the gang's all here

Yes. The gang's all here. Nikki and her children have arrived from Hong Kong and Leigh and Bob have come in from Canada. It's very busy at our house right now, although they are not all camped here.

I started another round of chemo last week and the same old reactions came forward - fuzzy head, short of breath. However this time I have escaped the headache! Yeah. So things are not too bad. My visit to the oncologist earlier this week was very encouraging. He said that I was doing very well and as a result he has reduced the dose of 2 of the 3 chemo drugs. The tumour marker has gone down yet again, so things as as bright as they might be.

Still drinking my vegie juice every day and sticking pretty strictly to Dr Chen's recommended diet. I guess the whole combination is doing me quite well - all things considered.

I had a little non-cancer hiccup on Tuesday. Carelessly, I walked into some metal roofinf that was perched on the back of a truck in the car park beside my car. As a result I have a great gash in my face with 5 stitches and appropriate steri strips to cover them. Not particularly attractive! All Christmas photos will be taken from my left side! Fortunately I didn't do any major damage to eyes, nose or mouth, there is no bruising or swelling, and at the moment, no infection. Whew!

Last night we had a Christmas dinner with both my children and their children and I'm posting the photo of the gang for you to view. It's not a particularly good photograph - it's not eaasy to get an 87 year old great grandfather, his 6 week old great grandson and several members of the generations in between - to pose for a group photo. However, we've done our best and you can see the result. Questions of identification can be answered by email!