We are posting this blog exactly five years after receiving my diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer in November 2016. If you have read any of our previous blogs, you will know how devastating that time was for us. Some of my memories are a little blurred from then, but I distinctly remember being told that as the cancer was advanced there was nothing the doctors could do. We were asked if we wanted to know what my life expectancy was. Before we were able to reply we were told that I had four to five years to live.

I don’t suppose there is any way that news like that can be given in a way that isn’t going to completely floor you, but I came away from that appointment essentially believing that there was no hope, and that our life together was pretty much over.

How wrong I was!

Although we had a rough time coming to terms with the fact that I had terminal cancer, and I went through five months of chemotherapy treatment, (which anyone who has had the same will tell you is really not that much fun), since that time we have been enjoying ourselves and living life to the full at every possible opportunity. Regular readers will know that this blog has actually become more about our recent rediscovery of holiday travel. I’m not going to bore you by going over all the places we have been. You can read previous posts if you would like to see where we have been. 

After the difficult period adjusting to the life limiting prognosis, we made a decision to approach life in a positive way and set targets for things we would like to achieve. A good number of these have been short term targets, such as buying seeds for the following year’s vegetable harvest, but I remember quite early on saying that I really wanted to get to my 60th birthday. As this was just over the five years we were told I had, it seemed unlikely that we would get there. My birthday is in January, so we are approaching that milestone. I am still on the first treatment plan, which is hormone therapy combined with a drug trial of Metformin and my PSA is still relatively low at 8.07. I had a CT scan in August, which showed that the tumour in the prostate is about the same size as it was in 2016 and there was no longer any visible sign of the cancer in the lymph nodes. I am likely to start a new treatment next year, but all in all we are both very pleased with how things have been going. To celebrate the possibility of reaching 60, we have booked a break in Amari Havodda in the beautiful Maldives. We will certainly bore you with lots of photos in a special birthday blog! There is always a possibility that something will happen to stop us going away at the last minute, but the enjoyment of planning special events like this is all part of our trying to keep a positive approach to life.

Travel News

As has now become a regular part of our blogs, this is where I tell you about any recent trips and special events since the last update.

We were lucky enough to book a last-minute break to Madeira in September, once again returning to Estalagem, Ponta Do Sol. A beautiful cliff top hotel with stunning views and exceptional vodka martinis.

We had a couple of nights away on the Norfolk coast in the summer and a night at the Northgate hotel to celebrate our anniversary in August. We have also discovered our new favourite local restaurant, The Forage Kitchen at Rougham. We ate there a few weeks ago and decided it was the best meal out we have ever had. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you get the chance.

Other News

After four years at West Suffolk, Bim has now changed jobs and is back working for Mid Suffolk, where she started her Environmental Health career in 1995. She has taken a short-term contract until April next year. This has been an excellent move for her and I am delighted to see that she is now really enjoying her work once again. We don’t yet know where she will go after this contract as yet, but I’m sure something suitable will come along at the time.

The Future

Having now outlived my original prognosis we have a few things to do.

The first is to have a good bottle of wine / Champagne to mark the occasion. The second is to start setting a few more goals for the future. Our consultant told us at our last meeting that my life expectancy is still measured in years, not months, so hopefully we have plenty of time to live life to the full. We feel we have achieved a lot in the last five years, lets see what we can do in the next five. Who knows?

For any nerdy types, I have attached a graph of my PSA levels from the last five years. I know there are some who are going through their own Prostate Cancer treatment that may find it interesting.

Thank you for reading once again. We hope to post a Christmas edition next month.