Ah, ’tis a bit hard for the old noggin when I skip a day’s posting. But that number seems right. Gosh — more than 4 weeks in isolation! The only people I have interacted with during that period in RL are my beloved and the assistant who took my blood sample on Monday. But everyone is staying calm and keeping isolated. The trend in new cases in Victoria is obviously encouraging.

Some of the following is shamelessly repurposed from an email — I hope the recipient will indulge me.

• Cutting to the chase — I spoke to my oncologist, Dr P, a few hours ago. All good! The PSA is still 0.02, the same score as the previous test. (Earlier ones had been 0.01 for quite a while, so I asked if this new score was anything to worry about. He said it was within measurement error, and still undetectable.)
• I hadn’t expect to see Dr P until Monday. When I saw him last, he said our next appointment would be a teleconsultation. So I rang the practice this morning to confirm this. When I got through, his extremely switched-on assistant said “Oh, Guy! I saw your bloods come in — I’ll just ring Phillip and see if he can talk to you now”. I said “Fine” (grabbing my notebook, and wrestling the pen out of its little loop). Anyway, Dr P and I had a teleconsult then and there, over in about 1 minute. (This was a win-win; I got my results a few days early, he now has one less phone call to make over the weekend.)
• He then put me back to the assistant, with whom I made the next 2 appointments  — these could be 3D, or teleconsults: TBC. His PA is really very efficient — a shout-out to these super-organised folk everywhere for how they keep all of us punters turning up on the right dates. It’s not just a matter of making appointments, but co-ordinating the latter with treatments as well. (This is the sort of job of which I would make a total dog’s breakfast.)
• My next Zolodex implant is still taking place next week in the day oncology unit at Epworth East. (I don’t think they have worked out a way to do these by a teleconsult yet!) My appointment time has been put back, doubtless to allow better separation between patients. The Zolodex usually follows every second consult with Dr P — assuming the blood test gives the right result. The actual implantation only takes a minute, and that will be it for another 12 weeks.
• I had a pretty poor night’s sleep again last night — awake before 5.00. (I did have a doze in the study before taking my beloved in her coffee.) She and I managed to get out for a longish walk this morning, which was great. There was a light drizzle, but then the sun came out. I have done nearly 7,000 steps, just over 5 km.
• To celebrate the good news, my beloved and I had fish and chips for lunch. Very nice — I am feeling slightly liverish and absolutely stuffed.
• My shirts arrived from HBs. They are lovely. One is a bit big — although they are both the same size — but that is a risk associated with ordering online. (I did look at the size guides, but they weren’t a lot of help.) I could possibly exchange it for the next size down, but that would be a hassle to have to post it back — even if such exchanges are still done. They are the kinds of shirts one layers up, however, so being a bit over size is fine. I will probably wear the bigger one over a light jumper or long sleeved t-shirt, etc., like the mysterious “shacket”.