Friday, December 16, 2005
Family News Christmas 2005
We ended 2004 with some mixed reactions as Alison appeared to be in good health, but her father was not. 2005 started with a reversal with Alison’s dad showing great signs of improvement, returning to be at home after more than three months in hospital, but regretfully Alison had bad news that her tumour had returned.
Alison’s dad’s recovery has been amazing and he is probably fitter now than at any time during the last three or four years. He will be joining us for Christmas for a few days and absolutely insists on driving up from Bournemouth to north of Bristol - about 2 1/2 hours. An operation to clear up glaucoma now means he sees a lot better and doesn’t need his glasses so much as well.
Although Alison appeared to be doing so well she experienced some unusual sensations late in the year (2004) which lead the GP to arrange for a scan and an earlier than expected visit to see the oncologist. She was told the tumour had returned in two places and that either surgery or chemotherapy would be needed. In the end a 36 week course of chemotherapy started in January and finished in October, consisting of periods of treatment lasting for 10 days then four weeks recovery and so on. The chemotherapy was self administered apart from the first day in hospital and a morning of tests followed by an intravenous kick-start. Alison has kept well throughout, apart from a loss of appetite and energy but, unlike the first time six years ago with the radiotherapy, hair loss has been minimal - great news!!!! This has also meant we have been able to explore all means of recovery including seeking God for healing.
Although the final hospital session was delayed due to her blood count being low, the scan in October showed the treatment had been successful, but Alison will need to return to hospital every three months for further scans and oncology appointments.
Holidays, as you would expect, have been tricky to have this year but we have managed a week away in June near Stratford, where among other things we “did” Shakespeare and Warwick Castle (highly recommended), and later in October we rented a cottage in sleepy Devon near Totnes.
Alison remains very tired most of the time, something she has not really been able to overcome since the operation in 1999, and consequently the GP has suggested she does not try and return to work at M&S until February at least.
Meanwhile, Jim has been keeping up with a very heavy workload with the housing association and what with one thing and another had a problem with high blood pressure in the summer. However, a full MOT undertaken by BUPA revealed no underlying heart condition - in fact he was told he was actually quite well really - but should take more exercise and lunch breaks!!!!! Although the programme of new housing contracts has increased dramatically this year Jim is the only full time member of staff in his department as the Director started on a three day week to fulfil other private commercial interests and other staff work part time. Life is tricksy. The other major project this year has been the redecoration of our second bathroom, once our lodger left, and because of Jim’s real enjoyment of this sort of work it took rather longer to complete than expected!!!!
None of our lads have long term girlfriends and it seems that other interests for the time being are more important. Indeed Tom has taken up off road cycling and will even cycle to work most days even in winter. Weekends will often find him playing football on Saturday mornings and off during the afternoons to the some wild and bumpy place to cycle. He remains in work with a graphics company in south Bristol but is beginning to look for other things, as he feels that as he is primarily a people person, sitting in from of a computer screen all day is not for him to do for ever.
Chaz graduated from Northampton University in July with a 2/1 BA Hons in Fine Art and has sold a number of paintings already which are both sizeable in scale and income. He is off to Manchester in January for fame and fortune in the arts world. Meanwhile having not had a proper holiday since before Uni he flew to Australia in September before moving on to New Zealand and then back to Oz for Christmas. He will be leaving for the UK on Boxing Day hopefully arriving in time for a close friend’s wedding on 29th December in London.
Our youngest son Peter has surprised us all by working full time for a Christian organisation and he is now in his third year. The first two years were spent in Birmingham and from September he moved to nearby Thornbury. Much of his time is spent helping with school assemblies, youth clubs and training programmes particularly with young offenders, whilst also doing evangelism work in night clubs. He works as a volunteer with no direct income so if you would like to offer some form of sponsor-ship please do get in touch.
Tom and Pete play for the same football team now - the first time in the last 20 years (since Tom started when he was seven years old) so its been fun to go and watch them occasionally. We get visits from both lads during the week at odd times, with Tom often popping in after football training for a hug and to see what’s in the fridge!!!
We have really enjoyed having a daughter for the last year. Lauren, a young women from South Africa, came to stay with us for one month and stayed a year! She is now living in a shared house in Thornbury, but will be returning to her beloved Africa early in January. Alison particularly has enjoyed another female in the house after all these years with Jim and the boys; Nancy the cat after all, does not quite have the same interest in chick flicks, shopping and talking about clothes. We have got on together really well and its also been great to see the interaction between Lauren and her new brothers.
There is so much still to be grateful for.
Happy Christmas,
compliments of the season
and praying the best for you for 2006.
Jim, Alison and the lads.
Alison’s dad’s recovery has been amazing and he is probably fitter now than at any time during the last three or four years. He will be joining us for Christmas for a few days and absolutely insists on driving up from Bournemouth to north of Bristol - about 2 1/2 hours. An operation to clear up glaucoma now means he sees a lot better and doesn’t need his glasses so much as well.
Although Alison appeared to be doing so well she experienced some unusual sensations late in the year (2004) which lead the GP to arrange for a scan and an earlier than expected visit to see the oncologist. She was told the tumour had returned in two places and that either surgery or chemotherapy would be needed. In the end a 36 week course of chemotherapy started in January and finished in October, consisting of periods of treatment lasting for 10 days then four weeks recovery and so on. The chemotherapy was self administered apart from the first day in hospital and a morning of tests followed by an intravenous kick-start. Alison has kept well throughout, apart from a loss of appetite and energy but, unlike the first time six years ago with the radiotherapy, hair loss has been minimal - great news!!!! This has also meant we have been able to explore all means of recovery including seeking God for healing.
Although the final hospital session was delayed due to her blood count being low, the scan in October showed the treatment had been successful, but Alison will need to return to hospital every three months for further scans and oncology appointments.
Holidays, as you would expect, have been tricky to have this year but we have managed a week away in June near Stratford, where among other things we “did” Shakespeare and Warwick Castle (highly recommended), and later in October we rented a cottage in sleepy Devon near Totnes.
Alison remains very tired most of the time, something she has not really been able to overcome since the operation in 1999, and consequently the GP has suggested she does not try and return to work at M&S until February at least.
Meanwhile, Jim has been keeping up with a very heavy workload with the housing association and what with one thing and another had a problem with high blood pressure in the summer. However, a full MOT undertaken by BUPA revealed no underlying heart condition - in fact he was told he was actually quite well really - but should take more exercise and lunch breaks!!!!! Although the programme of new housing contracts has increased dramatically this year Jim is the only full time member of staff in his department as the Director started on a three day week to fulfil other private commercial interests and other staff work part time. Life is tricksy. The other major project this year has been the redecoration of our second bathroom, once our lodger left, and because of Jim’s real enjoyment of this sort of work it took rather longer to complete than expected!!!!
None of our lads have long term girlfriends and it seems that other interests for the time being are more important. Indeed Tom has taken up off road cycling and will even cycle to work most days even in winter. Weekends will often find him playing football on Saturday mornings and off during the afternoons to the some wild and bumpy place to cycle. He remains in work with a graphics company in south Bristol but is beginning to look for other things, as he feels that as he is primarily a people person, sitting in from of a computer screen all day is not for him to do for ever.
Chaz graduated from Northampton University in July with a 2/1 BA Hons in Fine Art and has sold a number of paintings already which are both sizeable in scale and income. He is off to Manchester in January for fame and fortune in the arts world. Meanwhile having not had a proper holiday since before Uni he flew to Australia in September before moving on to New Zealand and then back to Oz for Christmas. He will be leaving for the UK on Boxing Day hopefully arriving in time for a close friend’s wedding on 29th December in London.
Our youngest son Peter has surprised us all by working full time for a Christian organisation and he is now in his third year. The first two years were spent in Birmingham and from September he moved to nearby Thornbury. Much of his time is spent helping with school assemblies, youth clubs and training programmes particularly with young offenders, whilst also doing evangelism work in night clubs. He works as a volunteer with no direct income so if you would like to offer some form of sponsor-ship please do get in touch.
Tom and Pete play for the same football team now - the first time in the last 20 years (since Tom started when he was seven years old) so its been fun to go and watch them occasionally. We get visits from both lads during the week at odd times, with Tom often popping in after football training for a hug and to see what’s in the fridge!!!
We have really enjoyed having a daughter for the last year. Lauren, a young women from South Africa, came to stay with us for one month and stayed a year! She is now living in a shared house in Thornbury, but will be returning to her beloved Africa early in January. Alison particularly has enjoyed another female in the house after all these years with Jim and the boys; Nancy the cat after all, does not quite have the same interest in chick flicks, shopping and talking about clothes. We have got on together really well and its also been great to see the interaction between Lauren and her new brothers.
There is so much still to be grateful for.
Happy Christmas,
compliments of the season
and praying the best for you for 2006.
Jim, Alison and the lads.
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