No,  you’re not seeing things, I’m still here and although I haven’t written anything since August, I’ve been busy with, another holiday, family visits, hospital visits, weekends away etc. You know how it is with us Seenagers. Yes, that’s the new expression for Senior Teenagers, which is I think quite apt.

Anyway after our lovely cruise down the Rhine in July, we went to Cala D’or, Majorca to stay in a friends apartment in a lovely quite town. But, I’ve moved on and am now prepared for the first session of radiation treatment for that naughty little prostate. I’ve been MRI’d, CT’d, had fiducial markers inserted and been tattooed. Yes tattoos, my first ever, admittedly they’re only pin point dots, one at the top of each thigh, and one on the pubic bone, but they’ve been put there to line up the radiation guns so they target the cancerous cells only, to minimise damage to the good ones. The fiducial markers involved the insertion of three gold pellets into the prostate, the size of a grain of rice, but worth £40 each, so I’m worth at least £120! I doubt if they’re recoverable in the crematorium though, bad luck family, you won’t be gold hoarders.The gold pellets are also used in lining up the radiation as well; I don’t know the details but they know what they’re doing – I hope. I will have 22 sessions of radiation followed two weeks later by a process called brachytherapy. This involves the insertion (again) of active uranium into the prostate, I believe strung together with a dissolving thread. The uranium kills off the last remaining ‘bad’ cells and does so for six months afterwards; they are then fully spent. During the first three months I have to stay away from pregnant women (easy), small children can’t sit on my lap (easy again), and eventually my cancer will be cured (I hope!). The radiation treatment continues into the New Year, and preparation for each daily involves an enema. This is explained thus: The bladder had to be full, so water is drunk before each session, but the rectum has to be empty, so the necessity for the enema, to ensure it is. Thus makes the prostate sit up proud of both those vessels, so the radiation can be targeted. Complicated ain’t it? 

But life goes on and I’ve got to relax as much as possible, and started a few days ago with a Madness concert in Bournemouth staying there for a few days. Madness were great as always, and did some of the songs off their latest ‘LP’ as Suggs called it, and all there old favourites. The new stuff is a bit so-so though. I’ve also got tickets to see the great Eric (Clapton) in May which will be a celebration of the end of treatment. Then hopefully life will go on as before, I hope.

If you can, consider giving a donation to my Just Giving page:

Clive Handy’s Just Giving Page

Every penny counts towards researching the end of this disease.