This is not the news I was looking for

Hi Hils,

Sounds like you need an extra year off that particular chemo, those side-effects would drive a saint to drink. Or hemp, as I believe someone suggested. I think Linda Black reckons it's worth a try, as well as cannabis. She posted somewhere about pot's medicinal properties, especially pain relief. The conspiracy theory is that US health authorities have known about the therapeutic value of pot for years but have suppressed the research findings in deference to the drugs companies. Sounds quite plausible to me. If it would help, I'd sub you the wherewithal. Seriously. Let me know. I've saved a lot by not smoking!

Vitamin B is supposed to be brilliant. Someone who had chemo with me was given injections of it. I do hope it works for you - and selfishly, I don't want your typing fingers to be out of action.

Of course you're sick of it. If i had the power to grant a wish ...

With love and cautious hugs,

Twirly xxx

Hi Hils,

It's enough having to put up with rude nurses and now this. I hope the vitamin B works and above all that the Taxel kicks cancer's bottom good and proper.

Best Welsh cwtches, which are always gentle,

Odin xxx

PS. I'm a fine god that I can't do more than cwtch you!

You're an excellent god, Odin dear, just a trifle unfashionable in this decadent day and age. Gods do need a bit of a power source to draw on. Anyway, cwtches are always welcome. Whatever they are.

My fingers definitely feel better today than they did yesterday, and they felt better yesterday than they did last week, so let's hope we can get back on track. What I'm most afraid of is that they will run out of possible treatments and just leave me. I don't mind palliative care if it comes with counselling and painkillers, but I don't think I could cope with just being dropped out in the cold.

xxx

Oh Hilary, I really wish that there was something I could do or say to help ! It's a beggar when the stuff needed to kill The Crab is hurting you so much ..... that really shouldn't be allowed, so perhaps worth looking into the oral chemo a bit more - or has the Consultant discarded that thought ?

Here's hoping that the Vitamin B Complex pills offer some comfort to your fingers and toes, but maybe an occassional whiff of waccy-baccy wouldn't do much harm ...... ? Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds and all that.

Love and gentle hugs, Joycee xxx

I know this is shocking, coming from an old hippie like me, but I'm not wholly convinced by the whole pot-as-universal-panacea argument, any more than I think Reefer Madness was a documentary. It may work for some people, but I don't know whether I'd be one of them. All it ever used to do was give me a headache!

Anyway: I expect if the oncologist gives up on me, the Macmillan nurses and Sobell House will be able to offer me some help. At least. I hope so.

xxx