John’s last blog was to mark the first anniversary of his
diagnosis. Without wanting to have too many
anniversaries, today was another day of contemplation as it was the first
anniversary of his stage 4 diagnosis. We
didn’t want to ponder this for too long, so I took the day off and we headed
over to the coast for a good old walk along the beach at Southwold.

John continues to feel well, and is still kicking his heels
up not having to turn out to go to work on the dark mornings. Does he miss the daily grind? Not one bit!! He’s been busy enough just
enjoying doing ‘stuff’, catching up with projects and chores that have been
overlooked for a while, and not having to meet tedious deadlines. That said, he does now have a few bookings in
the diary: he’s doing some temp work in a couple of residential homes, and he
will be working this weekend at the Bury Christmas Fayre as a volunteer
steward. After attending the health and
safety briefing he was thrilled to hear that he has been allocated to marshal
the coaches! I’m hoping this new found
responsibility doesn’t go to his head, and he doesn’t cause mischief by
mis-directing the coaches or getting them to park at jaunty angles.

John has worked a couple of shifts already at local residential
homes. The first was as you’d expect –
decent home-cooked food, prepared in a professional kitchen. The second one was quite a contrast – he was
tasked with making a fruit salad and strawberry cheesecake. When given the ingredients he was not
impressed with being instructed to open 3 tins of fruit salad; chop and add a
pineapple; mix up 3 packets of strawberry Angel Delight and add some cream
cheese. I was very pleased that he did
these tasks and politely departed after an hour and a half. I don’t think there can be much pride or
reward in making up packet food, and in our opinion, the residents certainly
deserve better than that.

Other than continuing to take Metformin daily, and having
the 3-monthly hormone implant, John has no other medical interventions at
present. We do get quite anxious when
the 3-monthly consultant’s appointment comes along, as this is when we are told
what his PSA level is, and if any further treatment is needed or
recommended. As he’s feeling well at the
moment we put it to the back of our minds and crack on!