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My friend Piotr (name changed to hide identity and nationality) had cancer well before me. He is also extremely well read. So when he kindly offered to chat to me after my diagnosis, inevitably one of the topics that came up was which books he had read about cancer and which would he recommend. Without hesitation he named three:
Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sonntag;
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
I guess there are two main reasons why one...
Good evening,
Following a brief hospital stay last night I am in my own bed watching a program called 'The making of you', it has made me reflective. It is talking about gene mutations that happened in the womb when we were created. I wonder, did something that happen in the womb make it more likely I would get cancer? What if it did? What could that mean for future medicine? Could it have been changed?
It also naturally makes me emotional as I think on our children. The pull of love you...
My friend called on Sunday, to ask if it was okay for him to stay on Friday. Of course I said it was fine but reminded him that I had my operation on Tuesday and I might not be my usual hostess self.
Friday came and although I was tired, cooking wasn't impossible. Thanks to the dishwasher I didn't have to clean up too. Friday became Saturday and I was starting to flag. He doesn't do sitting down, so he drove me for a brief trip to a garden centre and a DIY shop, by dinner time cooking was hard work...
When I joined a trial for an online course in the autumn of 2013 I had no idea that I would make lasting friendships, we have ups and downs but still stand together and in a week when one amongst us is struggling, my aunt has successfully had another lung tumour removed and the cat will be having a suspicious lumpectomy (even my cat may have cancer, don’t laugh!) I think of that special friendship with gratitude...
You're holding on,
and we are to...
Evening all...
We are back after our trip to Worcester for me to attend a couple of days at the University in preparation for my new course starting this coming Monday.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. A room full of like minded people all excited about the course and training to help new parents on their parenting journey. I am now also the proud owner of a demonstration doll and pelvis in readiness for running an ante natal course.
Worcester was a lovely place to be, A and the twins came with me and they...
The day of surgery wasn't quite what I had expected, it was almost pleasant. I'm no masochist but the people I met, made it an awful lot easier than the mental melee I was prepared for.
Putting guide wires in place on both sides was at times comical. The positions I found myself clamped to a mammogram, I'm sure would have challenged a yoga guru. The lovely ladies in Radiology were so patient when my escaping boobs ( or me ) wouldn't do as directed. You can't blame them (the boobs), I think...
Yet another uninspiring "update" style blog I'm afraid. But at least a positive one!
Just over ten days ago for my bank holiday entertainment I managed to throw up and throw out my nasal feeding tube. Unable to face going to hospital over a bank holiday weekend I decided rather to interpret this as an omen that I should now try to subsist without it.
Following consultation yesterday with my oncologist and ENT specialist, it looks like I might succeed in my goal of ditching the tube...
Feldman returns.
One night without my beloved tamezepam and I'm stuffed. I didn't pop one last night because of the anaesthetic today; I woke up at the witching hour; the grand total of an hour and a half's sleep. The zombie returns.
Many moons ago, I used to lead ghost hunts in a dilapidated Victorian theater. At eight o'clock, guests would arrive full of enthusiasm and energy, excited and looking forward to being scared witless. However, after five or six hours and an inevitable lack...
I don't have the time to be ill. So I decided this weekend, I wasn't.
Armed with a good nights' sleep, praise be to tamezepam, yesterday got off to a good start. By midday I had flown around the supermarket for the grocery shopping, dead headed the flowers, mown the grass, scrubbed clean the bathroom and made a Bruce Bogtrotter chocolate cake. By tea time, I had hoovered and dusted the entire house, cooked a tagine for dinner and washed all the bedding.
Today's goal was equally ambitious;...
Afternoon blog buddies,
I am just back from having a minor operation to change my stent to make sure my kidney is kept free of blockages. I am scoffing cake because well that is allowed when you have just had an operation isn't it?
Hopefully the stent change will mean an end to the pain I was experiencing on my right hand side. I also have a date for a head scan, Dr Oncologist rang me the day after I spoke to my Macmillan nurse and readily agreed to a scan to put my mind at rest. A good doctor...
