Friday night and no hangover!

Firstly, thanks to all those who managed to make it to Fuego's on Friday night. It was fantastic to see you all. Also, many thanks for all the kind wishes for the nex couple of weeks. I think this is the first time in a very long time that I have come home from a Friday night party stone cold sober. Yes, I was just drinking lemonade and cokes for the night...I know it's hard to believe.

All of you asked what ward I will be staying at, the details are as follows :-

St Thomas's Hospital (Waterloo and Westminster bridge stations are the closest).
Northumberland Ward (11th Floor, North Wing)
There are a number of phone numbers, not sure if they work though....

0207 188 8866
0207 188 6782
0207 188 4070
0207 188 4071

And of course you can try me on my mobile.

The operation should start on Tuesday and it might not be till the end of the week before I feel up to taking calls and visitors. Shirin said that she would update this blog when I'm my usual talkative self. Also, please remember that I will not be able to eat solid food for about a month, so no grapes/fruit/veg etc... although a minced Spicy Bean Burger might be tempting.

I plan to spend most of my time in hospital reading, watching films and boring the crap out of the other patients. I feel sorry for them having to put up with me for two weeks! Also thinking about setting up my roulette table on the ward, may as well try and make a profit. The ward is suppost to have a great view over London, so I expect you all to be waving from your office windows during lunch times...cause I'll be waving to London (unless I'm busy winning roulette).

I'm fully prepared for my stay, Shirin bought me some ear plugs and an eye mask so that I can get some sleep at night. After the operation they are going to place me opposite the nurses station, so I guess I'll have a good view....lucky nurses....lucky me!

I was going to take some sand along to the ward and spread it around my bed. Take a few cocktail umbrellas and sun cream and make it a real holiday. I hope the other people on the ward have a sense of humor.

Fingers crossed I'll be back at home within 2 weeks and on solid food in a month (that's when you can start sending the chocolates). Within 3 months I should be able to eat 80% of everything I ate before. I'll have to stay away from hard to digest foods such as bananas and cabbage.

Hopefully I will see you all during my break at Villa St Thomas, but no pressure. If you're busy at work etc then a quick comment on the blog would be more than sufficient. I wonder how much an esophogus would go for on ebay?

Sickness : 1/10
Eating : Far too much!
Weight : Heaviest I have ever been. Refused to dance at Fuegos as my tummy kept on wabbling.

Spent most of Saturday sleeping.

Exam day

It has been a good week. A little jet lagged from the trip to Las Vegas. Finally got to see the guys from RBS. They were kind enough to treat me to lunch. I think most of them will be coming tonight to Fuegos.

Well I have a long day ahead of me. I have to be at the hospital by 11:30am. Which means leaving the house by 10am. I have to under go a series of tests to ensure that my heart and lungs will be able to cope with the operation. Provided everything goes okay I should have the operation on Tuesday.

For some add reason I'm looking forward to me stay in hospital. The way I figure it is that I will be able to have at least 24hrs unbroken sleep as they keep me sedated for a day. Then when I wake up, I'll be able to watch films on my swanky new DVD player. I'm going to check out whether the ward I'm on has white walls, in which case I may even bring in my projector. Then I've got by reclining bed, not too disimilar to a deck chair and I'm sure I'll be able to get popcorn on demand. If you ask me, it's more like a 2 week holiday. Shame I can't get hold of any sand to spread around the ward to finish the scene.

I'm really looking forward to tonight. Although I may have some time to kill before 6pm. If anyone wishes to meet up early, please give me a call. Fuego's should be a good night, although I'm not going to be drinking alcohol. I do not believe it to be a good idea to arrive for an operation with a hang over. It takes me about 5 days to recover from a night out drinking.

I hope to see some of you tonight. If not, I'll be able to see visitors at St Thomas's Hospital once I've improved from the operation.

Friday - My last drink (for a while)

I'm going in for surgery on Tuesday 30th Jan. I was thinking about organising a get together on Friday since I have to spend the day at St Thomas's for a pre operation assessment.
Anyone fancy meeting up I'll be in Fuego's from 6pm.

http://www.fuego.co.uk/

Nearest tube is Monument Station. You can reach me on my mobile if you get lost. Sorry for the short notice.

RBS folks, looks like I'll get to see you twice in a week! Looking forward to lunch tomorrow. Hope you have a place in mind near London Bridge, otherwise I can meet you aat BLH.

Going out tonight to celebrate Kevin's 60th Birthday. He's a cool guy I met at the cancer group. I think tonight will be a good laugh.

Viva Las Vegas!

Just got back from Las Vegas and had a fantastic time. I've manged to put on a few pounds, which I needed to before the surgery. We stayed with Shirin's Aunt and Uncle who live just of the main strip. They looked after us really well ensuring we have lots to keep us busy and helped with Alysaa a lot. We also met some of Shirin's cousins and other family. Spent most of the time eating and shopping. Turns out that the electrical items were not that much cheaper than the uk. But Shirin noticed that designer clothes for Alyssa were a bargain.

We went to see many of the hotels and watched quite a few of the shows. We took Alyssa to the aquarium where she tried to stroke the crocodiles. Let us hope she doesn't meet a croc in real life as I don't think they like to be petted.

Shirin and I had a night off from Alyssa and went gambling in one of the casinos. We placed our first bet on the roulette table and the chap working there asked us if we have every played before. He said that our betting technique was incorrect and that we should places our bets differently. Thanks to his advice we walked away with 225 dollars profit...not bad for a couple of hours work, plus we had free drinks all night. I can see a career change coming on!

We have taken loads of pics and we'll get them on the site soon. Just wanted to get a few words on the blog as I have written in quite a while. Surgery is in about a weeks time and I'll be in hospital for 2 weeks so I hope that some of you will be able to visit me at St Thomas's Hospital. I'll put the date and ward details on here later. I hope that they have internet access.

Weight : over 11 stone!
Eating : Lots of mexican food...yum yum

Off to Vegas

Well folks, I'm off the Vegas in the morning! Can't wait to get on that plane. Please blog if you wish me to check out any prices of items over there. I can bring them back for you.

Finally someone is going to use my place in Spain. Please feel free to use it free of charge...it's sitting there empty and a real waste unless someone is enjoying it.

If you want some details of a similar apartment in Spain (in the same development) check out....

http://www.verdemar3.co.uk/index.htm

This web site has all the details of the local area.
Note that the apartment sleeps 6 comfortably, next to the beach, has a heated pool, sun deck, close to shops and golf courses. What more could you ask for? Plus flights are really cheap to murcia airport right now for the remainder of this year!

Energy Level : 8/10
Sickness : 1/10
Eating : lots

Las Vegas here I come

Booked flights to Vegas leaving on Monday. Can't wait to get there. We are going to stay at Shirin's Aunts place. It's just a few roads away from the main strip. Alyssa will love all the lights and shows at the big hotels. I'm looking forward to the casino at night time and the American Sized portions of food.

I'll also see all of Shirin's cousins there as well. It has been over 5 years since I've seen them. I bet they have changed a lot. My spirits are much better today.

Surgery date looms close

Just went to see the surgeon. Things are looking good, although they try and not be optimistic. I think all doctors try and think the worst and not get your hopes up. I think I've done pretty well, I've managed to get through chemo and the tumor has shrunk so small that they cannot see it on a CT scan. The chance of that happening is just 10% I believe.

As most of you know, I'm not the most optimistic person. I consider myself a realist and those who know me well probably consider me a pesimistic. Over the past few months I've tried to be more optimistic and it has worked for some months. Generally when I get news about my progress I dwell on the 'what ifs' which is not a good thing to do. I imagine I'll do that for the next couple of days before picking myself up and getting on with enjoying life.

I'm compiling a list of things I should do over the next year and going to try and get out more so that I spend less time worrying about the future and more time just enjoying myself. I can't believe how difficult it is to simply just enjoy each day when you have something like cancer looming over you. I guess I better concentrate on my yoga and partying instead.

As for travel insurance, the best quote I have managed to get for 2 weeks in the USA is £2300. Not exactly cheap! I'll continue to search around in the hope I might get a better deal.

Oh, the operation is due for the end of Jan. I'll get confirmation by 3pm today.

Energy : 8/10
Sickness : 2/10
Eating : lots, putting on a few pounds.

Happy New Year

Spent the last week without having Chemo. It was good for a while but the tiredness has started again. It takes about 3 weeks for all the Chemo drugs to leave my body. Shirin, Alyssa and myself spent New Years at Reenah's parents place. It was great fun. Alyssa had a good boogy, in fact you couldn't stop her dancing. Shirin got trashed, which is only fair since she's been working so hard looking after everyone. I had a couple of beers, but won't be doing that again as it upset my stomach the following day.

Over all the last week has been good, just wish I had more energy. Going to see the surgeon tomorrow to discuss when the operation is going to take place. I'm guessing it's going to be the end of Jan/ 1st week of Feb. So not long to go. These next 3 weeks will be my last 3 weeks of eating normally so I'm going to pig out.

I've also decided to fly off to vegas provided I can get reasonable travel insurance. It's amazing how much they bump up the prices if you have cancer! I've seen some quotes for 5,000 pounds for 3 weeks cover!!! Anyway, I'm sure I'll find a cheaper quote and looking forward to visiting some relatives in Vegas and New York.

Energy : 6/10
Eating : can't stop, always hungry