Background:

Dec 12. Hospitalised for 4 days with bowel obstruction. Bowel clears itself. Doctor not sure on cause, orders a PET scan.
Dec 21. Have PET scan
Mid to late Jan. Results of Pet Scan caught up in Christmas period. Finally told results. Results were that I had cancer nodules growing around my small bowel.
Feb 9. Had an operation to explore the cancer and take samples for biopsy. Results were, after 8 years in remission, my lymphoma had returned.
Feb 19. Hospitalised as I had caught an MRSA superbug during operation. Operation wound had to be reopened and cleaned. Wound has to heal naturally. Nearly 3 weeks in hospital with a Vacuum Pump
attached to assist the healing of my wound.
Mar 17. After being out of hospital about a week, the super bug returns I am back in hospital for a further 2 weeks.
April. After a couple of weeks out of hospital I was able to return to work for 3-4 hours a day. Wound still healing with the Vac pump. Can't have chemo treatment until stomach wound heals.

Update.
May 20. Admitted to hospital as bowel not working. Had a CT scan and X-Ray.
May 21. Results of scan show that my lymphoma had grown significatly as well as new nodules had appeared. Decision taken that, despite my stomach wound being a few weeks away from healing, that
they could wait no longer to give me the chemo as the lymphoma was slowly strangling my small bowel. I was feeling quite ill from no bowel movement for several days. In preparation for the chemo they
started a course of steroids.
May 22. Steroids had kicked in enough to shrink the lymphoma and my bowel was back in action . Never been so happy to have several shits. Immediately felt relief and no discomfort. Then had a Picc line
inserted to take the chemo.
Tomorrow I should be having a biopsy done of the new nodules to see if they are the same as the existing nodules. Once confirmed they plan to start my chemo on Friday- Saturday. I'm told the first dose
will be administered continuously over 5 days by means of a pump, so it looks like I'm in hospital until Wednesday or Thursday next week.

I'm happy that chemo is finally being started as it's been 5 months since I had that PET scan.

The good news at the moment is the the prognosis is for a full recovery (lymphoma back in remission).

As I've stated before, the whole saga has and still is a pain in the arse. But knowing I will beat it gives me some comfort. (Posted: Wed May 23.)

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Just been advised, no biopsy for fear of infection. (I'm prone to catching infections.)

Starting chemo today. I'm happy to get started. (Posted: Wed May 23.)

Update:

I have had 3 cycles of Chemo and recently had a PET scan. The scan showed that the Chemo had worked and that I was in remission. (That's the good news).

The bad news is that the doctors are convinced that I will have a relapse, sometime in the future (maybe 3 months, maybe 3 years) and that the most effective way to ensure I don't have a relapse is to have
a Bone Marrow Transplant.

This is quite a risky procedure at my age (mortality rate of 2-3% for younger people) and I have been told to get my affairs all sorted, and to get as fit as I can in the next few weeks. When I was in hospital
recently, they harvested Stem Cells from my blood which apparently they culture and freeze for use at a later date. The plan is that I will enter hospital, they will give me Chemo over 6 days that will kill all my
Bone Marrow as well as the nasties. and on the 7th day they start feeding the Stem Cells back into my body to rejuvenate the bone marrow and to attempt to get my blood back to normal. They're telling
me I will be in hospital for a month and it will take 3 months after that to regain my strength. Not looking forward to it but I do want to stay on the right side of the ground. Haven't got a date yet but I think
it will be around 5th September.

Apart from all that I am feeling really good at the moment gaining strength each day, even back at work. Caught up with Viv recently in Exmouth. (Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018.)

Thanks everyone for your support. My latest date for my bone marrow transplant is week commencing 10th September. As I don't have any medical appointments for a while, I decided to go to Exmouth for
a bit of warmer weather. Its a bit like Qld here, beautiful one day, perfect the next. (Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018.)

Update.

I was supposed to start my Bone Marrow Transplant last Monday but after a heart check the previous week, the doctors discovered that my heart had lost some of its power since the previous test I had in
march. This is probably caused by the chemo I have been having. The consensus from the doctors was that it was too risky to do the transplant and so I've been referred to a heart specialist for more tests.

I'm feeling normal again so I wasn't looking forward to being knocked around again. The down side is that I will probably relapse sometime in the future (could be 3 months, could be 10 years) and then its
"Good Night Everyone". In the meantime I'm back at work and enjoying life as much as I can.

Because of my health this year CASA cancelled my aviation medical, so I haven't done any flying. Decided to sell my Jet, which was very sad as I loved flying it. (TAD's final post, posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018.)