I’m conscious that I haven’t written anything here for a while. A lot of the time has felt like being in limbo, mainly focused on reaching a decision on cancer treatment. I have also been reading a lot (that will likely be a later post) and Kirstin and I spent a few days pottering around York last week. For today I’ll go with the cancer news.

Medical opinion is that, all things being equal, either hormones + radiotherapy or surgery will work and my choice was therefore between the differing sets of side effects in the short, medium and long terms. My decision is to pursue hormone treatment plus radiotherapy.

In terms of side effects, I can expect something very like menopause as a consequence of the hormones, tiredness towards the end of the radiotherapy and perhaps mood changes. Other side effects have been observed but they are less common and can’t be predicted beforehand.

The NHS is impressive when it swings into action: I informed the clinical nurse specialists at the Edinburgh Cancer Hub yesterday (Monday) afternoon and by this afternoon my GP had prescribed the hormones (tablets first then 3-monthly injections) and practicalities were set in motion. The plan is to have the hormone treatment for between six and twelve months with the radiotherapy happening for 20 days in the fourth month. At some point I’ll have gold markers inserted into my prostate to act as a focus for the radiotherapy.

I will keep blogging here as the treatment progresses but the posts may be sporadic since, by its nature, the treatment is taken at a steady pace rather than rushed.

Meantime work on the novel-in-progress continues although it has been derailed somewhat by the cancer stuff; creativity is resistance but sometimes it’s better to sit down with a pot of tea and a book. Also, I’m at the stage where I realise that in order for *x* to happen, *y* has to happen first, so I need to go back to add it in. This is all to the good, but it takes time and focus that has been lacking.