Birthday celebrations

We are in the birthdays celebration season. Our youngest son turned four yesterday and we arranged a real "friends-only" birthday party for him. Well, I have to admit Marjo and not myself was behind the arrangements. It has been fun time because it has meant a lot to him. He got to decide who to invite himself (they were his daycare friends) and he made birthday invitations and plans weeks ahead. The party went quite fine and they seemed to enjoy themselves. One of the guests refused to leave and Marjo had to carry him out to the entrance to his father who was waiting to pick him up.

Next week the older brother celebrates his birthday and will have his friends over and then we will have a family celebration during the weekend with relatives. There is in other words a bit of birthday cakes to be made and eaten. That may be good also for me and my weight. I am eating much better and have had no nausea for a while. I've been around 69 kg now and hopefully I'll see 70 kg on the scale after all the birthday celebrations are done.

I had a doctor's appointment and blood test done last week (February 1st). The blood values were quite good except the CEA value which had increased to 3200! It was previously measured on December 7th just before the virus treatment at the private clinic in Helsinki (Docrates) and it was then 1700. That is naturally no good news. It probably also means the experimental virus treatment has had no or little effect in slowing down the overall cancer situation. I've decided I will not go for any more virus treatments which is also in line with what my doctor at the local hospital recommends.

The back and hip pains are from time to time quite bad and I've had to increase the painkiller dosage. The doctor is not able to pinpoint exactly where the pain comes from other than it's probably a tumour that is pressing on a nerve somewhere. I'm now being scheduled for an MRI picture. That is a picture they have not taken of me earlier so let's see if it can reveal anything new.

My shape is a bit unpredictable but daytime is still the best part of the day. I've managed some short shopping trips and even had lunch with a friend the other day. Evenings and nights are a bit worse. The insomnia problem is annoying and I sleep very badly even though I take sleeping pills and painkillers.

There is no sign of spring coming to Tampere very soon. The temperature measure showed -20 degrees (Celsius) this morning and we still have snowfall every now and then. The days are luckily getting longer though and right now the sun shines through the snow covered woods. It is really beautiful but I wouldn't mind warm sun, snow melting and spring now.