The personal

With the Doctors giving me the all clear I headed off to Greece to my happy place Kastania for a month. The first week I was in the village without the family and then Kirsten and the girls arrived.

Its incredible how 35 degrees day, a siesta in a dark quiet room, the country air and the silence of phones and messages through the day changes how healthy you feel and the way you feel inside.

Of course with two young girls to entertain there was more to-do in Greece for them than just the village, so after two weeks of village life we headed to the island Lefkada to stay in a little 3 star hotel a stone throws away from the beach. For the next four days the girls enjoyed swimming in the morning, fresh sugar donuts for lunch, a swim in the pool in the afternoon and a little discovery and dinner in the evening. I relaxed with them and slowly made my way through a few books, particularly learning a lot from Cured by Dr Jeff Rediger.

After a few days back in the village it was time to leave for another year and take our time getting back to Sydney with a couple of days in Athens visiting the Acropolis and catching up with family and friends and then to fulfil a promise we made 4 years ago, delayed by Cancer and my health, to go to the Water Park in Dubai. The girls had the best time ever enjoying the water park and endless buffets with chocolate fountains 🙂

Tracking my health through the trip has been an interesting journey, I have been very lucky that the team of doctors that look after me are so attentive with them regularly reaching out while I was away. I found my health to be perfect when in the sun and when the heat was consistently hot, after thinking the Colitis was fully under control the last part of my trip made me think that may not be the case as I ventured into air conditioning and a more strenuous schedule.

I would have loved to stay in Greece longer but had to get back to for a minor operation on the Thursday and other appointments.

The health

On returning to Australia my Colitis came completely back, after a colonoscopy and ultrasound it showed it was relatively minor but still needs to get under control ideally before I resume Immunotherapy. This was confirmed by Oncology and the current plan is;

1. Work with the stomach docs to try get Colitis under control next 4 weeks
2. Have a PET scan in four weeks to check on things
3. Have scheduled visit with surgeon for his checks
4. complete more blood tests and poo samples to monitor and to ensure that no other symptoms are coming from Immunotherapy
5. Make plan about Immunotherapy in a months time after PET scan

Overall I am feeling very grateful for the care I am getting and live comfortable in knowing that everything that can be done to keep me healthy is been done.

Conclusion

Over the coming weeks I plan to take the lessons learnt and reflections made in Greece and try as best I can to put improvements into action to help improve my health.

Over the next month its a busy month on the home front but hope to fit in some time for great moments and improvements.