Last year I wrote a series of blogs on the 'coping' side of cancer, one of which was entitled Laughter is the best medicine. This was my way of saying no matter how tough life is, you need to stay positive and maintain your sense of humour. When I think back to some of the treatments I've had, I sometimes have a little laugh to myself even although I wasn't laughing at the time. My favourite 'treatment…
Cancer isn’t always a one-time event. It can be a chronic (ongoing) illness, much like diabetes or heart disease. Cancer can be closely watched and treated, but sometimes it never completely goes away. The cancer may be 'controlled' with treatment, meaning it might seem to go away or stay the same, and it doesn’t grow or spread as long as you are getting appropriate treatment. Sometimes the treatment shrinks…
As it’s International Nurse day, thought I’d lead today’s blog with a plug for Nurses. In the past 5 years, I’ve met so many wonderful nurses I suspect I almost count some of them as my friends!
I had minimal exposure to nurses throughout my army career. I did spend a night in hospital when I was 16 having been knocked unconscious in the boxing ring (I did warn my Sergeant that just because I…
Despite learning early on in my journey that nutrition was going to be a challenge, I sensed the initial focus of my treatment was on getting rid of as much tumour bulk as possible and then controlling (stabilising) the disease through monitoring and surveillance. Clearly I'm happy about that! However, it eventually became clear that the impact of this constant treatment/controlling, meant that some of the less obvious…
I'm sat next to patients waiting on their chemotherapy treatment - the "Chemo Ward" sign above the door gives it away. I'm here for my 28 day cycle injection of Lanreotide which will hopefully keep my Neuroendocrine Tumours at bay. I look all around, the temporary beds and the waiting room are full and all I can see is people who don't look very well.
No matter how many visits I make, I can't help feeling…
