There is always hope..

Black ice, frosts, bone chilling cold but it feels like there is less snow than we had in December.
Very icy conditions on the ski fields and Remarkables Park ski field closed for a few days due to a possum chewing through an electric cable; no snow making facilities = no skiing!

What do you do in this weather; have a winter festival. Queenstown celebrated in style at the weekend with fancy dress dodgeball on the beach
Some strange sights

Followed by fireworks and raft racing

We celebrated by going for a walk of course!

We went for a slippy slidey stroll in the hills around Arrowtown on the Sawpit Gully track, past a literally named “Big Hill” across Eickhart’s flats and down into the gully itself.

Sarah is rugged up in a blanket like jacket; I’m as usual in my tango macpak waterproof.

The chemo trip this week was brought forward to Wednesday to coincide with a trip to Invercargill hospital and 1 hour with the haematologist.

We attempted to stop at the Bafe Café in Lumsden for a cream doughnut (top tip from our neighbours Athol and Diane) but failed in the task of securing one of these local NZ delicacies.

We were met with a colourful but deserted café and classic example of kiwi humour on the door.

Hungrily, we dashed for morning coffee to Riverton and gorged ourselves on a blueberry, banana cream and jam muffin instead. Enough to send Sarah’s cholesterol soaring.

She had to have a lie down.

Quick walk down the high street past the Black Maria.

This is one of 26 bush automotives built exclusively for the saw mill trade around Invercargill. This one was commissioned in 1902 and worked in the Pourakino Valley for 52 years before being restored in 1996 and positioned in Riverton.

We spent some time, admiring the river. Reminded me of the Norfolk Broads.

Once upon a time in the 1840’s Riverton was a major port for whaling and sealing trades in the South of New Zealand. It was a stopping off point for immigrants from Australia. It boomed in the 1860s but fell into decline in the 1880s and the harbour gradually silted up. Only small fishing boats use it now.

My haematologist (specialist doctor) is in her mid 30s originally from the UK. (if you are wondering where all the British GPs have gone, there are lots of them now working in NZ Health) She has been looking after my care so far, but is about to transfer us to a Christchurch team. As a parting gift and at our request, she gave us the complete run down on what to expect over the next 18 months. Frankly, we were both in shock and depressed. I was told to start on my bucket list now.

I will never get rid of myeloma. There is a very high chance that it will come back.
It is not a year out of my life, it is going to be life in future.
Myeloma is a very slow growing cancer. It needs a variety of alternating treatments.
These will take much longer to go through than we expected.

After my 16 weeks of stage 1 chemo is the stem cell autograft process. (stage 2 in Christchurch)

Post autograft (stem cell harvest and transfusion) there is a minimum of 100 days break before the 3rd stage. In the break after the autograft, I will be on reduced drugs/no chemo and be allowed short trips (Australia/Bali/Fiji/Anywhere in NZ are all possible) but it will depend on how I feel.

Chemo with Thalidomide (Known as VTD) will start again in Feb 2018. The chemo will go on for 4-5 months until end of June 2018.
I will have to have bone strengthening drug infusion monthly for another year after that until mid 2019. I might be allowed a break in the bone infusion drug schedule to take a 2 month holiday to Europe. The best case for travel back to Europe will be July 2018.

How long I will be in remission will be dependent on how fast the myeloma comes back. When they harvest the stem cells they will take and store enough for a second autograft as there is a strong possibility/likelihood that I will have to do this all over again. 4-6 months as a best-case remission period was mentioned by the haematologist.

The average life expectancy for someone with Myeloma is 4 years but as I have smouldering myeloma and younger than the average patient (normally in their 70s) the life expectancy can be much greater (possibly 10 or more years) Who can tell.

I have been awake a lot thinking about the implications of all of this. I can’t sleep but in the wee hours of Thursday morning it was too cold to stay out of bed for long to do much.

We have resolved to do as much as we can together when I feel well enough to do it.
The round the world visiting places and doing things/stuff will have to wait until Jul/Aug 2018 or even Jul/Aug 2019.

One thing is for sure is that as soon as I am well enough I will be hitting that bucket list.

Simple things I still enjoy and make me feel good to be alive despite the uncertain future. The smell of fresh air; a beautiful scenic view, sunsets and moonlight over water.
Even on the way back from Invercargill I loved many of the views though the windscreen (needless to say I was not driving at the time)

There is still hope
xx