The last three weeks have seen me eventually start to do all the remining things that I have been refraining from over the last 6 or so months. This mainly involves going into more crowded areas and in to supermarkets. My immune system is strong enough now to allow me venture into airconditioned buildings without having to worry about catching a cold.

This doesn't mean that one day I'm suddenly healthy, it's just that I've been taking care not to over expose myself (regarding the risk of infection, not streaking) and it's now not seen as a risk to my health to do these things. Funnily enough, going into a supermarket for the first time in eight months doesn't feel any different. Why should it? You somehow expect certain things to be slightly different after such a long time, but they aren't.

Even driving up to Reading to visit work didn't feel any different. Infact, it felt strange that everthing actually felt just the same as if I had done these things last week. It's just like visiting your old school after leaving. I drove up to work to meet with my work colleagues but mainly to discuss with my manager and HR the process of returning back to work. My work has been very supportive of me and has given me a lot of flexability with regards taking time off, and now in terms of restarting my career. It's great as I haven't had to worry about work related issues over the whole period which means that it is another distraction that you don't have to worry about. So thank you everybody at work for your support!

Just as importantly the Anthony Nolan was at work to recruit more bone marrow donors. Thankyou to those who signed up. It's just a shame that there aren't enough donors to help all those in need of bone marrow transplants, but every new donor helps.

I was quite keen today to find out what was happening with my PCR count. Last week there was a notable increase from 0.09 to 0.9. Well this week I discovered that it had fallen back a little to 0.6. This is still above the 0.2 safe threshold, but I haven't had more than one increasing reading so far. It seems one reading is a little higher and the next a little lower. We now have to wait for another three weeks before deciding what next to do. If the count continues to fall then that's great, but if it then goes up again, it's time to go back to the donor for some more lymphocytes. All the other counts were fine, so there isn't much concern in that area.

The good news is that I'll be starting work again on a part time basis, begining next week on Tuesday. I'll start off by working two days per week and then build that up to a full normal working week over the next few months. It's quite exciting to be going back to work, as that is really the last remaining unfulfilled objective; except of course, kitesurfing. Returning to work signifies the recommencement of a normal life once again, so from that point of view you might appreciate my excitement.