Hospital transportation was superb.  I was so breathless that I could move any part of my body for fear of getting more breathless which I didn't think was possible.  The Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service made sure that I didn't move a muscle.  They took me from my bed at home upstairs to the hospital bed here .. it was remarkable.

One problem with controlling the breathing is that I have got no reserves at all so it was felt that if I had morphine I might lose my respiratory drive perhaps altogether.  For that reason, in hospital, a trial of morphine was considered very important.

So, surrounded by my medical colleagues - Ray H, Joseph Z, Joel K and Alan R, and Chris - the morphine was given in a low dose and I started to have a very satisfactory response to it.  My breathing became a lot more tolerable and a lot of the discomfort of breathing mostly disappeared.

Joseph Z slept in the same room as me until midnight and Joel K stayed with me until 8 am when he thought it was time to go to work.  Chris went home as an obligatory step so that she could some much needed independent rest.

These successes mean I can sit and talk with people and can lay down very comfortably to sleep - most of which seem small but are very gratifying to me.  I can't really otherwise exercise since I get immediately short of breath and if you want to know the feeling run half a mile or climb three flights of stairs.  So, all the last couple of days I've been in bed.

As my left lung gets smaller from encroaching tumor then just looking at the progression on the CT scan since two weeks ago, it would appear that I may have not much left lung at all in another couple of weeks.

Because I'm in hospital I've had many impromtu visits from colleagues.  These were all very welcome ..
Kim B, Amy N, Eric H, Milan S, Alicia G (who is actually Faculty on the floor here), Joseph Z, Joel K, David S, Joe R, Gary C, Chin Long Lin, Kineret Z, Ben McL, Rebecca S, Punam S - do forgive if your name isn't mentioned.

I have moved from the Medical Oncology Ward to an area on Level 7.  Ray Hohl remains physician in charge, ably assisted by my many colleagues and friends, some of whom are engineers !!!  I should say that the move to Level 7 was to a larger room which accommodates my many welcome visitors and also in consideration of the other patients in the Medical Oncology Ward.

Great messages of support received from Larry C, Matt and Chicky, Julie and Chris R, Kim B, Lakshmi D, Sue H, Tracie McL.

Now, we're not sure of the immediate future.  Right now comfort is good but clearly if I loose the left lung quickly over the next few days comfort won't be so good.

We're trying to help our children balance this uncertainty against their need to travel from their very busy jobs - this is not an easy task.  We're guided as best we can by our medical team, some of which I think thought I might not recover my breathing as well as I have on this occasion.

As I have said for the last week or two, I've got no lung reserves at all so any further stress on the lung will not be tolerated really at all.