26 March 2011

No news for 3 months has been both good & bad. On my last cancer checkup 2 weeks ago everything was okay. However, there's something new to contend with since January: polymyalgia rheumatica, a kind of rheumatism affecting the muscles of the neck, back, arms, shoulders, thighs. It's quite painful, the cause unknown & the duration usually 2 to 3 years. It causes excessive fatigue (picking up a pen or getting on line on the computer is diffcult much of the time) & the treatment is steroids, the chief problem being finding as low a dosage as possible to relieve the pain without incurring too many of the steroid's numerous side effects (no fat face so far). I need lots of little rests throughout the day & have to take things a day at a time. There seems to be a lot of polymyalgia around these days, & friend in Needham has even organised a local support group, so I am not on my own.

The sub-zero temperatures & snow stopped about Christmas time, but it has continued to be very cold in the 5C/40F range with dismal grey skies & frequent hard frosts. Just this week, though, there was a real feeling of spring in the air, & today has been beautifully warm, so perhaps we will emerge from this awful winter after all. I'm sure that will help my mental as well as physical state.

I can manage cooking very light meals, trips to the grocery store by foot or in the car, evening meetings in Needham & bus rides to Ipswich for matinees at the Film Theatre or an exhibition. Recently I've had a few days in Manchester with Harry & family & also in Woking with Kate and Chris, which included some interesting excursions. Now that the weather is improving I hope to have more visitors (in addition to the faithful family who have kept coming regularly in all ditions)-- and Willa is flying in on 20 April for 6 weeks, so that will be a wonderful diversion.

A final thing. My old e-mail address of julanne@royarnold.com was changed over a year ago to julannelynnarnold@btinternet.com . I thought Harry notified everybody on my mailing list at the time, but recently I discovered some messages sent to the old address, which is no longer active, & some people have written about difficulties in getting through to me. So please check to see that you are using the up-to-date address.

A happy Easter to you all!