Awake and up all night

Hospital parking: It took me 1.5 hours today to find a space. Loads of people must have been unable to keep their appointments. Wouldn't even be surprised if staff were late as well. I was going for A&E (urethral catheter blockage), so apart from trying to walk whilst cross legged and then having to sit for hours in waiting rooms, I was eventually sorted out with a replacement.  I saw one poor lady in A&E run out of endurance, saying she'd drive back home then call an ambulance as it might be quicker. How the nurses stay sane with the constant pressure is beyond me.

Oh, absolutely.  I'm afraid it can be like a cattle market and I've every sympathy for the staff.

On a couple of occasions, whilst waiting in A&E, we've been 'treat' to drunks rolling in, bellowing obscenities and lashing out at the nurses.  Security and police hastily arrived on the scene.  Some of said drunks were addressed by their first names, so for them it must be a kind of ritual after kicking-out time, rounded off by a trip to A&E and a potential night in a cell.  Crikey.

I've decided to be sensible and try for sleep.  Thank you for the chat Ray, so as Samuel Pepys wrote "and so to bed".  Night x

Nights are so hard.  

They are indeed. Xx

Hi Gill, thanks for the reply... I seem to be tolerating the paclitaxel pretty well thanks, just a little bit of nausea and tiredness at times... sleeping has improved but now I'm struggling with cancer nightmares... despite getting good clearance and good pet scan results I'm finding it hard to stop fearing the return of bad news

Morning Biggie.  That's great about coping with your treatment, but not good with those thoughts.  Welcome to the Doubting Thomas club.  Debs and me are fully paid up members, even though we've been told to stop it off after getting superb news about our long suffering fellas very recently. 

It's hard but I'm trying to accept it and kick it to the kerb.  Here's what I do; each time that pretentious know-all starts niggling me about making a comeback, I tell it I've been told the opposite by someone who actually knows what their talking about, so do one!  Then I'll concentrate on something else. 

Give it a whirl, have a brief conversation in your head with a very unwelcome visitor and imagine the satisfaction of loudly slamming the door after kicking it out.  If nothing else, you'll have won a battle today.

Righto, have you been given something for the nausea or are you coping ok without?  As for tiredness, rest up whenever you can to help your recovery.  Three months post RT my bloke's still got fatigue but I don't mind at all when he slopes up for a kip.  When I think about it he's not much different in that department - he was always nodding off and could sleep on a washing line.  I've got the opposite - I can't compute the meaning of sleep.  It takes all sorts.

Now have a great day and take care.

Gill xx 

Hi Gill,

Funny you should say that, my middle name is actually Thomas lol... mum often called me doubting Thomas growing up

I've been given metoclopramide anti sickness tablets. I try to avoid pills if I can but this morning I gave in and took one and feel a bit better though still not much energy... meant to be going to see 28 years later at the cinema tonight so will take another beforehand so I can try and enjoy it better.

So sorry to read all that your hubby has been through but admire your strengths for coming through it!

Steve x

Hi all, Just to let you know I’ve not suddenly started to sleep at night but we are on holiday and my husband forgot to check we had WiFi!!!

I have brought my crochet but I was following a pattern ONLINE so now I’m stuck with that too, so just doing something mi know.

i hope you are all good. We are in a pub/restaurant that is very noisy so don’t want Vince to be sitting here for long. I used t9 say “why come out and go on the internet” now I know why.

love to all, hope you are managing a sleep.

Heaven knows when I will get back on so bye from me!!

I always think it's ironic that people really could do with good health to have the endurance for A&E!!

Hi again Big Stevie!

Sorry for the late reply but I've been trying to catch up with jobs on the home front - managed most of them.

The film you're going to see, or maybe have seen by now, is it part of the zombie franchise?  If it is, we've seen the first two and enjoyed them as good old edge of the seaters.  Hopefully you'll come back and give us your critique; if your review is well received, you could become Awake's very own IMDb maestro.  Do you often go to the cinema or was it a one-off?  Whichever, I hope it was worth seeing but the massive screen and surround sound should compensate if it was dodgy.  Fingers crossed you enjoyed it!

Ah, the Doubting Thomas thingy - I possess mystical intuitive powers you know...I don't really but thought you might be impressed  

Oh and thank you for what you wrote about my H.  Even when things seemed insurmountable we refused to give up fighting.  I'm sending you that strength to grab hold of in your personal battle.

Hugs, Gill xx