The trip back to Melbourne on Monday was again straight forward. We’ve heard a lot of bad things about TigerDirect but all our experiences to date have been excellent. We even find their seats more comfortable than their direct rivals, JetStar. Very happy with the service.
Tuesday was a big day in terms of meeting with the haematological oncology specialist, Michael MacManus, at the Peter Mac Institute. There was no direct feedback on my current condition except to say things are still going pretty well. He was able to confirm that there really is nothing more we can know between now and the final MRI in Jan followed by meeting with my overall specialist, Prof Opat, in mid-Jan. This means we can go about booking flights out of the country now without incurring any greater risks than we might do by waiting. More importantly, he agreed to refer to Prof David Linch in the UK. With help from the UK Lymphoma society, my own research and confirmation from Mike (Callisto) we are certain he is the top guy for my condition. We need to visit my family in South Africa so it’s good to establish this connection in advance of our return to the UK for many reasons. We also managed to meet the assistant to Prof Opat who promised to ensure he would make a similar referral. She’s the sort of person who will make sure her boss does what he’s supposed to so this was another bonus.
With this news and Dignity left in the hands of professionals and friends we entirely trust I left the hospital feeling incredibly buoyant. I felt as though I’d crossed an invisible boundary in my life where we’d gone from the balance of our activity’s responding to the past to now being fully focussed on the future.
Since then we’ve begun really sharpening our thinking about the next few months. We’ve already booked our flight from South Africa back the UK. We are close to arranging our dates / flights from Australia to South Africa. We hope to spend a few days in each of Sydney and Hong Kong along the way. We’ve shelved our plans to visit cruising friends in Malaysia so we spent some time chatting to them yesterday via Skype and giving them the news.
Another treat yesterday was the return of the Sarah and Russ’s son, Chris, from his first semester in Stanford. We’ve been here so long that even we feel the family is now back together.
In the evening we joined the family at Ros’s school where she was presented an award for community leadership. We are all proud of her.
Last but not least we’ve decided to have Ben mail my Nexus 4 to Australia. There’s a chance it’ll be here by Xmas. How can life get any more exciting?
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