Lovely morning chit-chat thread- April 2025

Great news, very pleased for you

Hi Folks 

sorry I've been offline fr so long - but I am still here!

Enjoying this unexpected spring sunshine and the mass of daffodils in my garden. I was out gardening yesterday and being sooooo thankful I can do it this year as I couldn't last year.

But wow the winter was hard and lots of unexpected trips to hospital.

Its been tough and I took a nose dive when one of the ladies I've met through hospital died suddenly and she had not been as ill as me so it shook me a lot. 

Also I've been thinking about how to live each day but then balance that by making plans - how do you all cope with the crazy rollercoaster of it all.

Hiya Thea,  I am new so nice to meet you.

You threw that question up just as I am flat, exhausted with all the medicals, waiting for results, cancelling trips when appointments come up out of the blue. The tiredness and fatigue etc

I sat here today trying to decide if it's cancer fatigue or a type of depression

I am usually a fighter or quite a content sort of person. But this can be very overwhelming.

I see others on here doing life and I go wow. I just don't know how.

I get on with everyday stuff, even though I have to pace myself

I've taken to list making so I pace myself.

As for planning ahead. That is complicated isn't it. Managing treatments and appointments. 

I have a holiday booked in Wales in May. I have looked at the cancer units around the area so hopefully if i am mid treatment and a problem occurs I know where to go.

No doubt the rest of this forums clan will come up with some great advice..

You're definitely not alone sweetie 

Hugs and love

Hi TheaT, sounds like you've been through a lot and come out the other side. Good to read you can enjoy gardening again. I personally try and live my life meaningfully every day and keep plans fairly short-term. That's the problem with our rollercoaster journey - one day good, next day perhaps a little less good. But I find plans also give you something to look forward to. Thailand in late autumn is one of my goals. Sometimes just doing a bit of light gardening is fine, sometimes just relaxing and reading in a garden chair works best. I know from this forum that attitude is fundamental to any kind of progess and that's what I have been working. I hope you find the balance that is right for you. Have a great evening.

It may not seem much to you Patrick, but u replying to Thea just made me understand I am not tired through a depressed state. I am doing just as u are doing. So thankyou for bringing my normality back to me. Don't think my ever busy brain has realised it just can't make my body do the stuff it wants anymore.  Way forward is to slow my brain down..

Ty...looking forward to seeing your photos from Thailand later in the year..

Hi Fleabane, overthinking things has always been one of my problems, even pre- diagnosis. But the new focus which we all have with the incurable label has made me rethink and unleashed a resilience I never knew I had. Quality tops my list even if other people and sometimes me don't really understand the gear shifts you have to make. Have a lovely evening.

Hi Thea, it's lovely to hear from you again, and there's no need to apologise, ours is a bumpy road, and I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, it's heartbreaking losing those who travel the same journey as us. but a reminder to make the most of what time we have, 

I take each day as it comes, generally I'm ok, slow and limited, but can manage ok a fair amount of the time, I can also prepare for days out or breaks, by rearranging appointments well in advance, and making sure I'm well rested too, but being prepared for the unexpected, which is a constant companion at times 

Wonderful to hear your able to do some gardening again, a small victory, which are always welcome.

Enjoy the sunshine 

Eddie xx 

Hi Patrick

I tell my folks that I am very good at bouncing back but inside it takes its toll. My dad taught me 'I can and I will' but its not that easy is it? Cancer brings its own special kind of problems and as you say its impossible to know what each day will be until you get up. I desperately want to plan ahead for some things to look forward to now that I have got the possibility of doing it. I've had to prove to myself and the family that I have the strength and it won't kill me! How do you find the support of your oncology team? Do they encourage and help you to go on trips? I have a bucket list and would love so much to get at least the main ones ticked off

Hi Eddie

it is good to be back with you all and know you all get it. I am trying to make the most of it and bounce back after those tough days. I have been dreaming about 'normal' but know that is never going to happen.

But today I realised how far I had come from when I first joined here and was scared because I couldn't use my right arm and for a few months couldn't do stairs or go out of the house. Now I can even manage to drive a bit and do some gardening. If I could just not be scared of gong back there then I might be able to plan for the other things that might bring some joy back into my life.

for now the sunshine will do it ;)

Hi Fleabane

nice to meet you too. I have never been to Wales and had planned a two week tour around it in my wee car just before I got my diagnosis. I hope you get there and have a wonderful time and come back and tell us all about it. Maybe I can get to do my trip sometime. 

And we all get really tired days. I thought a lot of my complete exhaustion and pain was the chemo until I had to come off it for a while because I had a chest infection. Then I realised it was the cancer zapping all my energy. That made me sad and mad and determined to get back on the chemo and beat this cancer into behaving itself!