Hello my friend, hello!

I often think of Neil Diamonds song with the line Hello my friend, hello. It comes back to me very often so that is my title today.

Hurray for remission! Somehow I feel different about this remission. The fact that there has been no tumor growth in three months has been very encouraging. However, there is some fear that continuing monthly immunotherapy is absolutely necessary for continued good health.

My oncologist, Dr Mansouri in Yellowknife, believes that my Nivolumab immunotherapy every month is more important than the COVID 19 risk of travel Inuvik to Yellowknife for treatment. And its interesting that we now have flights to and from Yellowknife only twice a week because of COVID 19, instead of the usual seven days a week! So I may have some difficulty arranging my treatments down the road. My next treatment, including a special appointment with an urologist to determine what is to be done about my bladder blockage and swollen prostate, will be in early to mid May.

Actually, living with the catheter and urine bags strapped to my leg has turned out to be completely manageable. And the fact that I only need to take a pain pill twice a day is just great. I certainly don't look forward to a prostate operation but if that keeps the pain away and returns normal urinary function it will be just fine in the end.

I have been frustrated that my brain doesn't work well at all for the first half of every day, but --- I have written three poems since April 10. Writing poetry again is my sign of improved cognitive function overall. 

My 2014 poetry book Pine Cones and Small Stones had 108 pages, and I have written at least another book's worth of poems since then. But instead of publishing them in book form I am thinking of submitting a few of them to poetry publishing sites and competitions. I have two poems published now, one air combat poem Fear is a Ghost in the Night Sky at the British war poetry site, http://www.poetsandwar.c om/fear-is-a-ghost-in-the-night-sky/ and my cancer poem A Journey in the League of Canadian Poets publication 

http://poets.ca/2020/01/13/fresh-voices-19/