PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans are mainly used to detect tumours and metastasis. The patient receives an injection and the scan produces 3D images, highlighting areas where the resultant glucose is prevalent – such as cancer in cells. It seems to be pretty accurate, but is very expensive.
Mine is due on 5 October, almost three months after my treatment ended. This timing is normal, as 10-12 weeks are needed…
My friend Piotr (name changed to hide identity and nationality) had cancer well before me. He is also extremely well read. So when he kindly offered to chat to me after my diagnosis, inevitably one of the topics that came up was which books he had read about cancer and which would he recommend. Without hesitation he named three:
Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sonntag;
The Emperor of…
Yet another uninspiring "update" style blog I'm afraid. But at least a positive one!
Just over ten days ago for my bank holiday entertainment I managed to throw up and throw out my nasal feeding tube. Unable to face going to hospital over a bank holiday weekend I decided rather to interpret this as an omen that I should now try to subsist without it.
Following consultation yesterday with my oncologist and…
I guess this had to happen, though I am feeling better after phone calls with two good friends earlier today. You fight your way through treatment, get that done, fight your way through the physical hell of its effects, start the long, slow recovery and then your focus shifts to the next step. But that next step is weeks away, you are totally exhausted and there is nothing to be done except wait. That next step consists…
This is a very straightforward "update" blog. It is 6 weeks since I completed my course of radio- and chemotherapy, and the course itself was 6 weeks long. I have used the analogy (and it feels more like an analogy than a metaphor) of climbing a mountain. Each week completed represented reaching a camp on the way to the summit (completion of treatment) and each week after was like reaching a camp on the descent. So now…
