Author Archives: Topherwelch

Knitting has become very popular in recent times, and while I cannot claim to be a pioneer, I can trace my knitting roots back to about 1966 (The same year England won the world cup in football). My mum was an avid knitter and would regularly produce loads of items as an opportunity presented itself.Continue reading “Knitting, a pastime for all”

Winter arrived in Uppsala a few weeks ago, with temperatures getting as low as -17 °C. This led to most of the shallower lakes freezing over. There was an insignificant snowfall during the cold period, most of the snow melted when the temperature rose to slightly over zero for a few days. The result wasContinue reading “Significant shrinkage”

The agonising wait for the results of the PET scan is over and the results were good news. The scan showed an absence of areas with uptake of the radioactive marker, which means that there is no tumour activity present in my brain tissue (there was no feedback as to the presence of other activity!).Continue reading “Hair”

I got the results of my latest MRI scan a couple of weeks ago. I followed a short period of worry about what they may, or may not, reveal. When they finally arrived in my medical file, we could read a load of technical details about uptake of contrast agents and a few other thingsContinue reading “The Shining”

While doing a postdoc in Sherbrooke, Quebec, I was invited to Rhode Island to give a seminar about my research. Bitte and I drove from Sherbrooke to Rhode Island, a journey of 550 km. Our car was a second-hand Renault 5. It did not have air conditioning, so with temperatures in excess of 30 °CContinue reading “Stow the chowder”

When I was a post-graduate student at the Biomedical Centre, BMC, in Uppsala, I shared an office with five other students. Each of us had a small desk, approximately 1 m wide, with panels on either side. My desk tended to overflow with lab notes and scientific articles – and a few other things asContinue reading “Desktop issues”

We recently returned from a glorious week at a training camp in Monte Gordo, Portugal. There, we enjoyed fantastic sunrises, morning jogs along the beach, various training sessions and really great food. The only cloud on the horizon was the approaching MRI-scan which took place today. The scan itself is not a problem, but whatContinue reading “At the end of the storm there’s a golden sky”

A few years ago, we (colleagues at work) were considering starting a research programme based on the use of smart materials. I needed to investigate the most interesting topics and figure out where the frontiers of the current research were at. As part of this effort, I enrolled in a conference in Busan, South Korea.Continue reading “Moonlight”

It has now gone a little over one year since I became ill. The time since then has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride with good days and not-so-good days. Fortunately, most have been good days. The initial information was hard to take in. I could easily have quoted John McEnroe “You cannot beContinue reading “Naked and afraid, but not alone, in the healthcare system”

I went for an MR scan last week. It was fairly routine as I am not one of the claustrophobic types. I did have a slight issue concerning the vein catheter. I now have a multicoloured bruise on my arm. After a few days of anxious waiting, I got to see the oncologist, who gaveContinue reading “MR Blue Sky”