Hi Julie

Hoping for the best results possible on Monday,

Steve

Hi Julie

I wish you both all the best for tomorrow.   Take care. 

Grace.

Hi Julia and David, I just want to add my best wishes, great big hugs and loads of good luck for your scan results tomorrow.  I know this will be a very emotional time for you, I know that David has fought as hard as is humanly possible whilst suffering horribly from the chemo side effects.  So, know that everyone here is right behind you and I’m sending you healing thoughts and prayers and you will be in my thoughts tomorrow.  (((((((((((Julie)))))))))) ((((((((((David)))))))))).

Love

Crystal xx

Hi ttere Crystal, Steve and Liesha,

Sorry I've been off the radar for a while . Had a few minor adventuers but back on track now. Am under hospice pain management team and I think we are finally getting on top of the pain and also getting my appetite back. Was down to 54 kg but now tracking up above 55 and food is beginning to taste like food again. Finished radiation 14 days ago and it can take that long or more for full effect of the treatment .

Have been inundated with visitors which is ok when you are ok but not so great when its a not so good day  -- you will all know where I'm coming from. 

Anyway thanks so much for your thoughts and wishes I tust this finds you all getting into the xmas spirit. To answer your question Liesha  our xmas's are usually spent outdoors on the beach or the water - hard for you to imagine in the other hemisphere. But we still decorate the shop windows with holly and snow in deference to our european heritage.

So will be thinking of you all over the festive period.

Cheers Ben. 

((((((Ben))))) It’s lovely to hear from you as always.  I was getting concerned about you but I knew you’d be a force to be reckoned with and sturdy as a rock, like the name Ben, (Scottish mountain). I’m sure your ‘few minor adventures’ were of some concern to Sharon, but it’s good news that you’re regaining weight and that the hospice is managing that pain.  Whilst it’s great to have visitors, who naturally all want to see you, it must have been really hard for you with the fatigue and pain to cope with. 

Christmas Spirit?!!  Well the cat’s made a start – on his usual tipple and I’m slowly getting into the mood by thinking about sunny holidays next year Lol.  Italy is usually at the top of the list.  The truth is that the shops have put me off Christmas.  They’ve had festive goods and decorations since Septemeber so it’s all a bit worn now and instead of enticing I find it off-putting.  Still, I always do enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as it does feel special and always has.  I don’t know about you, but the food is too much for me to manage and turkey unfortunately is no longer on my menu, although I will cook it for Nicu.  One year we celebrated Christmas in Florida and it was spent on the beach.  At night all the palm trees were lit up with fairy lights and we sat outside drinking cocktails and feeding hotdogs to the turtles that came up from the river at the bottom of my sister’s garden.

Anyway Ben, I hope that you continue to gain weight and keep that pain under control.  Most of all I hope that you and Sharon can still do the things you want to do in between the bouts of tiredness. 

Take good care Ben.  Hugs to both you and Sharon.

Love Crystal xx

Julie, you’re especially in my thoughts today. xx  Good morning to Everyone else. xx

Hi everyone, hope you are all as well as can be and cosy for christmas except for you Ben, hope you dont get too hot !!  We are off to spain for xmas, back boxing day. Eds blood were too low for chemo 2nd cycle so will try again end of december. meanwhile he just wants to sit in promenade cafe n watch the world go by so off we go, all being well.

Went for a xmas lunch at local Booths store which was dreadful. Everything either from freezer or tin, ugh. all topped off with lumpy dark brown gravy !!!!!!

Still off to watch grandson in nativity play this pm, got loads of tissues as Im very emotional just now. Then I must finish all xmas shopping as we are away for the actual day.

I wish you all a peaceful christmas, take the bestest care of each other, and will post when we return, love leisha xxxxxxx

Hi All

Spanish Santa and sangria, or Kiwi Kris Kringle – either way, Christmas in the sun sounds perfect to me. 

Leisha, sorry that you didn’t enjoy that Christmas lunch at Booths as I know you were looking forward to the turkey.  We don’t have Booths in this neck of the woods so I can’t comment on the place, but frozen and tinned!!!  I’m sure you’ll be able to make up for it and cook the traditional festive dinner when you get back to the UK.  Whenever I’ve been to a nativity play I’ve taken the tissues for crying with laughter Lol.  They are so funny and so cute.  Once years ago, a little lad was dressed as a sheep in the nativity and he said, ‘I’m the Lamb of God baaah’.  Then he shouted, ‘I like mint sauce with gravy on my lamb.’  Anyway, I’m sure your little grandson gave a lovely performance.  I wish you and Ed much happiness, peace and love this Christmas. xxxx  

Ben, you’re often in my thoughts and I hope that you will be able to have a rest from treatment and find yourself feeling pain-free and really well over this Christmas.  If you’re up to it I hope that you and Sharon can have a barbie on the beach and a spot of surfing on the breakers, (well ok a paddle then).  I’m sure all your grandchildren will bring you lots of fun and laughter, just don’t overdo it playing with their computer games.  Sending you and Sharon hugs and warmest wishes for a really happy and warm Christmas. xxxx

Steve, I’ve seen you around the forum here and there so I know you’re ok, but I regret that you haven’t written anything in the Demon recently.  Knowing you, you will be up to your eyes in projects and happy as a sand boy with a drill or paint or machinery parts Lol.  I’m just pulling your leg really.  I wish you, your wife and family a wonderful, happy and fun-filled Christmas, as well as some much-needed relaxation for you, so put away the tools and get out some games to play. Xxxx

To All who read this and sometimes post here, I wish you a heart-warming Christmas with your loved ones.  May you find peace and happiness in the quiet times together and laughter in unexpected places.  Merry Christmas.

Love Crystal xxxx

Hi, Richard again.  I last posted to this thread in September and things have unfortunately gone rather pear-shaped since then.  Early  in November I had my worst fears confirmed - my stomach cancer has returned and I know that is seriously bad news...  I started more chemo - a regime called "GemCarbo" and that will run over the X-mas/ new year.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and let you know I am facing this next battle as best I can but it is much harder this time - my consultant has been pretty frank with me about what this means for me.   But then again, the prognosis is so vague/open that it emphasises just how unpredictable this disease is and that it is always good to look on the positive side.

take care everyone,

Richard

Hello again Richard, I remember you very well from September and I’m just so very sorry that you now have to fight another battle.  I can well imagine your worries and fears because I, and perhaps many of us here, probably face these thoughts in our darker moments, so we can empathise with you and share your doubts and fears.  As you go through the treatment this Christmas be constructive in any way you can.  Do the small things that mean a lot, stay focussed on your family and take strength and warmth from them.  Focus on the treatment too, accept it and let it make you well.  Apart from the chemo, have the doctors discussed targeted therapy with you?  It’s a therapy that specifically triggers the immune system to recognise cancer cells and then attack the cells.  It has a name, but I can’t recall it right now.  As you so rightly say, this illness is completely unpredictable and couple that with modern drugs, it’s no wonder that prognoses are vague and open-ended.  So this is in your favour, and although the doctors are obliged to give you various scenarios, they will be doing their very best to get things under control.  I’m sure they can do it.  Come back to talk any time Richard.

Crystal xxx