January 2026

„What a year, eh?“
„Peter, it was just January…“

Maybe you know the meme and imagine me drinking at the bar, which would be a bit funny in itself as I don’t drink any longer. Gave up on alcohol completely following the start of the ADT¹, hence I didn’t have a drink in like 5 months.
I don’t even miss it and will talk about my endevours in a separate post soon. If you are interested in alcohol-free beers, come here again and you will find a link to the post hopefully soon.

Back to the topic. January pretty much began with hope and heartache. Hope, because the test results of the bloodwork came back with a positive outlook, PSA dropped down to 0,11 after 0,29 just 5 weeks prior. Testosterone level is not as low as expected, but I am not willing to change medication yet. I am taking Relugolix once a day (pill) and so far the side effects have been manageable though ever increasing. My main concern are the mood swings and increased phases of anxiety and depression.
The fatigue and the loss of libido I can deal with and it doesn’t feel like suffering, just a price to pay.
The psychological effects however have contributed to several very dire times this month.
I don’t really want to go into details, as some of these details bring fragility and pain even now and I am working hard on finding ways to avoid situations like there were in January at least on two occasions, each lasting for several days. Surely not everything will be calm and chill, when two people meet, who are riding the highest of emotional waves – up- as well as downwards but the amount of grief and pain were beyond anything sane and sound. It is not my intention to downplay my ‚efforts‘ in making that happen and blaming it all on the medication, but it certainly didn’t make things easier.

The next thing to happen in this challenge of a month was the breakdown of our heating system over the weekend on 18th of January. With lots of improvisation we managed to not freeze completely, but the disappointment over the performance of the supplier of our heatpump remains. Customer orientation is not their strong suit and I am worried, what the future will bring.
The problem finally got resolved after one week and a positive outcome is a much better communication with the electrician. Small steps. Unfortunately we had some of the coldest days and highest electricity prices during the downtime and it remains unclear whether we will reimbursed for all of that.
On the positive side: There were some wonderful days with snow and spectacular sunsets and short but nice hikes in the snow, a new routine with espresso and sweets after lunch and relaxed evenings with shows and movies, dice games, handball and the cats. At the cabin, in Kronberg or Darmstadt.
I received two speeding tickets, fortunately not much over the limit on both occasions and therefore not too expensive. Being very relaxed about the second one, I did not challenge it, though as you can see, the picture is of the funny kind.
Looking forward to February and some better times overall.