Just got diagnosed with Anal Cancer

Dear Erics Keeper,

I know nothing of your type of cancer, and I cannot give you any advice.

I am sure you will have someone with the same condition as you replying to you very  soon.  I just wanted to say that your blog made me laugh. I have never thought of giving a tumour a name before, why did you choose the name Eric and why a male name?

If you can keep up with the sense of humour I am sure you will beat this disease.

Wishing you the very best

Steffy

Hi to the keeper - one of the first things I ever remember reading when I was first diagnosed, was to name the cancer - it demystifies it! Plus, it apparently makes you feel so much better if you swear at it, like a fishwife (or husband). Obviously, it is much better if you try to do this only on those occasions when you are alone - don't want to frighten the children or the horses, do we (LOL) On a more serious note, your attitude is really good and will help you as you go along. Sorry, I don't have any tips/advice to offer you, but I'm so pleased to read that you have a supportive family. Stay strong, with love from      kate xxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Steffy

Why Eric? Well there was/is a cartoon character called stressed Eric and when he was stressed a vein in his head started throbbing, so I didn't really think up an original name! Eric appeared in much thesame way, initially as an external skin tag that I thought was a deflated Haemmeroid. The Hospital soon put me right on that one! Humour is part of my daily working life, I'm an assessor/instructor at my local FE college so working with people from 14 - 80, yes we get all ages shapes and sizes, a bit like Mataland! Humour gets us through the day. It appears that Eric is, as my wife says "trust you to get" a rare one in an awkward spot!

Am in touch with other "keepers" via the Macmillan site, well must go off for my CT later, when I popped into work following my MRI my colleagues hid the spoons because they were affraid of them sticking to me LOL they are such a help!

Thanks for you best wishes.

Regards Ian (Eric getting dressed up for another photo shoot as he feels they didn't get his best side last week)

Hi Kate

Thanks for the advice, I tend to take out my frustration on the garden, thats where i can get it out of my system. I can't tell you how many weeds have gone on the compost bin called Eric. I think I will call the bin Eric Towers and hope he dissapears along with the weeds. I call my lump Eric because its less scary than cancer, I have found, myself included, that just mentioning the C word makes people feel awkward and tongue tied, then, as I have done in the past, come out with some inane comment which you then kick yourself afterwards for saying.

I have as Winston Churchill used to say "Black Dog days" but i try to work through those and hopefully will continue to.

As i say i'm at the start of my journey and hopefully it will be a short one to recovery.

Thanks for your kind words

Regards Ian (Eric now on his third change of outfit for photo shoot later, I don't think he looks good dressed as a cowboy, but hey if it makes him happy)

Hi EK,

thanks for the info and tell Eric not to forget to smile at the photo shoot, He might even appear on the front page of 'Hello'  magazine.

Regards Steffy