Well, thank God.

Congratulations, mate.

Yeah.

Although let's not jinx me. It ain't over until its over, and I gots to have a clean set of tests to end of month. The odds are heavily in me favour but it's the small point X percent thing that the paranoid side of me focuses on.

You'll have plenty of time to ponder the wider philosophical implications of being Cured later. Just focus on getting your scummy self back into good health.

As for your little narc habit, well that just makes my earlier House comparison prescient, eh?

Yes, indeed it does.

I like House quite a lot (although before you drew my attention to the same I had no idea it existed). Although I do have better people skills.

Well, glad to hear it's getting better.

Which makes me think, my ex-employee finally dropped me a mail a couple of weeks ago. She eventually went through the therapy and her comments pretty much reflect yours.

My respect, L.

Congratulations.

Congratulations, not only to you but also to ourselves, your dedicated readers, as we will hopefuly have many more years of entertaining and informative rantings on matters Middle Eastern and otherwise.

ya abu l-maal,

what the others said.

--raf*

yeah, mabruk.

No jinxs. I'll just hope for the best.

You're a real trooper, Coll.

Huzzah! (A conditional huzzah, of course, depending on further tests).

Alive, not dead.

A special phrase of mine that I used to use ironically during heavy work.

Has more meaning now.

Mabrouk!

Excellent news !

Slow, steady and consistent, with ample rest, is the best way to rehab your condition. Probably a lot of lean tissue to recover as well.

Congratulations - that is fantastic news.

Well, yes, but let me emphasize that I have to get a final clean bill from some more scans. It's blood work and probabilities at the moment, and while the odds are amazingly in me favour, I can still get stabbed in the back by a bad turn. My cancer itself is freakishly rare, so at the moment I have a healthy respect for the low probability outcomes.

Excellent!
And, I suppose if you're going to have cancer it should be a stylishly rare one.
Let's not overdo the rare part though. You can run anything into the ground.

L: i'll hold my congradulations until you have a clean bill of health. does this mean you'll be able to resume consumption of cuban comfort?

speaking of cuban comfort, what i had at a party last night certainly wasn't that!

Is it possible to have a true vacation of sorts?

I'm very glad this ordeal of yours is hopefully over. My best....

I hope things go better for you from here.

Very glad you're on the mend. Keep on keeping on, mate.

Good to hear. Does this mean you are no longer naming blood cells?

Congratulations. I was always confident that you would prove to be meaner and tougher than cancer.

Thanks, I am hoping that I am in fact meaner than the cancer, but that fab. PET scan in about 2 weeks is the real proof. Might still be some evil boys lurking about.

And yeah, my counts should come up now such that I will no longer be able to name cells individually. Unfortunately the bone pain is a bitch in the meantime.

I also note the peripheral neuropathy (numbness of fingertimes, soles of feet, etc) does not seem to be improving. I hope it does, as the sensation is somewhat creepy.

The neuropathy may take a while. If you lost the distal part of a nerve cell's axon, it has to regenerate back to the fingers or wherever, and the rate is about 1 mm/day. The axon isn't necessarily damaged all the way back to spinal cord though, so time to recovery is variable. Until they get connected with the sensors in the skin, the nerves are prone to random excitability, giving rise to charming sensations of burning, tingling, cramping etc.

Stamina should come back in a few weeks. Stress chemicals cause some protein breakdown in muscle. Weight gain might be a proxy for this.