It has been a while since my last A Farmer Writes piece, and a lot has happened since.

In May 2015, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I spent the next four months beating it back out the gap, an exercise that has so far proven successful.

The initial diagnosis was a shock and, after one or two dark days, I put the potential outcomes in statistical probabilities. Once I did this, it gave me a very rational outlook on my situation, splitting it into four categories: worst case, possible, probable and best case. I landed somewhere in the probable category, with three months of chemo after having the cancerous lump removed.

The whole chemo process is a fairly person-specific thing – no two people get the same treatment. I was in five days overnight in St Vincent’s Hospital on the pump almost 24 hours per day; water at night to flush my system and chemo by day to give the cancer a going over.

The most important part of the process is to steer clear of people who think that because you are sick you want to hear stories of misery. It is a cliché, but a positive attitude is more than half the battle

The chemo is administered in four by three-week cycles with the first week of each cycle spent getting treated and the following two weeks recovering. Week one was always going to be a bit of a novelty; week two you are starting to get a map of gaps and learning what works. However, week three was the one I was least looking forward to. You are not at the beginning nor the end, yet you are far enough in that the accumulation effect is giving you a kicking and it proved to be so. Week four was all about Friday and getting out of there.

On the whole, it is not something I would ideally like to do again, but there are certainly worse things to go through. The most important part of the process is to steer clear of people who think that because you are sick you want to hear stories of misery. It is a cliché, but a positive attitude is more than half the battle.

Off the EBI bull list

It is three months since I finished chemo and I am back in for a CT scan in the middle of January to make sure the beating administered to the cancer was sufficient to prevent it from taking up residence with me again.

On the up side, the week before my first operation myself and Val found out we were to have a baby in February. This was fantastic news given my impending sabbatical from the EBI bull list for 12 months after the chemo!

On the farming side, we have just cleared Christmas, which was a horrifically busy time for us. We probably put out three months’ volume in six days in the run-in. All while the weather rebelled against us at every turn.

Luckily, after bringing in some harvest machinery reinforcements, we have managed to stay afloat without any major issues, ducking between wet days to harvest in the dry windows that were just about available to keep us going. More on machinery next time.

The weather has been bizarre – 14°C at 7pm on Christmas day, 14°C forecast again tonight, 50mm of rain expected. We have been waiting for a dry four days since mid-October to clean up a few bits and pieces, but we are no closer now than we were then.

Seems like so much has happened since my last piece, should I mention the IFA?