"You never appreciate your health til you lose it.."

This saying originated long before I was born but it became one of the tenets of my life soon after I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an 18 year old, it was a game changer as we say in sports.

I have been reminded of the saying several times since, including surviving a brain aneurism early on a morning in 2008.

You either learn to cope with personal issues or you don't survive. Someone else once said, " we are all faced with adversity in our life, it is the mark of a man how he deals with it"

In my case I used them as motivation to become the fittest 20 year old, then 30, then 40 and quickly 50 and now 60 year old. It has helped shape my personality, always finding something to smile about each and everyday.

These issues were mine to deal with, however recently cancer has hit my family, this time it isn't me, it's my long time partner who was diagnosed over Christmas with this awful disease.

This I find much more difficult to deal with, because it's not me who is fighting it. Today I have just returned from the hospital, after she had three incisions to remove tumours in her thyroid gland, and lymph nodes and we are lucky because our wonderful Dr.Anand says if you have a malignant tumour, the thyroid is the place to have it, the lymph nodes are a different story.

I have taken the positive approach road to all of this, not even considering the horrible alternative that most all of you have had to deal with in one way or another.

I write this to explain why I have been neglecting my blog of late.

The operation to remove the cancerous thyroid has been a success, we have to wait for test results to see the status of the other two nodes he removed...

Viv is returning home soon, they don't keep you in hospital a moment longer than necessary, there is such a shortage of beds, and nursing staff by the way, who at Scarborough General and all the others I am sure are putting in 12 hours shifts and dealing with health issues beyond our comprehension, daily.

So I will be returning to my blog as soon as she is home in recovery, thanks for your support, and try to step back from your daily stress makers and remember without your health none of them matter.

" You never appreciate your health 'til you lose it "... trust me

Bryan Angus