Saturday 30 July - a year exactly since I was diagnosed

Andrew bought me flowers today to celebrate a year from diagnosis.  It seems both not very long and forever since that evening when I went into hospital little expecting to be there for a month!  I am so grateful to all the medical and nursing staff for all their care and to all my family and friends for their support over the past year.

A year on I am on a graduated return to work and have even booked to go on holiday.  I am enjoying being back at work though I find it mentally pretty tiring.  I am up to 3 full days a week now and will be full time from 22 August.  Some things are the same and some other things have changed a lot.  I find that it is the little things that trip me up, like remembering how to use the Voicemail!  The things I worked on a year ago are gradually coming back to me and my colleagues are brilliant - very patient and very pleased to have me back.

The maintenance drugs don't appear to have many side effects.  My digestive system seems slowly to be returning to normal and my hair has started to grow again.  I still have neuropathy in my feet but it has almost disappeared from my fingers.  It'll be interesting to see whether that changes after my next dose of vincristine (which I have once every 12 weeks, next dose 23 August). Fitness is improving.  I walked the 5km Race for Life on 17 July and managed it in under 50 minutes.  Some of my wonderful colleagues also ran 5km or 10km and between us we raised over £1300 for Bloodwise (research into blood cancers including leukaemia).

So life is good.  

Monday 11 July - back to work!

Well, I went back to work yesterday, Monday 11 July, after 2 weeks short of a year's absence.  It was exciting, but also quite strange, to be back.  Some things have changed a lot - a new building, new colleagues - and some things are just the same.  I am on a graduated return, starting with 3 half days this week and building up to full-time by the 3rd week in August.  This seems a very sensible move while I build up my strength but equally it is quite difficult not to think about work on the days I am not there.
Thank you for all the support and encouragement over the last year.  Now I need to get on and work on getting back to normal.