Well it seems I have been a bit lazy with the blog this last week. My excuse is it has been totally uneventful on the book front. Now the book cover is finished I expected some movement on the final proofs. I asked the publisher for an update and got a vague ‘soon’.  Maybe it is just me but I do wish they worked to some sort of timetable so I knew what was happening.

I don’t mind if the schedules slip just as long as I know what is going on and they keep me informed. I do find the uncertainty and lack of communication rather frustrating.  Being slightly paranoid   I tend to think the worst. In this economic climate companies are going down daily. The lack of communication and vagueness makes me start to worry they are going bust before my book is released.   Oh well time will tell, hopefully they are still there and working on my book!

On the subject of paranoia I find that when I am not feeling well I always assume the Lymphoma is coming back. I try to be sensible but I find I cannot help myself. The last few weeks I have been suffering from neck pain. I tried to put it out of my mind. I went through a period of ignoring it. I then tried to tell myself it was only a strain or I had just slept in the wrong position.

I tend to go into a downward spiral until my back starts to ache (psychosomatic probably but I cannot help myself) So I plucked up the courage and made a doctors appointment.

The day of the appointment arrived and I sat in the waiting room a little nervous. I even thought that the pain was getting better and perhaps I should not have booked the appointment. Still I sat there until I was called. The Doctor poked and prodded my neck and pushed where the lymph glands are and wow! It hurt.

So he then informed me that my glands were slightly swollen but not to worry it was probably only an infection. Not to worry! What does he know? He must have seen the look on my face as he then decided to take a blood test ‘just to be sure”

I had to wait five days for the result. I have to say nothing of book two got written at all. I did not even feel much like job hunting either. Anyway I got the results last Friday and thankfully they came up clear so it was just an infection. It is surprising how much better I feel.

As this will be my last blog before Christmas I wish you, my reader a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I am going away for the holiday period so there will be no updates for a couple of weeks.

Having asked the publishers for an update on the progress of the cover art I have been told that they usually send out a cover proof with first edited text proofs, which they estimate will be in mid to end of January.  This is apparently the longest stage of production.  Things should speed up to print and release once I have approved the proofs. So no updates on the book page until then.

I received a letter from the Consultant Hematologist yesterday telling me that the RCHOP14 (see my Lymphoma pages) trial has come to an end. The initial results will be discussed and the first results will be published in six months time. She has promised to send me a copy as I expressed an interest. The full results will not be available for another five years as they have to assess the five year survival rate of everyone who undertook the trial treatment against everyone who had the standard treatment.

It always gives me a funny feeling when I realize I am part of a trial and success is measured by me surviving for five years after my last treatment. It is strange to be looked at as a cold hard statistic!!!

As a nice Christmas present for a hard years work my employer has decided that they are to make me redundant and I will have to reapply for my job, cool huh? The initial process  ends on the 5th of January then I am either offered a new job to apply for or I leave on the 4th of Feb.

The good part is after telling me that I received a mail from them wishing me a merry Christmas and a happy new year, how thoughtful!!

While I was away this week staying in another hotel I happened to be looking on the net when I found an article entitled Chemo Brain (I hate that name)

Apparently chemotherapy affects the brain causing mild cognitive impairment. The notable effects are:

Forgetting things that you usually have no trouble recalling– memory lapses.

Trouble concentrating–you can’t focus on the task at hand.

Trouble remembering details like names, dates, and sometimes larger events.

Trouble multi-tasking, like answering the phone while cooking, without losing track of one of them– less ability to do more than one thing at a time.

Taking longer to finish things –slower thinking and processing.

Trouble remembering common words–can’t finish a sentence because you can’t find the right words.

Fatigue (tiredness and lack of energy).

Confusion  and  mental fogginess..

The effects are ‘mild’ because the blood brain barrier limits the passage of the large chemical molecules of the drugs from entering the brain and central nervous system. However in my case as well as the normal chemo they injected the drugs directly past the blood brain barrier due to the risk caused by the cancer in my spine, cool!

So what ever your name is that explains a lot!! Now I forget, what was I saying?

On the book front the publishers have asked for a short author bio and a picture. My initial reaction was not to bother. Who would want to buy a book with my picture on it! But I have relented after all how can you prove that you actually wrote a book? The authors name could be a happy coincidence a photo proves it.

So a suitably Photo Shopped (Got to take a few years off after all) picture is on its way to the publishers. I hope I don’t regret it!

PS
Tried sticking active links into the text to make things more informative and interesting.