Long overdue update

Yes, here comes a long overdue update.

It's been four months since I last wrote anything here, and we haven't done very much this time. I have been working as usual, and Helen has been "recovering".

We have had some nice parties in our flat, and I have spent a few evenings out with my friends.

We have visited my brother and his family a few times, we spent a lovely midsummer holiday there.

And my good friend Kelly has visited for two weekends from Denmark.

But most of all we have really enjoyed the increased stability, calm and peace in our lives, it has been great to find some firm ground after the roller coaster ride we have had for the last two years.

Helen has been going to a physiotherapist, and her muscles are slowly getting stronger, she can now walk using just a crutch, but her left hand is still very weak.
She had a brain scan in the end of April, the result was quite promising, they could then see no trace of tumour activity, but Helen is still frequently experiencing nausea and dizzyness, which might just as well be reactions to the treatment she has received. She will have more scans soon.

Last Thursday it was one year since Carl was born, of course that was a date with a bit more sadness than usual.

On the 1st of May we moved into the flat we are living in now, it is still just a second-hand contract and we will need to find a new place for the 1st of September, but that won't be a problem I am sure :)

In Sweden :)

So, 9 days ago we landed here in Sweden.
Helen has already gotten her personal number, and we have also been to see a doctor, and we are waiting to get an appointment with a specialist that can take a look at her. And then she'll have another MRI which hopefully will confirm that the radiation has done it's job.

We stayed for a week with my mother, but on Saturday we moved into a flat, in Malmo, that we are renting until 1st of May, so that gives us a nice amount of time to look for something more permanent, hopefully in Lund.

And I am working as always, from the dining room table.

So things are pretty much on track :)

Will post pictures soon.

Finally moving

It's been a long month since I posted last.
Basically it has consisted of taking Helen back and forth to her radiotherapy sessions (only five more to go now), and of packing up everything in our flat.
Last Thursday the moving company came to collect everything, 50 crates and some furniture :)

Yesterday we finished the last cleaning up of the flat, and we are now living with one of Helens relatives until we fly out of South Africa on Friday the 12th of March, and land the following day in Copenhagen.

The evening of Saturday the 13th of March I am going to spend at the Old Bull Pub in Lund, so I hope to see some happy faces there, in case you are not staying at home watching "Melodifestivalen". You know who you are ;)

Update

Just before New Year's Eve, our landlord called us and told us that they want to move back into this flat, so they are not extending our lease when it expires at the end of February. Me and Helen had already discussed that it could be a good idea to move to Sweden this year, and if we are now anyway going to have the hassle of moving, then we might as well move to Sweden now. So sometime in the middle of March we will be arriving in Sweden :)
We are both very excited about this now, we think it will be good with a change of climate (in more than one way :) and it will be a bit like a new start.
We are planning to live in Lund (or in Malmo as a backup-plan).
If anyone of you who read this knows of someone who is letting out a flat in Lund, from March or April or so, please let me know :)

On the 30th December we met with Helen's oncologist, and he recommended that Helen should have stereotactic radio-surgery to try to kill the tumour. Two weeks later the medical insurance company notified us that they had changed their benefits levels from the 1st of January, and Helen is no longer eligble for this treatment.
So now she is going to have standard radiation therapy instead, starting in a few days, and ending in the end of February, just before we are moving.
Hopefully that will be the last treatment she will need, but we won't know that until she is scanned a few months after the treatment.