The workbench with gear to be repacked

The vertical storage unit

I did not expect to be doing so much building and other activities again in my lifetime.  I was pleasantly surprised and how well I did things and my methodical approach.  I felt good usually working several hours in a day and sometimes quite long days. 

Country Music Festival Tamworth

I made my fourth trip to Tamworth for the Country Music Festival from Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 January.  I stayed with friends John and Alison and met up with lots of people.  Meeting up with our neighbour Graeme and his friend Trevor we visited with his cousin Mandy and her husband Ken 'Chainsaw' Lindsay seeing him perform.  I also visited friends and relatives and on the way home visited a cousin and her family.

I saw a number of great acts.  One of these was the Hillbilly Goats who specialise in hillbilly and blue grass music.  Another was Bill Chambers at his sessions at The Pub where he fosters young Country Music musicians.  His famous daughter, Kasey and her husband Shane Nicholson made a guest appearance.

As always, my favourite time was at the Supper Club run by the amazing Andrew Clermont.  I particularly enjoyed the Connor sisters, Siskin River.  You can see their performance of their own song Walking Dead on U-Tube which was filmed at the Supper Club.  These girls are stunning – the U-Tube does not do them justice – eerie, magnetic, erotic, ethereal, awesome terms do.  I also enjoyed Salvation Jane and Totally Gourdgeous a group of four amazing musicians including Andrew Clermont.

Tamworth holds the world’s second largest country music festival and it is the world’s tenth largest music festival.  The whole event is a great credit to the NSW regional country city of about 35000 people.