Second cycle

I’m now nearly 2 weeks into the second cycle and still feeling pretty OK. They infused me with the monoclonal antibody in addition to the cytotoxics this time and I did have a mild allergic reaction to it, but they that sorted with a shot of hydrocortisone and I was able to complete the dosing. I’ve felt more tired this time around and been in to work less. This means I’ve had ample time for writing and football watching. The Worldcon writers workshop is now full and I’ve started grouping the stories and sending them out to the critiquers (I still intend to attend the con). I also picked up an old writing project (sequel to novel 1) after some encouraging feedback from a reader and wrote a bit more on that.

So let’s talk about the World Cup and England. Obviously I’m disappointed but not surprised. England’s results have been exactly what I expected – so much so that I’m £115 up at the bookmakers – when I first saw the draw. Here’s a thought for you though – if you exhanged Luis Suarez for Wayne Rooney in the England side in the Italy and Uruguay games, how many goals would he have scored? IMHO the answer is 3 and that is the difference between a truly world-class striker and one who might have been if he had fulfilled his early promise.

Reflections on my first cycle of treatment

So I’ve almost completed my first cycle of treatment and I’ve survived pretty well. The only side effect I’ve noticed is altered sensation in my fingertips. I’ve been to work for about 8 days out of the twenty one, run my pub quiz and written another chapter of the work-in-progress. My prelimary blood results showed my lymphocytes had dropped from sixty something to twenty something which is regarded as a decent result.

The next cycle of treatment on Tuesday will have the monoclonal antibody as well as the cytotoxics and steroids so the side-effects could be different, but so far I’m doing pretty good. Thought you might want to know.