Remission at Long Last!

Above: Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1886 poem The Brook. A piece of work in
which nature tells us that the Brook shows persistence by continuing to flow,
no matter what obstacles get in it's way.
As it says... Men may come and go, but the rivers and streams keep flowing.
Or at least we hope so.

The full Poem and Summary can be found HERE.

And on the subject of mortality and reflecting on life,
I thought I'd share this with you (below).

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Just a few weeks ago at the end of June I came away from the Hospital with some
excellent news, in that all my final lot of cancer tests turned out fine with no problems. And my
visit that day ended a 5 year Hospital Care Plan. So in other words I have finally reached
what is known as Full Remission.

Of course I'm thrilled and delighted and would like to put everything behind me now.
But of course there was a price to pay as I have to live daily with the after effects of
the cancer surgery and the removal of that fairly large tumor. But most days are okay.
It's just a question of eating the right things and keeping away from ready meals and
unhealthy foods.
My favourites are Salads with chicken, Vegetables, fruits, plenty of water and a daily
handful of Nuts... favourites being Almonds and Hazelnuts.
And of course plenty of honey which I replaced instead of sugar
a few years ago. And in fact last Winter I treated myself to some New Zealand
Manuka honey. And amazingly I was Cold and Flu free last January.

I was quite surprised that the Colorectal Nurse informed me that I will not now
be called back in to Hospital until June 2022 for another of those dreaded Colonoscopies.
But still, it's good to know that they'll be keeping an eye on me, and every 3 years after that.

And if you asked me what were the lowest moments then it would have to be the
Chemotherapy in 2013, a truly horrible time. It's like I was being pumped full of
poison just to kill the poison already inside me.
And for people experiencing that, there will be times when you simply wont want
to wake up. But then I had my partner to think of, the one person that helped me through it all.
And then there was that whole year between 2013/14 when I had to wear that damned
Stoma Bag, something I once knew nothing about because they simply don't talk about it.
And a whole year spent wearing only baggy clothes so as to conceal the bag.
And to think some will wear those things under their swimming costumes
at the Beach or public swimming Baths.

Anyway, I guess that all tragedies are a learning experience and that if someone came
to me at the start of a five year cancer journey, then I'm sure I would be able to reassure
them with all my gained knowledge.

On Tuesday night I just missed the Full Moon Partial Eclipse
which was all down to the fact that I simply couldn't see it anywhere,
being that on a full Moon night the Moon rises much slower than on
my favourite night, the night before.
When I finally could see it around midnight last night then the show
was over. The red shadow sitting on the top half of the moon had
moved away. And in my picture you can just barely see the shadow
on the top moving away.

What it would have looked like is what you see in the picture below
which was taken up in West Yorkshire last night.
And all this on the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 for
that historic journey to the Moon.