ANNUS HORRIBILUS (probably spelt incorrectly)
To plagarise a comment used by Queen Elizabeth II some time ago…2006 was an incredibly disasterous year as far as I was concerned.
In February my wife and daughter and daughter’s boyfriend where hijacked by armed gunmen in the driveway of our house. The *&(%$#@** got away with 2 cars, a 4 month old Kia Cerato and a BMW… However that wasn’t the major concern the worst was the trauma suffered by my wife & daughter and the boyfriend, all of whom had to undergo lengthy psychological counselling.
This was followed by my being diagnosed with cancer on my birthday (of all days) The initial biopsy revealed I had lymphoma. The subsequent Cat Scan and bone marrow biopsy showed that the lymphoma had spread to all my lymph glands and that I had mantle cells… This was pretty traumatic as the prognosis for mantle cell lymphoma is pretty grim. Average life expectancy being 1 year with only 5% responding to Chemotherapy, giving an average of another 18 months.
They retested to establish which of the 4 types of mantle cells I had… I waited 7 (working) days for the results, under sentence of death… The results showed that the first test had been an anomaly and no mantle cells were present…Talk about reprieve.
So…although I still have lymphoma it’s one of the very slow ones. As the oncologist said, “If I had to pick a cancer I should pick the one I’ve got, because average life expectancy is 28 years” At my age 28 years is somewhat irrelevant as I’ll die from something else before then.
However the cancer scare, coming on top of the hijacking, meant more trauma and counselling for my wife & daughter…
There were a couple of other unpleasant occurances, not for publication but altogether they resulted in some very trying months…As a result this blog and website, together with a couple of others were left very much alone throughout most of the year.
Offsetting the unpleasantness was the fact that, as a family we have drawn closer together in adversity and my daughter obtained her B.Mus degree cum laude.
Hopefully 2007 will be a totally different and happier year. In fact having a positive outlook I am very sure it will be…I’ll be putting up more than a few new pages on this site which I have almost ready…This will include a very much expanded diabetic section. together with some other interesting pages including an enlarged piece on South African Rooibos tea and South African Hoodia (bet most of you didn’t know the San knew about Hoodia centuries ago)
Michael
I too grew up in the Eastern Cape…..Umtata, Idutywa and Butterworth with Nelson Mandella, attended school in King Williams Town and ran away in 1939 from East London.
Have been living in the USA since 1959, before that in the Uk as a Merchant Navy sailor. My father worked for SAR and my mother was a hospital matron, supposedly still have family there but do not communicate.Still speak Afrikaans and Xhosa.
Thanks, dankie boetie
David
Comment by David — 6/11/2007 @ 4:10 pm
Oh my goodness, what a dreadful time you guys are having. I cannot imagine the trauma your wife, daughter and boy friend had being high jacked, then your health dilemma. My Mum had lymphoma for over 20 years, just maintain a positive spirit, easy for me to say. Man I wish all South African’s lived as I do now, in complete freedom and safety, we immigrated to Canada in 1976. We have very little family left there, but I still miss it, the people, the lovely smells of the flowers, the game parks and the list goes on. I wish you guys all the best. If you ever think about Canada, we’d be pleased to help in any way we can. We live in British Columbia in the Rockies on a lake. Pure heaven!
Take care of each other. Traumatic Stress syndrome is a bugger, but with good help it will come right. Remember you’re tough South African’s!
Love you all in S.A.
Joan
Comment by Joan — 7/29/2007 @ 6:44 pm
It looks like you didn’t have luck on your side. I hope that’s changed by now. I think SA misses you too. Luckily you can get Rooibos tea in the USA as well. That’s at least something from home.
Comment by Rooibos — 10/13/2009 @ 5:26 am