KEY POINTS:
It was mid-way through last year that Allan Peachey developed a grey pallor and became increasingly listless and unenthusiastic.
He jokes now that he began to wonder if it was something to do with being an MP.
In fact, his situation was far more serious - a 12cm cancerous tumour was found on his right kidney and there were fears the cancer might have spread.
What followed was a nightmare few weeks for the Tamaki MP and former Rangitoto College principal, who is now preparing to return to work after almost five months off.
Looking back, he says he had not felt great for three to four years, how long the surgeons say the tumour could have been growing.
"It's not something that's picked up by having regular medicals and that sort of thing. You need a scan to pick it up or something dramatic to happen. So it had been growing there for goodness knows how long," Mr Peachey said.
"In the middle of last year, my body started to shut down. My mind shut down. I lost interest. I didn't want to eat. I was bored with everything. I couldn't think.
"And then - I don't know how graphic you want me to be - I got up to watch the All Blacks play that game we lost to South Africa and I passed some red stuff - it was more than blood - and I thought, 'This isn't flash'."
That was in early September.
"I got medical attention straight away and thank heavens I did, because within two weeks I was having the operation and having it [the kidney and the tumour] cut out."
A few days beforehand he'd been told the doctors believed it was restricted to the kidney, and that was confirmed after the operation.
The surgeons told him one in five people had only one kidney and many people died without even knowing "but they reckon you can function on half a kidney".
Mr Peachey had no chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which he describes as "a good news and a bad news story, because at the moment there's nothing there to treat, so there's a question mark as to what caused it".
"If there had been something, they could give me chemo, then they could zap it and that would be good. So I'm undergoing regular tests and scan and x-rays so they can keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't settle again.
"I'll be very, very unlucky if it does recur, but there is a risk that it could so I'll just keep my fingers crossed. But they reckon if I get through my first year, things will be sweet.
"Looking back, the real message is not to overlook something out of the ordinary. I only passed that stuff once. It would have been easy to have pretended it didn't happen or to say I'll do something next time it happens.
"The real message is to act as soon as something like that happens."
Since then, he's been "fighting back to health" and doing plenty of exercise.
"I feel better now than I can remember feeling for three or four years. It's not like being born again but it's like suddenly discovering that life is a hell of a lot better than you thought it was.
"I've set myself to do the [Wellington] Round the Bays. I'll be walking, not running because I've still got a dreadful wound that is a bit sensitive.
"If that goes well, then the Auckland marathon marks the first year of the operation so I'm going to have a crack at the half marathon. That's going to be my act of defiance, my celebration."
Mr Peachey said his experience of the health system was wonderful. "I couldn't fault it. But I had the huge advantage of medical insurance."
There were years when he and his wife had four young children and it was hard to make payments. "But the payments look real cheap now. I'll never complain about medical insurance premiums again...
"I now regard myself as the second-least-experienced MP in my camp [after newcomer Katrina Shanks, who has replaced Don Brash] because I've missed a whole heap of stuff. But I'm just happy that I'm fit enough to go back."
