Oh @Jimbo165 Happy birthday to you and I hope that you can enjoy yourself and keep on smiling even if it is laughing at the fact that @Gillyj and I are both still older than you.
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Happy birthday @Jimbo165 Hope the sun is shining for you on your special day! 
Thinking of you, Willow x
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Definitely have a busy schedule now @Gillyj and good to read that you take some time to recover.
I think itâs something thatâs easy to forget to do.
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Have a great birthday @Jimbo165
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Good evening @Gillyj, @Erica, @Willow, @DuncanB and everyone else, thank you all for your kind birthday wishes today. I am indeed blessed by having such kind and thoughtful friends on this forum.
This next sentence will come very much from âout of left fieldâ as they say across the pond in @Duncan land; Daughter No4 produced her first child yesterday, on St Patrickâs Day, much to the delight of her significant other who is of Irish descent. The little fella was introduced to the world at 2:30pm, and arrived at a healthy 7lb 12oz. Mum, Dad and Child are all doing well and are now home ready to begin their new world order. I was able to visit last night, after yet another overly long day at work, and got to hold Grandson No4. The due date was today, my birthday, but nature, as we all can attest to, has her own ideas about these things! 
So other than feeling a bit âcream-crackeredâ, Iâm okay, quite happy that the birth has gone smoothly, and that all concerned are currently doing well.
As always everyone, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Aww belated happy birthday dear @Jimbo165, what a great gift to have a new baby arrive! Amazing timing from your daughter and grandbaby 
I wonder if almost sharing a birthday will make for an even lovelier bond between you? Many happy returns to you both!
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Congratulations @Jimbo165 and to daughter No 4 and their significant other too! How lovely to have a new springtime addition to your family! Willow x
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Oh what wonderful news for Daughter No.4, @Jimbo165 and family, you have made my day.
How are you feeling @Willow now?
Yes, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling, I am.
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Thank you @Erica for asking after me. I have had a high temperature and been in bed since last weekend. I have been in contact with my haematology team so I know what to do if things develop or worsen. Grateful to be at home and not in hospital at the moment. Thinking of you too Erica and hoping you are doing as well as can be expected. Warm wishes Willow x
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Congratulations to you and all your family on the new arrival @Jimbo165
Always gives everyone a lift when a new baby arrives.
Sorry to hear that youâre feeling a bit cream crackered and hopefully the adrenaline of new arrival will keep you going 
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Sorry to hear that you have been poorly since last weekend @Willow
Definitely positive that at home rather than hospital
Hope things improve soon 
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Good evening @Duncan, @Willow @Erica, @DuncanB and everyone else following this particular thread, thank you all for your kind words for the new arrival to the family.
Their new worldâs first day appears to have gone well and the bambino apparently slept for 5 hours last night. Honestly, there is no envy here, whatsoever, promise!!
And just to show how perverse my life is, I am off work tomorrow to attend the funeral of one of my former Wing Commanders from my 37 years of service with the Air Training Corps.
Talk about âone in, one outâ!
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourself and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hi @Rosita I live in Wales in the UK. I hope you are doing ok. I was diagnosed with Essential thrombocythemia ('ET') when I was 37 years old, I am now almost 60 years old. I had a really difficult time coming to terms with my diagnosis and it took a long time to sink in. I found it difficult to deal with the watch and wait it sometimes felt like I was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
I had family that really supported me and still do. My mum was in the nursing profession for many years and I will never forget her face when I came out of the doctors room and she looked at the booklet I had in my hands about blood cancer. That will stay with me forever.
What I have realized over the years is that you need to listen to your body, fatigue is a real issue with me and sometimes getting out of bed and showering was an achievement on its own. If you need to rest then rest donât feel guilty about it. Your body is saying to take a rest.
I hope that this will help you and that you are not on your own, just because you canât see the illness people assume that everything is ok but sometimes that is so not true. Take care and be kind to yourself and take time for you.
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Great post @Staceylouise and great to hear that all still good after all those years.
Very encouraging for many of us on the forum Iâm sure 
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Thank you DuncanB I just felt that it needed to be said. Iâm sure we have all felt guilty for feeling that we have no energy when we struggle with fatigue. We feel guilty that we canât seem to get things done no matter how hard we try. It took me a very long time to accept my body now has itâs limits and the worst part is when you try to explain to people that you are exhausted and have no energy people just assume you are just âtiredâ but fatigue is a different beast altogether. I just wish that people could walk in our shoes for a while, if they did they wouldnât be in such a hurry to say âoh youâre just tiredâ. But thank you very much for the reply itâs appreciated.
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You are so right @Staceylouise when you say fatigue so different to being tired.
I guess only fellow cancer patients really understand the difference.
Iâm very much in the camp of accepting that what I can do might well be different from previously.
Doesnât mean I canât enjoy what I can do
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Belated congratulations @Jimbo165 how wonderful to be a grandfather again! Iâm sure they all keep you busy! Sorry to hear about your wing commander- thatâs sad.
I know lots of people follow these threads- so pick your brains- does anyone find they lose their balance and fall over? Iâve fallen over a couple of times recently, luckily I was on my own so no one other than the horses heard me swearing!!! The last time I leant forward to pick some hay up off the floor and before I knew it I fell forwards onto my knees - no damage done other than a bruised knee! Just wonder if itâs anything to do with interferon or Essential thrombocythemia ('ET'). It certainly never happened before I started treatment.
Anyway, take care everyone
Gillyj
Good afternoon @Gillyj and everyone else following this thread, I hope that you are all well and that you, Gillyj, are alright after your own recent tumble. Do you swear in fluent equine?
Other than my recently publicised bath/shower entry malfunction, I have avoided any feelings of losing my balance (others may disagree about how balanced I am!) or falling over. I am, however, suffering from a greater degree, and frequency, of clumsyitis, and bump into objects and obstacles that are, generally, much more substantial than I am, with consequentially painful and long lasting bruises to follow very quickly.
I was at LRI on Friday for my latest check up and, as seemingly always with me, it was another occasion for mixed results. My platelet count has come down to a little under 500, which is good, but my LFT liver function has decided to be a âparty pooperâ and has increased again, having risen by around 50% up to 78. To be fair, it has been much higher than this in the recent, and distant, past although there doesnât appear to be any obvious cause of the rise on this occasion.
So, and for now, I am to carry on with the same treatment regime of 2 x Hydroxycarbamide capsules per week, and 1 x Pegasys injection every fortnight, or two weeks, whichever occurs first, with my next (planned!) visit to hospital in 8 weeks time. My Consultant is also arranging for me to have a heart scan to see if there is anything untoward going on that might be contributing to my fatigue.
As always, my Forum Friends, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hi @Jimbo165 and everyone else! Yes I too seem to have clumsyitis!! Iâve found out that I only fall over if Iâm bending forward- nearly fell into the fire the other day , luckily it wasnât lit!!
You seem to have a good team looking after you which is so important, your liver likes to lead you a merry dance doesnât it?
Hope heart investigation goes ok
Take care everyone
Gillyj
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