Right, that's Movember done, World Aids Day today, it's all downhill to Christmas now.
At the start of this blog, I briefly mentioned how Mom was diagnosed. As we approach the anniversary of us getting that awful news, I'd like to tell you the story. Picture the scene: Britain was facing an unprecedented snowy winter. It started at the end of November and within days the airports were struggling. Mom was very anxious that their flight to Australia would be cancelled, so when she fell down the stairs, we all thought she was being a flopsy bunny. She fell three times, though, but the GP was reluctant to stop her flying, so in spite of the weather and with two black eyes, Mom and Dad set off on their trip to Perth.
Looking back now, I don't know how she did it, but within days of their arrival Mom felt so awful that blood tests were ordered and Mom was admitted to hospital with low sodium. On its own, this is potentially life-threatening, but I had already been warned that this could be a sign of something really nasty. And it turned out to be extensive small cell lung cancer with paraneoplastic symptoms such as the low sodium.
I went into over drive to get Mom and Dad back to the UK. Thankfully, their travel insurance was incredible and a week before Christmas a first class flight was arranged. Sadly, Mom missed spending Christmas with her lovely grand-children in Perth, in the hope that by starting treatment back in England somehow everything would be OK.
Mom had her first chemo treatment on Christmas Eve, so when we woke up on Christmas morning it was with some trepidation. But Mom was OK and we had a lovely day to remember.
So, at the start of advent, it's good to look forward to Christmas and to be thankful for all the good things that happened this year.