It has been far too long since I wrote any words here on my blog, and a lot has happened in the last couple of years.
The last time I contributed, I was in training for the ride to Sicily, back in the summer of 2018, back when you could hug people, back when you could go to a pub for a pint....how times change.
The trip was a tremendous adventure discovering the back lanes of both France and Italy over a period of 2 months. It was one long smile, despite jelly legs and sore bottom!
Anyway, here we are at the end of March 2021, having been deemed "extremely vulnerable", we have been locked down in our house now for over a year thanks to the dreaded Covid 19 pandemic.
A quick synopsis of the last few years - I returned from Sicily in a van that Sarah had driven down from the UK, in November 2018. We returned to work, and I resumed the course of Enzalutimide that I had interrupted for the trip. To put it mildly, I did not get on with Enza. The side effects were numerous and frankly quite hideous. The worst of which was actually deep depression and serious contemplation of suicide. By early 2019 I took myself off the drug, and we then applied to get onto any trials that were out there as the armoury of standard treatments for the cancer had come to an end.
It was a very low time. By July of 2019 I had to pack in work, I really wasn't well enough to continue working, and my general state was having a detrimental effect on the business. The hospitality industry is demanding at the best of times, and I was no longer fit enough to be part of it.
I spent 5 months project managing the refit of 7 commercial premises, drawing on my old experience of office refit and furnishing and from my building days. It was a great compromise, as it meant I could work only 4 days a week and just 9 to 5 as a contrast to the crazy Pub hours.
During the first few weeks of January 2019 I went to the Royal Marsden Hospital's Sutton branch to see if I could qualify for a specific phase 1 trial of a new Androgen inhibiting drug.
At the end of January 2019, Sarah and I headed down to the Alps for a weeks stay with some great friends at their chalet, some would call it skiing, for me it was drinking ,eating and smiling!
We returned home in early February, by which time the Wuhan virus was becoming an ever greater reality, to the amazing news that I had been accepted onto the drug trial.
A week later, whilst Serre Chevalier, were we had just been staying, was closed down due to a few cases of Covid having been detected, I went into The Marsden to start the trial.
By the end of February 2019, I had locked down at home, and by mid March Sarah had started to work from home, rather than commuting to Maidstone Hospital where she works as a Urology Oncology specialist nurse.
And so a new and rather bizarre rhythm started, stay at home, go to The Marsden, Repeat!
A month or two into the trial, it was obvious I was responding well, my PSA level had reduced from the hundreds down to near single figures, the few side effects I experience in the 1st few weeks had all but disappeared, and I was feeling better and better. Happy Days!!
During one's darker moments, the mind sort of lists the regrets, knowing one is going to depart early. Back in 2019, my deepest regret was that it was unlikely that I would become a grandfather. I didn't need to worry!! February 2021 brought with it a deliciously wonderful bundle of joy. Phoebe Aylett was born, well done Ollie and Hannah....bloomin brilliant..
