It's been a while since our last post here and much has happened since.
Long story short, a small medical condition had me seek the opinion of a Doctor in Pender Harbour. His diagnostic was as unexpected as it was shocking: Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
This was confirmed by a biopsy the next day (August 02nd), and Di and I immediately decided to rush back to France where I grew up and where we knew I would get excellent care at a reasonable cost.
We pushed our little Enfin and ourselves quite a lot to get back to Portland in a safe marina. That meant a few long days of navigation, including a day of 35 knots of wind in fog, with choppy waves against the current. Nothing huge or terrible, but still more than we'd encountered until then. Enfin behaved beautifully, and felt like our little protecting cocoon of safety, handling the waves and the conditions with the stoutness of a little ship. I will cherish the memory of that day for a long time. What a gem Enfin is!
Pushing on that day meant we were able to benefit from a great weather window for the open water leg down the Pacific Coast and pass the Columbia bar in perfect conditions.
A huge thanks to Ron and Nancy (Duet N50) who kindly double checked my weather forecasting skills and tidal calculations. With all that was happening I was afraid I was getting tired and felt I needed the safety of a double check.
We shut down Enfin in Portland, where she is in a safe marina under the watchful eye of a friend. It's great to know she'll be waiting for us safely and well cared for. We get regular photos and it warms our hearts to see Enfin looking great. She'll get a full wash and detail soon, zincs in a month. We're still keeping her ready to go.
We made it to France by the 18th August, and I had my first rendez vous with the head of blood oncology of one of the best cancer hospitals in France a few days after, thanks to my parent's great help and assistance.
Tests after tests confirmed I was in excellent health for a stage 3B patient. Being in great health allows the Doctors to use aggressive chemotherapy treatments, and I was prescribed a series of 12 ABVD chemos, i.e. 6 cycles of 2. One chemo every 14 days. The Docs even have the option to escalate to harsher and stronger chemos if they see the need.
So far I am responding very well to the treatment. It's far from over but I am putting all my energies on getting to remission and getting back on Enfin.
Looking forward to unpausing the dream, even if we'll have to be flexible to deal with the follow-up on my condition.