Final Blog Entry

This is the final entry I will make on my blog. I have been in hospital for four weeks so far with two very nasty infections, the second of which is an infected mouth. This has stopped me being able eat anything and gave me such excruciating pain that I have decided I cannot take any more. The anti-biotics have been effective only the extent of minimising the infections but are unable to get rid of them. The best efforts of combining Revlimid with Rituxamab and donor white blood cells has been unable to get my bone marrow functioning. Consequently I have asked to be transferred as soon as possible to our local Hospice, where I will see out my last days comfortably and pain free.

After my September period in hospital with a seriously infected chest, I had five weeks in which I recovered from that experience. Unfortunately, Tina and I caught colds in the fifth week which resulted in my being back in hospital for another three weeks with infected sinuses. I was discharged on Sunday 23rd November only to be back in two days later on the Tuesday with my current problems. The thing about CLL is that it does not itself kill you, it is that infections eventually do that job.

I want to thank my darling wife, Tina, who has been the most wonderful support to me, not only through these recent tough weeks and years, but throughout our 41 years of life together. I also want to pay tribute to the support given to both of us by our two lovely children, Anna and Matthew and their respective families and all our relatives and friends who followed the ups and downs of these past six years since I was first diagnosed.