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.
Very tentative about this but here goes. I have been thinking about cancer a lot recently - mostly unresolved feelings welling up uncontrollably eg I put on some music to log into this site for the first time and broke down crying for a few minutes. Then my son came in to clean his football boots so I wiped my face, thought what I would say if he said 'are you CRYING?' ...but he didn't.
He's 17 and I had cancer before he was born, so you might wonder why I am writing this now. I cant...
This is a difficult subject. I’ve talked about it in other blog posts, but I believe it is so important it warrants more focus. In facing up to melanoma or other cancer being positive is essential, it may be hard sometimes, but it’s possible, and can provide benefits to physical as well as mental health. State of mind can be very powerful in challenging disease and illness.
There’s a huge range of emotions when you’re faced with the realities of having cancer, and not one of us know exactly...
Gina was diagnosed with lung cancer at just 34. She's kindly shared with the Community her experience of being diagnosed, and the shock and impact being diagnosed with cancer had on her at such a young age.
If, like Gina, you were diagnosed with cancer at a young age, go ahead and share your experiences with us in the comments section below. You might also like to visit our Diagnosed at a young age group to talk about and share your experiences with others of a similar age.
If you saw me walking...
Physical health and mental attitude can be your strongest weapons in the fightback against cancer. This is a story of how diet and personal fitness can help you make a good recovery from surgery and respond better to immunotherapy. It's from my own personal experience, which I'd like to share to encourage others, and it would be great to hear of others experiences too.
From November 2017 to March 2018 I had three operations to tackle the melanoma that had grown in my leg. The last one, a lymph...
So my mum Bev has a bit of a habit of putting things off until the last minute, if procrastination was a sport she'd probably be the World Champion.
So when she actually acts on something the first time around, you know it's pretty important. About 2 or so years ago she mentioned that she was having a dull chest pain that came and went, "Have you booked in to see the GP?" "Yes, actually!".
And she had, and she went.
"So, what did she say?".
That time around...
A little bit of background first. My melanoma started on my upper leg just above my knee, on pretty much the line where my shorts would end. I was diagnosed on 1st November 2017, some months after earlier wrong diagnoses, but that’s another story for another blog post. The tumour was removed in the same month and I was told a wide area excision would be needed after some time.
I was asked to consider a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB), that would be conducted at the same time as the wide area...
This is a question I asked myself throughout my journey with melanoma, but particularly at the start of 2019 as I was half way through my immunotherapy course of ipilimumab and nivolumab combination infusions.
I recently finished that series of four combination infusions and I've come through it pretty unscathed. I have some very good results and I have now commenced on a single drug infusion programme with Nivolumab administered every 28 days for up to to two years. So far so good.
My journey with...
It is now nearly a year since I had the "All clear". How do I feel ...... a little lost and unsure. I know that I am in remission, which is great, as I have been told however, with a low immunity I am exposed, more than most to the slightest germ, infection and ailment. I want to feel well and as I used to but it is not to be. Take good care of yourself is the message I have taken away.
Post Chemo I contracted Bowens disease (pre cancerous cells on my back). Creams taken over several weeks...
It’s been almost 2 months since I last blogged.
It might seem like I have had a dreary time with nothing even remotely amusing to write about.
The truth is that following the end of radiotherapy I was so exhausted I couldn’t be bothered! The 2 weeks after treatment ended were tough. And then there was Christmas and the kids were home which was lovely. And then I just got out of the habit!
So life after treatment has been a slow but steady climb back to the world. From one day to the next...
Last week I had a 12 month(ish) follow-up with the Radiotherapy Oncologist. I last saw her in Jan 2018, 2 months after my last radiotherapy session (chemo had finished a couple of days earlier). In the interim of course I had an MRI and an ultrasound.
The appointment confirmed that all is well; the mouth has healed very well (both from surgery and the radiation); saliva production may improve further over next 12 months, but she also said it is not unheard of for there to be improvements even after...
