What's in a number?

 I've been saving this one for when the number of hits on the blog tips over into a five-digit number, and here we are. Thank you everyone for coming back here to read my random thoughts on life, death, cancer and bodhrans. 

Of course it's just a number, but I get quite a lot of satisfaction when people tell me they look forward to seeing what I have posted next, and thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, who said I could use his world wide web, I know that there are people on foreign shores who read my thoughts regularly.

Up to now I have posted either every day or every second day and I will certainly carry on with that, as I have plenty of random thoughts to share quite apart from what is happening with the myeloma and its treatment. And on treatment, I now have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen over the next three months, which is good after all the waiting.

Next Wednesday, my four month initial chemo is over.

In about ten days I will start on the good old heavy-duty chemo with cyclophosphamide. I have been told this will make me feel a bit horrible, but the details can wait the day. I will carry on with the blog but may get symptom heavy, angling for sympathy or at least for good thoughts from you all, which I know I am already receiving in bucketloads.

Then at the end of November I go up to have my stem cells 'harvested' (lovely term) by the machines and teams at Addenbrokes. Then two weeks later I go in for the stem cell transplant. This starts with some even heavier chemo (look up Flush in an earlier post) and I am reliably informed that this is very unpleasant. I think some of the daily blogs may be reduced to 'Urgh' and 'Argh' for some of the time, but I am also hoping to acquire some false eyebrows (think Groucho) to entertain you with when my own fall out. I may even be unsettlingly detailed about what is happening and may have to introduce a NSFM coding on some posts (Not Suitable for Mealtimes)

But it is nice to know that as well as all the friends and family who are near at hand and have been lovely through it all, I also have a backup team of online blog-readers who can send good wishes over the ether and make helpful comments. 

And if the blog is now 10,000 hits, I am sure that it will be looking much healthier than me when I make my escape from Addenbrokes in early January. 

Thank you all for coming back to check what I'm  doing.