We are now sailing or flying or driving or simply walking into a new year. I trust that 2017 will be good year for everyone, that terrorism will disappear or at least reduce in volume and intensity. That all our families will be healthy and enjoy life and prosper and that our governments, all levels, will govern wisely for the benefit of their constituents. In our case I hope that Elaine continues to improve.

Now after all that crap back to the lady in question. She is at this stage still having very little side effect from the chemo which, judging by her demeanour and activity level, is doing it's job very well. As I have said too many times to count may it continue. Don't get me wrong there are some side effects and we are dealing with them, but they are much less than we expected. We also know that we still have a long way to go but the results so far keep us very positive.

It is Monday December 26 Chanukah day 2 or Boxing Day depending on your religion, either way it is a great day. The sun is shining, the wind is light and she and me are unwinding at Lancelin. She is continuing to do well going for walks, nothing over the top but all good exercise. She is also experiencing a little bit of nausea but the pills seem to be helping reduce that. Not much else to say, yours truly has had a couple of drone flights and a couple of swims, Elaine is much improved on the last 6 months so all is good.

I really should have posted this good news last night, but somehow by the time we got home and attended to the have to's I fell asleep.

To take it all in chronological order we started the day picking up our films from yesterday's scan and heading in to Hollywood for chemo. After the usual bit of difficulty finding a vein Elaine sailed through that part of the day. Then we had lunch followed by a visit with our oncologist who seems to be much more relaxed and friendly now that all is going well. His report was great as all 9 tumours has shrunk by about 50% since the last scan in October and ther are no new ones. Since they had all grown in the period from September to October this is fantastically good news as it means the chemo is working. We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination and this is an unpredictable disease but progress is being made. Elaine is handling the chemo well and the side effects are there but not intruding very much into her lifestyle. Chemo will continue in the new year and hopefully it will continue to work well.

Following that we went to afternoon tea with Elaine niece and grand nieces who have just arrived from Canada. A small scotch was had to celebrate the good news. Then we had a dinner date with Taylor to celebrate his birthday. Thus is my excuse for falling into bed without doing a blog.

We will try not to get too carried away with these gains but we are now even more positive than before and we are heading off in the motorhome for 5 days. So happy Chanukah and merry Christmas every one.

Okay today is Friday and yes there has been no blog since Sunday mainly because we have been busy and there is nothing new to report.

This has been a chemo week, day 1 of the 3rd stanza was Wednesday, and that means that we had a blood test on Monday. Just a quick trip down the street, about 500 mtrs, walk in and take ticket, the lady comes out takes you in then jab/suck and it is all over. The bloods were obviously alright because they proceeded with the chemo on Wednesday. However Dr Troons rooms forgot to write up the anti-nausea drip and that delayed proceedings. Eventually it all happened and I went for a walk returning not long before it was all finished.

Net result was that we kept our 1.45pm appointment with Dr Chan, the pain specialist, at 2.45pm. Not bad eh! As usual he was cheerful, friendly and efficient but it still meant that we did not get home until 4.30pm. As she got out of bed at 9.30am it was a long day for Elaine and there was more to come. A duty to preform which had us home at about 9pm. Long day for madam.

That is about it, Elaine is still doing well and in fact has cooked twice this week. We are well aware that cancer is an erratic and persistent disease however we have remained positive all the way through this and the progress so far has cheered us up somewhat. We are hopeful that it will continue. Elaine is having scans next Tuesday and that will be the defining moment.

The time has come for another missive from yours truly.

We have had a good week, Elaine is feeling good and the visible signs of here cancer have all but gone. Which would indicate that the chemo is doing it's job, it would also indicate that the medication is performing well. We are not sure just which is doing the best job of getting Elaine back to normal. Certainly it is obvious that the chemo is working and we will have to see how or if our pain specialist reduces the level of medication, hopefully he will as we go forward. The medication affects her memory and at times makes her a bit vague so this is a bit if an issue. The other issue that really worries Elaine is that, with this level of medication, she can't drive. I don't mind being the taxi but it does worry her as it affects her feeling of independence.

The reduced pain etc means that Elaine is functioning almost normally and that means that she has been to the shops this week. Actually she has been a couple of times but so far the credit card is surviving well. We also had our whole extended family round for a Chanukah BBQ last night which really gave her a big lift.

I would not like anyone to think that I had forgotten to write our blog, so here I am.

There has not been much to report, Elaine is still going well and all the comments made in the last couple of blogs still apply. We are really excited about it and hope that it continues.

Well Elaine slept for most of they, as usual, but that is to be expected from the combination of the treatment and her medication. Other than that she has done well which is the pattern of this week, it will be fantastic if this continues as we are sure that it will. Today she did some gardening, got me to do a bit that was too hard for her. There is not anything more that I  can except to say have a great day!

Another good day, Elaine actually spent a couple of hours at the shops and we had a visit from Stephanie from Silver Chain. Other than that she was tired and slept, which is normal and more or less an expected side effect of the treatment. 

As I keep reminding myself and my readers 'a good day' is a relative term. Elaine still has pain in both shoulders and today some pain around the lower side of her rib cage. There is also a very numb left foot. But it is all a lot better than it was and she is quite herself.