I've been a busy busy bee since my last posting on Friday last week. Now where do I start?
I had a wonderful Saturday and it wasn't because T was out all day with her Mum but it did help! :-). It was the weekend and I had decided to do nothing at all again. It seems that I keep saying that on here and it feels strange. Having spent all my life (BC) being busy in providing for family etc I am now thinking about myself at times and the periods of the simple selfish pleasures of just doing things for me stand out like they are being lit by those massive spot lights they have outside buildings in the 50's gangster movies. You know the ones I mean. size of a bus and swivel to cross the beams in the black night sky. Perhaps I'm just thinking of the Batman one and perhaps this time it's a picture of me up there in the sky.... I digress :-)
Now T was on a special mission with her Mum in that she was buying material for wedding dresses, bridesmaid and page boy outfits and halloween costumes. A lot to buy but these two are the sewing/knitting experts who can turn a remnant from the John Lewis scraps bin into a piece of fashion runway art!
In the end they spent about 3 hours in the shop and did a fab deal on everything they needed and the finally arrived home mid afternoon with big smiles on their faces. For you guys out there it must have been like being given the opportunity to spend three hours playing with your childhood favourite Meccano set...
But that was not the end of the retail therapy for the day as we had to go elsewhere to buy me my present. As many of you know, T and I are avid photographers and we bought ourselves a Nikon D300 a few months ago. Now this was a present for both of us to use. Sadly, being the gentleman that I am, I allowed T to play with it first whilst I still used my D70. I should have realised what this would mean. Yep, I've never had the chance to use the D300 yet as T now saw it as her own. Yeah I know my life expectancy is less than hers but could I not at least have some use out of it? :-)
And so, with the help of T's tax rebate from last week, we went off to pick up D300 number two. Patience can really be a virtue and thank you Mr Taxman.
Saturday had been a good day and I had my new toy, my very own that nobody would try and "borrow". Nice toy, lovely toy... as I stroke the boxes with a smile on my face knowing that I would purr if I had a cat's purr making bits!
Lots to do on Sunday but just things for the two of us so all was fun. Having the clocks go back was great on Sunday morning. That extra hour came in mighty handy. In fact, that extra hour meant that we popped out to buy ourselves a chicken for a sunday roast in no time at all... Well I understand what I mean!
As usual, I was king of the kitchen on Sunday being Mr Sunday Roast and we even open a bottle of "good" red wine rather than from the usual 3 for £10 from the Asda cellar. And it was good. That is both the Sunday roast and the wine.
A cosy Sunday evening was had in front of the TV where we indulged in the common British practice of throwing things at the TV when the twins didn't get knocked out again... Oh the joys we have in life :-).
Sadly Sunday came to an end and Monday morning was slipping closer and closer. When I'm Prime Minister I will make every weekend be a three day weekend, we will all retire on our 40th birthdays for 20 years exactly then go back to work until we fall off this mortal coil. Good healthy food will be free to all as a right and 4x4 cars will cost a minimum of £3m, a week to drive. And.... Sorry getting carried away here changing the world but I do enjoy it and you never know...
Monday , monday and I was a traveling again! T dropped me off at the station just before 8am and I was northern bound up to Leamington Spa where I was being picked up my Tim and Simon for a meeting with the Pingles client, fingers crossed that they would like our ideas.
Wow, it was to be an important strokey beard meeting with our contact there but also with their Finance Director and their CEO. Glad I had put on clean knickers and socks this morning!
And it went well :-) However, we need to do some changes and present again this Friday so that they can take our ideas to their board sometime next week. I'm so glad we have a good team at work as there is no way that I could do it all myself in that timeframe.
So Monday afternoon saw me having a nice train journey back home with a smile on my face again.
Later, and please leave now if you are of a delicate nature (and Alan you might want to skip this bit :-) ) we come onto the subject of sex after surgery. Now, being some 9 weeks after surgery and being very comfortable with my stoma bag I had made a call to the Doctors towards the end of last week to make an appointment with my Doc to get a prescription for those wonderful blue pills that I keep being offered by email. Sadly my doc is on holiday so my appointment is not until next Thursday but Monday night I was feeling brave in that I wanted to confront the demons about how much the surgery had removed not only organs but nerve endings and "feelings".
The bits you read before and after surgery does not look good. A man is almost certain to become impotent and that never sits well with a man. Let alone me!!!!!
But, I needed to see if the emotional want was still there and, well to cut a long (ish) story short. Just about everything worked. Still will need those little blue pills but, wow, everything and I mean everything else worked as normal. I had faced my fears and had won. Now I just need a lolly stick and two elastic bands band or that prescription and I will be My Very Happy in a complete sense.
Now, even more, I want the CT scan next week to be good news. I want my life back for as long as possible please. I have dealt with the fear and recovery from a major operation, I can cope with the fear that it might come back at any time, but I know that I can live a happy life, however long it is for. I am in charge, I can live with cancer and not be controlled 100% by it. I have great friends and family who are as supportive of me today as they were when the Big C was first discovered.
Next week will be hard, especially the waiting between the scan on Monday and the results on Friday but whatever happens, I will plan to enjoy every day in between and then after.
Onwards and upwards (with the help of the blue pills!)
Andrew xx
