Today as part of my research thinking I decided to read through my 'offline private journal' which charts my cancer story in a way that includes things unsuitable for public consumption (such as lots of photos) - at ~45,000 words, it is not a quick read.  It's interesting to note that for the most part it is factual, at least after I'd got over the initial shock, but that it does chart quite honestly the times of greatest fear and some survival stats I'd forgotten about (being slightly worse than the ones that live in my head!).  It also notes the desire to undertake the research I'm now doing.

I then decided to copy the relevant blog posts since my diagnosis into a Word file so that I could re-read and electronically access them more easily.  Perhaps I should say, I started to do that - as it is painstaking work sifting through the archives and copying the posts in (roughly) chronological sequence.  So far I have copied six months worth (the most prolific period I think) and it runs to around 25,000 words.  It was quite interesting to note peaks and troughs in posting along the way.  To be fair, once I get to the end of the 'active treatment' dates the blog posts will thin out dramatically, and I will depend more on the private journal, but I expect that, between blog and journal, I have scribbled (typed) more than 100,000 words related to that part of my life.  That's pretty verbose!

As far as the research itself is going, tomorrow I will close the survey, but in the responses I have received there is plenty of good material with which to work, and I can see a fairly substantial (for which read 'lots of words') paper or two emerging.