Today is the day after July 4th.  Didn't sleep last night.  Likely the effects of the dexamethasone.  Had no lung symptoms at all apart from a bit of back pain and a bit of a cough .. so quite comfortable.  It seemed a shame to waste a night when I was feeling so good.

Slept a bit in the early morning after 9 am.

Andy Ashby came to visit at midday and we had a good and long discussion.  He's doing very well since his graduation from the pulmonary fellowship and I like him a lot.  His golf game is still not that good so I was compelled, at his request, to give him yet another lesson.  This time in putting (this coming from me - the world's worst putter !!!).  Anyway, see photo below.

Have continued the rest of the day without much in the way of lung symptoms apart from tiredness and very breathless with exertion.

After Ashby's visit we went to lunch at Mondos with Alan and Mary Beth Ross and their son Geoffrey who is visiting from college for the summer.  We had delightful conversation till around 3.30 pm.  It was interesting to hear Geoffrey's progress which seems to be outstanding, I was very impressed with his thought processes and directions.

After lunch came home for a nap, then had heartfelt and humbling emails from Don Hemer in Adelaide, Mark Rogan in Ireland and Raine Walker in the UK.

Later in the day Andrew Treloar (an old friend from Adelaide) called via phone and then we skyped with him for an hour or so.  It was helpful to hear his comments and we had a very useful discussion and we greatly appreciated the time he took out of a busy day.

We skyped a few times with Bec, Cam and Declan through the day, talked with Granny twice and Sam called from London on his way home from work.  Ben also called and will be visiting us through the week.

So, in summary, health characterized by tiredness, breathing very short with exertion, some posterior chest pain.  Eating well.  We had take-out chinese for dinner and some more of Shasby's pie which I understand is made from cherries from Mike Welsh's property.

More radiotherapy for the next 2 days.  Most of these effects seem to be made a lot better by the moderate doses of dexamethasone and it will be interesting to see what happens once the dose is reduced at the end of radiotherapy.

Hope I can sleep tonight.