Hi everyone,
I’ve been a bit lax in keeping my blog going… just so many irons in the fire, I sometimes forget to pull one or two out. We have been extreamly busy these last few months. Leonie and I just got back from our second two week business trip to China in the past five months (actually Leonie’s third, my second). Both have been great and fascinating tirps, very fruitful and we met many new and old friends. This last visit was my first visit to Qingdao, and what a lovely city. Qingdao was the sailing venue for the 2009 Bejing Olympics, and I can see why. Very modern, clean, unpolluted with a great sailing harbour with good strong winds.
I had my BCC removed shortly after returning from that first China trip and all went well, although I had a pretty large hollow in the side of my nose. It is gradually filling in and the doc says in about a year it should not really be noticiable at all. All went well and I was in and out of the hospital the same day. (That’s the way I like to do it.)
About six weeks ago I paid a visit to my GP. Leonie and I both thought I was beginning to see the reimergence of some of my carcinoid symptoms. Some diarreah and flushing. So we thought it might be a good idea to get a new 5HIAA (urine) and CGA (Blood) reading to see if there had been any change. We got the results about a week later and found 5HIAA had gone up some and the CGA had gone down some (mixed result I would say). So we made an appointment with my oconolgist in Fremantle for mid-October. When we saw him, he didn’t seem particularly concerned and I think he thinks I’m being a bit over reactive; but he did agree that I should probably have an MRI scan since it had been a year since my last one. That is to be scheduled later in November and we then can then see if there has been any definitive change since last year.
In the meantime we have plenty of things to keep us very busy, including, I hope, some time to spend in the garden. It desparately needs some attention after a very long, wet and storm winter. Spring is very much here and summer is just around the corner. We are hoping to for short holiday in Bali in February, before we start our next round of 2010 fairs and exhibitions. I’ve promised everyone I will stay off motor bikes this time. No use in ruining two holidays!
I’ll let everyone know the results of the MRI as soon as we have them. Meanwhile, everyone take care of themselves and each other.
Eric