Author Archives: Topherwelch

Monday to Friday I am off to the hospital for my radiation treatment. The daily dose is 2 Gy 2 Grays* (named after Louis Gray, a radiobiologist from London, who worked together with a number of prominent physicists, including Lawrence Bragg, Nobel prize in physics, 1915). In total I will get a dose of 60Continue reading “Tumour Humour”

If you happen to have some salmon leftovers in your fridge you might want to try this recipe. It is a salmon Wallenbergare inspired by the veal Wallenbergare which is very popular in Sweden. I checked a few recipes on-line and made my own from what I thought were the best available. It just soContinue reading “Salmon Wallenbergare”

I attended a workshop in Brussels, a few years ago, on the topic of making the energy sector in Europe free from greenhouse gas emissions. As I arrived early, I was invited to join a lunch meeting with some of the head research officers from a number of major car manufacturers from Europe and Asia.Continue reading “Get on with it!”

A number of years ago. Actually, quite a long time ago, Sing along sound of music had just become popular, and we had to go and see it. We got together a large part of the Folkeson clan and met at the cinema in Stockholm for an evening of song and laughter. At the singContinue reading “Climb every mountain”

Today is the first day of treatment to see off what might remain of the tumour that had so rudely intruded into the back of my head. The first stage was radiation therapy with high energy X-rays (6 MeV). Yes, I had lots of questions about the technique being used, the energy and wavelength ofContinue reading “At last”

WARNING! This post may be distressing. Having gone through all of the tests, with blood samples, electrocardiography, CT, MRI and PET, and an operation to remove the suspected tumour, there was a long wait. As the wait got longer the more, I suspected that the final diagnosis was not going to be good. It allContinue reading “Make it work”

I spent a few hours at the hospital last week in preparation for my upcoming radiation therapy. The first task was to make a mask to hold my head firmly in the right place for irradiation. This involved being positioned correctly and having a warm/almost hot sheet of plastic placed over my face and having itContinue reading “The machine that goes ping”

After years of dreaming, months of planning and weeks of hard work by our craftsmen, Niklas and Josh, helped by electrician Kalle, it was finally time to inaugurate our jacuzzi. Bubble in the bath and bubble in the glass (Moët & Chandon) made it double bubble. Cheers for many hours of relaxation.

Operation day was a bit weird in more ways than one! I have already mentioned about being high in the recovery ward, but another memory puts into question what the hospital staff get up to when patients are under the influence of anaesthetic. The day started with a very abrupt awakening at 4.45 ish toContinue reading “What happened to my underpants?”