After a great summer life has slowly been moving forward and it’s also again been a while since I have put anything down on this blog and there’s a fair bit to write about.
In the last blog I wrote that I was about to start back working a couple of days a week, this started at the end of August and this has continued through September and October and I am now working 4 days a week with some old friends and colleagues. I found the first couple of weeks were pretty tiring but over the weeks since I have started to build up my strength and am now starting to feel a whole lot stronger as time goes on. It has also been great just to be back working again and using all my work skills and experiences, its been especially great that for the last 6 weeks been working with a number of good old friends and colleagues. I also had an encouraging week at one agency, as while I was sitting down to have my strawberry shakes for lunch on the first day there, another freelancer who I didn’t know, was sitting behind me, his name was Stuart and he just turned around and said to me “Ah that’s a familiar smell!” in reference to my shakes, its then turns out that Stuart had also been through a very similar experience to me, as 2 years before he had had another form of throat cancer and had been under that same consultant at Guys and had also had a stomach tube and we shared and talked all week about many of our shared experiences. I was really encouraged to meet some else by chance in the same industry, who also had been through similar circumstances and who was now fit and well. Stuart like me had also been doing a blog of the whole of his experiences through his treatment.
Another medical milestone was reached in September, as after 7 seven months of insertion in my stomach, I had my stomach tube/peg removed, I had only being using since the summer to take medication. It has been a great freedom to have it removed. But eating is still an ongoing daily challenge as I am still feeding on 6 shakes a day, supplemented by small portions of other soft food, which is still a challenge to eat, but this is still slowly, very slowly improving and I very much now ‘Eat to Live’ and not as I use to ‘Live to Eat’, eating just doesn’t have the same pleasure as it use to.
As for ongoing appointments and treatment, I have found out at an appointment last week with Mr Obholzer that there is a possibility of needing another small operation towards the end of November but this will only we confirmed after another MIR scan this week and we will then get the results within 2 weeks, when a decision will be made. Sue and myself feel fairly positive about this, as it would be a relatively small operation compared to everything else I been through. Another positive from our meeting was that we will now be able to progress the fitting of a bone attached BAHA hearing aid to my left ear, which would then enable me to to hear normally again. This involves fitting a platinum anchor/screw into my scull just behind my ear and this could be done at the same time as this next operation, this in turn could mean I could have full hearing in both ears just after christmas, as I would have to wait for a few weeks after the operation for the anchor area to heal. This will be a great improvement as I do struggle to hear people talking in environment that are busy and have lots of ambient noise going on around us.
We have also seen a new change in the Jeremy family this September, as our eldest Dan, went off to Southampton University in the mid September. He has settle very quick into student life and has made many new friends. His course has started off busy and he has lots of lectures every day, which is keeping him busy and working hard. He has also got into the halls football team. Sophy has now started in here first year in Sixth form, which has been a bit of a shock, as the workload has significantly increased. Amy has also started her G
I have also got back to playing guitar again after 11 months, which has been another good distraction.
We now are now fast approaching the Movember time of year again. This coming Sunday I will start off being clear shaven and I’m looking for other guys to join my Band of Brothers team. As most of you will be aware Movember has been a significant time of year for me, as during the 2012 Movember campaign is when I discovered the lump on my neck, we are now 2 years down the line. So my motivation for doing Movember again is to contuniue to help men to be more aware of health issues that can effect all men.
I am looking for sponsorship during is time and you will be able to do this during the month of November by using this link http://mobro.co/neiljeremy1
Thanks again for all the prayers and support that you all have given over this last year and progress is still being made and so watch this space and I will keep updating you of my progress over the next couple of weeks.
