So, this is Christmas?

This is me last Christmas. It looks much worse than it was; I'm full of pethidine and feeling no pain. I was having a neutropenic fever, which can happen when you're fresh out of neutrophils. Which can happen when your blood's been nuked in preparation for a stem cell, commonly known here as bone marrow, transplant. I was shaking uncontrollably (rigours) before the pethidine, which stops that more or less immediately.

By the weirdest of coincidences, my brother had the same procedure on the same day - he had lymphoma, I had leukaemia. Very tough times for our Mum, but we're both ok now.

So grateful I didn't have to sell my house and two of my children to afford this treatment. Australia is not a bad place to get sick and Melbourne is one of the world's better places to get blood cancer due to it being a centre of haematological research. And, as much as our hospitals are underfunded and all that, I could not be happier with the care I received.

So Merry Christmas to all you amazing healthcare professionals! You rock hard, and in ways I didn't appreciate enough before all this happened.

Meanwhile, many kilometres away, my dear old cat was looking after the house for me. The doctors told me I needed to avoid cats for a minimum of 12 months due to the risk of toxoplasmosis. I was wondering how to deal with that when she suffered kidney failure and had to be euthanised. I had to say goodbye via FaceTime which was sad. She was nearly 20 and we had been through a lot of cool and terrifying things together. She was a good cat and I miss her.