Hi Annabel (and all my chatroom pals)

Lovely to hear from you and thanks for asking!  I'm really good thanks apart from still not enjoying my food much, but I think it is still gradually improving and I know I've come a very long way.  My treatment finished end January and I was back at work part-time from April.  I started off at 2 days a week and gradually built it up with a mixture of working from home and the office.  We have a really big event the first weekend of July (Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace) which is a really hard slog physically with lots of extra hours involved.  I was pretty worried about how I might cope with that. As it turned out I had a recurrent throat infection all through June which took several courses of different antibiotics to shift, and I wasn't well enough to work the whole weekend.  I've been feeling pretty normal since about the end of July, apart from the food issues, so nothing to complain about, although I do about the food!  I hear myself starting to go on about it at great length whenever people ask how the eating is going and realise I must be boring them to death, so I tell myself I must learn to say 'fine thanks'  and then zip it!  Nicola and Fray Bentos, I think this answers a question I saw in an earlier post and forgot to reply to - your response made me laugh Simon as it's exactly what I feel!

I've been meaning to post an update for a while but have been really busy with my elderly parents (90 and 88).  Mum was not long home from hospital after her second artificial hip dislocated, then Dad had a week in Ninewells after a nasty fall and bang to the head, home for a week, then has been in his local 'cottage hospital' GP unit for the past 3 weeks.  He's much much better, but getting increasingly frail.  So lots of hospital visiting, occasional overnight stays with Mum.  Glad I have two sisters to share it with but one of them is now away to Ireland to visit her son and family so it's going to be another really busy week.  Hopefully Dad will be back home soon, just waiting on getting morning and bedtime care package back in place for them.

How are things with you Annabel?  I hope you're continuing to get good feedback at your checkups?

Well it hadn't clicked until I came on here to read the latest updates that it is a year today that I had my first operation to remove the lump from my neck which started the whole thing.  At that stage it was thought to be in my parotid gland and 95% likely to be benign, so it wasn't until lab results came back that I got my diagnosis on Hallowe'en which will probably stick in my mind forever.

So many of us had a pretty rotten Christmas last year so hope everyone is looking forward to making up for it this year.

This forum was such tremendous support for me during the difficult days and it was you Annabel who recommended that wonderful book 'in your face' to me and Nicola.  It helped me a lot and I passed it on to one of my chemo-buddies back in January.   I've just re-read some earlier posts and it's great to see how we have all moved on.

Nicola - it was great to see your photos and put a face to your name.  I tried uploading mine but had problems with file sizes and cropping, might have another go now that I have a bit of spare time on my hands.  Meantime, if any of you are on Facebook and would like to say hello, you should be able to find me by searching for Irene Johnston (nee Murray) from Bridge of Earn.  My current profile photos are me and my daughter in pirate fancy-dress and a big group of girls in hill-walking gear (Amy and her mates who climbed Ben Nevis for our local hospital's cancer campaign last month).

Gary (Guzzle) I think I found your page but wasn't 100% sure, I will send a PM in a minute and hopefully you will confirm it's you!

Best wishes to everybody - keep well.

Irene x