I spent the actual evening of New Year’s Eve in solitude away from Sydney and the massive crowds at Darling Harbour and I had only the company of various unseen bush creatures roaming around in the dark outside the house. I sat for a while in the country dark under the stars and watched the (quite unfamiliar) night sky for a while before retiring to bed and a deep, refreshing sleep. During my sleep I thought that I heard motorcycles and I struggled to regain waking consciousness. I am not sure whether I briefly woke fully but if I did all was quiet. The bike sounds may have just been a dream.
It seems appropriate at this time of New Year, and as a follow up to my recent survival anniversary post, to take a moment to express thanks to all those people who have helped me to get through, and even thrive, this first year of living with lung cancer. This of course includes those closest to me who have have contributed so much physical and intellectual support in the form of knowledge, ideas, cooking, cleaning, shopping, driving and other activities and resources, and much emotional support that has provided a firm foundation for hope and confidence.
I would also like to thank all those friends and acquaintances, some barely known to me or not known to me at all, who have taken time to express concern and support in one way or other, through comments here on the blog, emails, phone calls, visits and outings; fellow travellers that I have met who have been living with cancer and who offer a special empathy and inspiration; doctors and medical support staff including the chemotherapy nurses who provided calm friendly service in the discharge of their difficult and high pressured job; those at the Gawler Foundation who are working patiently to provide a more holistic and enriching approach to cancer management.
All this adds up to make living with this disease so much more approachable and each of these acts of support has contributed to my ability to do so.
This weekend I went shopping and was fairly effortlessly able to carry several kilograms of groceries on my back over a 4.5 kilometer walk on a warm day; the second time I achieved this feat during the past week. For a while I had stopped carrying such weights because of the pains that had somewhat re-asserted themselves in my back but clearly, although something is still going on there, it has lately become so minor as to not trouble me at all in expending this sort of effort. Here’s hoping for further abatement in the New Year.
