It's been a while

Ok, ok.

I'll do a wee update.

First, and most importantly, Corri's marathon. It was on the 31st May through a scorching hot Edinburgh. Both Corri and her friend Allie put in admirable performances, though Allie's was slightly more admirable as she ..., well, put simply, she beat Corri by a couple of minutes and managed to duck under the 4hr mark. Allie did 3:58:something and Corri managed 4:00:28 secs. If only Corri had pushed that wee bit harder, put the effort in, got her arse in gear, she would have dipped under 4hrs and could put her marathon aspirations to bed. Now she'll need to do another one. Anyway, I was proud of her. On the fundraising front, she managed to raise a stonking £5,140 (so far, money's still trickling in). Fantastic, and thanks to all who have contributed.

On a 'me' front, things are going well. Been home now for about 6 weeks and I'm feeling more or less 100%, back to normal. I have no hair and (sorry, bottoms again) still have a runny arse, but on the whole I feel fine. I've started going for wee runs in the past two weeks and those have gone well. Hopefully keep the motivation up and get fully fit soon. Need to get some weight training done as I have absolutely no strength in my arms and upper body.

My last hospital check up was a couple of weeks ago and went well. My wee stem cells seem to be doing the right thing and all my blood counts have come back up to sensible levels. Neutrophils were 2.2 last time and total white cells 5.something. Interestingly, my platelet count was 266, so for now, it seems the stem cell transplant has cured my ITP. Not sure if that'll last, but an interesting side effect. This has been observed in other people but only a few years ago they'd be writing papers about me.

It's all still too early to know what the full effect on the Myeloma will be. In a month or so they'll re-test my bone marrow to restage the disease and that'll give some indication on the level of remission, which in turn gives us some idea how long it'll be before they feel the need to do anything else.

I've also had a day of minor stardom. I was asked by the North of Scotland Blood Transfusion service to be their poster child for the launch of blood donor week last Monday. I was on the telly (STV news), radio and in local newspapers, encouraging people to give blood. It was good fun and I got a nice wee stainless steel desk clock as a thanks you pressie.

Anyway, today is Friday, Corri's off work today and so we're going to figure out something nice to do. Pick tiles for the new shower room, for example.....groan.

Take care to anyone who's still 'listening'.
Joe