Blogging can be a great way to journal your experiences and share with others. Why not create your own cancer journey blog, or have a read of other blogs created by our members?
Unsure how to get started? Take a look at our help pages on blogs.
Days 1-67
Nov - Dec 2019 - Experienced what I can only describe as a heavy pressure sensation in my chest and after being unable to get a GP appointment my nurse practitioner prescribed me with couple of different inhalers which we tried over 6 wk period but they made no difference so she sent me for a chest X-ray and an ECG. Had those done on 23rd Dec and had call from GP within an hour to say chest X-ray showed lump on left side and he was doing urgent referral. Shock is an understatement, not...
Chemo has so many nasty side effects and yet often the initial worry focuses on hair loss. So why is hair so important?
It is not just chemotherapy that causes hair loss. There are lots of causes of alopecia from male pattern baldness to skin diseases. Some of these are linked to stress and some cause scarring, permanent hair loss. The result with all of them is huge upset. So much of one’s appearance, one’s self-identity depends on hair. To many people bad hair means bad health or poor nutrition...
Hello again
My 8th post on this journey. Well if you have read my previous posts then you will know I had a suspected recurrence of cancer in my prostrate 12months after My nanoknife procedure. My 12 months post op PSA blood test came back with a rise from 0.3 to 2.7 next came an MRI scan and another guided biopsy. In May 2019 it was confirmed that I had cancer cells left behind after my nanoknife op. Same grading as before. It seems that prof Emberton hadn’t got everything on first attempt....
In today’s news blog, we hear from Katie who works in our media team here at Macmillan. She’s writing today to tell our Community all about a new podcast, ‘Talking Cancer’, that’s been created with the aims to share experiences and hear from people affected by cancer.
Hi everyone!
We wanted to be the first to tell you that the first two episodes of ‘Talking Cancer’, the new national Macmillan podcast, are now downloadable on all main podcasting platforms, including...
It seems like February has come around at lightning speed, and despite the dramatic weather of the last few weeks there do seem to me small hopeful signs of spring in the air. Today we have put together some amazing wellbeing tips and expressive thoughts that we have collected from the Community. So why not put the kettle on, settle down on the sofa and take a moment to look through our favourite wellbeing tips of the moment?
‘Imagine being in a room where you cannot reach the door, after each session...
So, mentally and physically I've not been doing too well recently. The weather has increased the pain I'm in, as has the housework i've been doing - I cleared a room, rmoved a carpet, laid a new carpet, then bought and built furniture to turn it into a craft room. The pain has stopped me from doing things I might otherwise have done and the house is in a bit of a state, and my weight has stopped decreasing because I've been unable to exercise. My legs hurt and all I want to do is sleep because my...
Today we are really pleased to welcome a new guest blogger for the Community News, Amanda-Jayne. Amanda-Jayne was diagnosed with Breast cancer in June 2019 and used poetry and journaling to diarise her experience throughout. Amanda-Jayne has very kindly sent through her poetry and writing to us here and we are going to be sharing it with you over the next few weeks. So, here is volume one of Amanda- Jayne’s journey through breast cancer in verse and word.
Amanda-Jayne with her...
Hi everyone,
We’re posting this afternoon to let you know about some planned Community ‘downtime’ which will be happening next Tuesday, 11th February from 7am-1pm.
We are carrying out essential maintenance which will better protect the Community and its users from security risks.
We have tried to coordinate this to cause minimum disruption and whilst we are hopeful that the site might be up and running again before the end of the planned downtime, this may not be the case.
We’re...
The latest Cystoureteroscopy and precursor CT Scan with contrast have shown clear and paved the way for the next batch of BCG once they take this damn stent out. Yes, I’m lucky to be going on, to still have a pretty good quality of life, a reasonably good one in fact, but at times I can’t help wondering how much longer this has to go on.
Not a great one for using the words many find helpful, such as Journey or battle, I tend to see it as just bad luck. Ok there are times I think it may...
Benedict and his mum at his master’s graduation in 2018.
Benedict used to work as part of Macmillan’s Community Team, he got in touch recently to send us a piece he wrote about coping with the grief of losing his mum on Easter Sunday last year. We wanted to share it with you all today, and we want to thank Benedict for writing such an honest, open, and powerful piece of writing for us.
I’m not really sure why I’m writing this. Aside from a few tentative forays into journalism during...
