One Third Reduction in New Liver Lesions

This is a brief update to share the good news of my health improvement.  In a few days time I will write a blog entry celebrating our recent Port Stephens holiday and this, my When I’m Sixty Four birthday week!

Today (Monday 5 May) Barbara and I saw Dr Lisa, my oncologist.  Last Wednesday I had a CT scan and this morning a blood test.  The CT scan showed that the ten new lesions in the liver were reduced by more than a third following four rounds of chemotherapy.  The old lesions remain ‘calcified’ and dormant.  My wild hope is that the new lesions will be completely zapped!

My blood test showed great improvement in the liver function.  Dr Lisa anticipates the liver function will return to normal after this or the next round of chemotherapy.

I am fortunate that my body responds so well to chemo: I am at the top end of improvement.  Thank you for all your love, care and prayers.  I am now feeling pretty normal.  Dr Lisa thinks it is likely that I will be able to make a three week trip to Uganda in November.  I am going to Tamworth next week to visit family and friends there.  My plan is to live as normally as I can.

Meanwhile, during the first two days (Wed 23 and Thurs 24 April) of my fourth round of chemotherapy, I began building a narrow bookcase and a low set of shelves for my new bedroom at the back of our home, Club 55.  This is part of creating a space that I can keep files and work on my computer in this back room.  It will be easier to heat in winter as it is much smaller than our main bedroom.

Then the weather changed and I did a lot of work on The BezCan Project.  The Governance Group met for the first time on Easter Monday and discussed our approach with each school.  We made some decisions to be actioned this and in the following year.  I am grateful for the Governance Group's contribution to my Uganda adventure.

Easter Tuesday I went with one of my sons to where he attends woodwork classes.  His generous and talented teacher helped me cut the wood to size as per my working diagrams.  Now I have straight edges and saved an enormous amount of work.  In the above photo you can see the shelves after their first coat of clear lacquer.

The pieces of the tall narrow bookcase are lined up ready for me to lightly sand and paint on the second coat of lacquer.

The happy worker painting the second coat.  I have one more coat to apply and then the challenge of assembling the two pieces of furniture.