Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life

Much of this will have to be explained during the first and subsequent weeks of this series of bogs but I need to get the bones of the story down now in honour of yesterday.

A new beginning.

When I was made aware, on March 4, 2025, of the fact that I had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), the shock of a probable 12-18 months of life, I promised myself that a positive approach to the rest of my life would be dedicated to Niamh, Shan, Kate and Andrew. It seemed a relatively easy promise to make at the time: bite the bullet with Chemo therapy (the light version given my age) and after about 4 weeks things would start to normalise. 

Only they didn't. After 8 weeks it seemed like it was going nowhere. I remained in hospital and there was talk of maybe longer. In some quarters there was talk of never coming home.
I almost lost the plot at my life's nadir some time in darkest April when I had good reason to believe there might only be a few days left.

And then I became convinced there was some of my dream left to fight for and it needed to happen urgently if it was to happen at all.

A new chance.

A gleam of light appeared when Shan and a few other medical people developed a plan for 6 weeks of home rehab working alongside the NHS with strong parts on which to build the remaining globe of light leading to a brighter future.

I am sending this out now so that my family and I can start the next 6 weeks with fortitude in the hopes that results will take us way into 2026 and beyond, and that little Niamh will continue to have a Grandpa for much longer than that.
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I shall continue with new episodes as things progress ...