Dignity Pants and other misnomers

MacMillan bloggers, I thank you

2025-01-13T17:41:05Z

Hello, its been a while since I last posted here. December was a bit of a month and Christmas was a blur spent in the company of the ‘Cheese Eating Assassins’. I hope to do a longer post on these guys. And that’s not why I am writin...(read more)

To die or to 'assisted' die?

2024-11-28T13:05:26Z

That is the question or will be this week for our elected representatives. I now fall squarely into the category of people that the proposed legislation is intended to apply to. Two weeks ago my palliative chemotherapy was stopped. The drugs did not ...(read more)

Zen and the Art of Dying Gracefully

2024-11-04T15:09:54Z

In ‘I am the Cancer Guy’, I referred to the fact that I have been having counselling and how this has helped me; most significantly in helping me come to terms with my terminal diagnosis and expected short lifespan. Two days ago, I had my...(read more)

I am the 'Cancer Guy'

2024-09-25T13:45:44Z

I am now one week into cycle two of six of the palliative chemotherapy course that may slow the spread of my now body-wide cancer. But that is not what I want to write about right now, I will come back to the medical stuff. In ‘One Trick Pony,&...(read more)

Fame at last!

2024-09-03T20:05:39Z

'Jon Holmes says the C Word' is a BBC radio series and podcast. In most episodes he speaks with famous men who have cancer AND in two episodes he speaks with more mortal types about their cancer experience. And one of those mortals (definitel...(read more)

One Trick Pony

2024-08-24T10:00:40Z

It’s been a month since I was told that the major ‘curative’ total pelvic exenteration surgery was no longer an option. I think that I have been mentally only semi-present for much of the time. Excuse me, if I use this entry to expl...(read more)

For Whom the Bell Tolls

2024-07-26T06:26:06Z

It’s been a roller coaster 24 hours. Yesterday was an Oncology review at Musgrove Park in Taunton. I met my regular oncologist and one of the named nurses to find out what the latest scans showed. Two weeks ago, I had an MRI scan and a CT scan....(read more)

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast (directors cut)

2024-07-23T09:31:01Z

Well, no kippers, just toast. The high pace of my medical treatment continues. On 2nd July, we have a video consultation with a heart procedure specialist from the Royal Brompton hospital. They describe the ‘mitra clip’ procedure; feeding...(read more)

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for Breakfast (preview)

2024-07-15T18:38:57Z

Monday 15th July 2024 Lights, Camera, Action! 8am today the phone rings, and it's Royal Brompton Hospital. In short bish, bash, bosh... Off to London on the dawn train tomorrow. Thursday is 'Mitra Clip' heart valve repair. Home on Friday ...(read more)

London Calling, again!

2024-07-07T19:37:20Z

Sunday 23rd June and I head back to London. I have an 8am appointment for an angiogram at Northwick Park Hospital. It’s a pretty awful journey. I get to the station to find my fast train has been cancelled; but I’m just in time for an ear...(read more)

London Calling!

2024-07-04T18:57:16Z

I am now well and truly in the clutches of a London cardiac team. I have described how what felt like imminent major cancer surgery was cancelled by the anaesthetist’s concern that my heart may not cope with the 15-hour operation. After several...(read more)

Do Bears Sh*t in the Woods?

2024-07-03T19:58:11Z

Well, it’s been nearly six weeks since I finished part four of this journal and quite a lot has been going on. We have just past the very middle of the year and Stonehenge has been temporarily defaced by the ‘Just Stop Oil’ group, I...(read more)

Smelling the Roses

2024-05-15T16:13:41Z

I was at the gym a week or so back and a couple of other old blokes were bemoaning various wrongs. One of them asked me if I complained about everything too? It may be a right or expectation to become more reactionary as we get older, and I don&rsquo...(read more)

Rollin' Like Thunder...

2024-05-02T06:28:20Z

It’s been nearly a year since I was last up writing before dawn; way back in a different epoch, ‘The Waiting Game’ described a sleepless night and seeing in the very early June dawn on Minehead seafront. Twenty plus entries and 11 m...(read more)

In Dawn’s Cold Light

2024-04-29T13:03:20Z

I am a morning person, at least I am now that I am a bit older and my hell raising youth* is becoming a distant memory. I love the early morning, especially at this time of year and I have sat in the garden today as a chunk of moon was gently replace...(read more)