BBC coverage of HPV vaccine rollout

There is lots the BBC doesn’t get right much of it purposely 

All we can do is to take every opportunity to make our case. 

It does get a mention though not in a meaningful way 

“Boys have also been given the HPV vaccine since 2019, which helps to protect them against anal, penis, throat and mouth cancers, and reduces the risk of them passing the virus on to girls.”

Dani - my youngest lad got the vaccine but for some reason my eldest missed out (he’s now 23). I know the idea is to administer the vaccine in the teenage years, can it be done retrospectively for a 23 year old for example - research online isn’t clear…

Yes. I think you can catch up till 25 but there is some weird anomaly about birth dates. Give your GP a ring. Your receptionist should be able to help. 
What is his birth date? 

Boys born after September 1st 2006 are eligible for a free jab till their 25th birthday. 

Oh and good to see you here alive and well. Hope you’re surviving this heat. I have spent the last few days doing absolutely nothing 

Thanks for the info - good to know, don’t know why I couldn’t find that out online!!

I’ve not been online for ages and tend to dip in and out randomly. I’ve had some real struggles unfortunately. Was forced to take ill health retirement in November last year as a result of losing the ability to speak completely that has been put down to my radiotherapy.

I’m now totally reliant on a RIG for TwoCal and Water feeding and have to carry my machine around with me 24/7 to get the right amount of feed/water in to maintain me. Having lost the ability to speak slowly over the last 24 months has been crushing. I now can’t eat, can’t drink or communicate verbally so have been totally dependent on using a Text to Speech App on my phone. It works but I’m unable to have any sort of spontaneous conversations which is really challenging and when I try to speak, people think that I’ve had a brain injury and treat me differently because my attempts at speaking present in that way.

It is what it is but still very tough to get my head round. I hope that you’re well .

That’s a lot to come to terms with. Finding some good in your situation, some small spark of sunshine to keep you sane must be b loody overwhelming at times. I wish I could offer more than words here on the forum. Hugs

The words of help you’ve given in other threads this morning is surely a sign of somebody special. 

Hi Reevsey, sending lots of empathy. My OH has also now got no speech following a laryngectomy for hypopharyngeal cancer, which turned up 10 years after his treatment for tongue cancer. Unfortunately the scans show there is still cancer in a lymph node which cannot be surgically removed due to proximity to the carotid artery. He is now on Pembrolizumab. 

Like you say, lots of people assume a brain injury. They do dumb things like shouting very loudly and slowly at him. Or write notes on bits of paper... He is the most intelligent person I know, still working full-time as a software engineer, so he feels it a lot. But interacting with financial institutions and service providers via the telephone is the worst, as you have no doubt also found. 

There seems to be remarkably little support for people who have lost speech due to illness rather than growing up without it. Good luck.

Alicia - your other half must experience exactly the same as I do. It’s super debilitating as I’ve lost my speech slowly over about 2 years. The text to speech app is good but you can’t type quick enough to be ‘involved’ with conversations and I end up saying something in a group that was talked about two or three sentences back - it derails people in social situations so I tend to not speak as it’s limiting what use I can get from it.

I’ve been medically retired from my job of 30 years and other than driving, there’s nothing I can do that doesn’t involve the need for verbal communication in some manner whether in person or over electronic devices. I’ve become very much a home-husband and live day to day.