The Christmas and birthday week has now been and gone. My wife's somewhat-of-a-surprise 50th party went great, Christmas day on the beach was lovely, as was the evening dinner, and I even enjoyed my birthday (I am generally a bit bah-humbug with my own birthday, other than ones that end with a zero). I even managed to get my first dive of the year in (pretty bad given there were 3 days of the year left). All were spent with family, friends, and what amounts to our surrogate family.
I did have the annoyance of taking tablet form chemo throughout. The various cycles earlier in the year went without much incident, and I was hoping for the same this time around. I had been warned that the side-effects of this medication were more likely to manifest, but I did virtually cross my fingers nonetheless. It didn't work, and the past few days I have been suffering what is innocently named "Hand Foot Syndrome". Basically it feels like your feet are covered in blisters, and makes walking, and even standing, vary between uncomfortable and downright painful. It certainly has put pay to any plans of getting out and running this past week. The course of pills finished yesterday, so I hope that once they wash through my system, things will get better, but until then, I'll be the one limping about slowly.
And so, it is New Year's Eve. And I have a chance to reflect on what has been a challenging year. It is hard to imagine what the year would have been like had January-March panned out differently, but there is little point dwelling on what might have been. For all the shit that has gone on, good things have also happened. For all the tears I have shed, I have also laughed a lot. With the support of my wife, my family, my friends, I have made it through 2019. I already have a lot of stuff planned for 2020 (concerts, football, trips), and fully intend to be around for all of it. So, the bad news is that you are stuck with this blog for a while more yet.
Anyway, Happy New Year everyone, let's hope it's a good one without any fear.