Well today started badly, it bloody well chucked it down this morning. I awoke feeling very tired too, another night where I seemed to sleep in two halves - one from about 10-2am then another stretch from 3-6. Unfortunately the second stretch seems to come in spurts of maybe 45 mins or an hour, I am constantly waking up it feels like.
The day improved though, I made contact with the private healthcare people and they finally have gotten everything they need to approve my claim for cancer treatment. This means, initially, that I get a nice little cash payment for my hospital stay which will be very helpful in the coming weeks of treatments. I also think that there is cash payment for each radio and chemo treatment done on the NHS, which given that I have something like 33 of the damned "treatments" (tortures more like) to get through will add up to enough money for my wife to take an extended stay away from work whilst I am being cooked and poisoned.
I also finally got around to having a look at the resources offered by Macmillan. What a great website they have, with communities of fellow cancer patients and blogs of peoples experiences. Actually very helpful, I am seriously impressed with what they offer and I think I will take it to the next step and phone them (I don't make phone calls lightly, I worry about how much the other person will understand) to find out what services they offer locally. One really helpful bit of information I have been given by a community member is for a particular mouthwash. Its not always offered by the NHS, but you can buy it direct and it seems that for 88% patients getting radio and chemo to the head/neck/mouth this stuff actually alleviates the majority of their side effects - mouth ulcers, swelling, lesions, infections, dryness etc - the things that are likely to cause the most pain and problems whilst you are being treated. I will have to find out if I can get it on a prescription, otherwise I will just have to use some of that cash benefit from the private healthcare people to get some. Either way I feel much less worried about the zapping and poisoning now.
