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{ Monthly Archives } February 2010

A Bad Morning

By Gillian We know that Chris will have good days and bad days, but on the whole things have been going OK for the past few weeks. So we were unprepared for this morning. He was very sick indeed on waking – threw up six times in two hours, and couldn’t keep anything down – […]

Status report

This evening marks the half-way point in the first three cycles of chemotherapy, or putting it another way I’m a quarter of the way through the entire chemotherapy treatment. That feels like a little bit of a milestone, although no physical event marks it. I’ve resumed one of my projects, and am half-way through the […]

Why did I get cancer … ?

… or was I just unlucky? It is a natural question for anyone to ask when he first discovers that he has cancer. As a scientist, my first inclintion was to look for some data to help me to understand whether anything I did could have contributed to my cancer’s development. It doesn’t take long […]

On taking a shower, part 2

A while ago, I wrote about my difficulties with taking a shower while keeping my PICC and chemo pump dry. It has taken quite a while, but I think that I now have a very good pair of solutions which combine to make it almost easy to take a shower. The first part of the […]

This made me cry

I found this on Hacker News. She says it so much better than I can. It’s what I want to say. Just watch it, please.

Feeling Queasy

By Gillian This second chemotherapy cycle really seems to have knocked Chris backwards. He had been feeling so much better at the end of the last cycle but, notwithstanding the really enjoyable weekend we had with my sister and her boyfriend, he’s been feeling sickĀ  ever since he came out of hospital last Friday. The […]

Status update

On the whole, another good week. I met the consultant on Wednesday, and we agreed that it was sensible to reduce my painkiller dosage. I’m down to 30 mg of morphine per day, and feeling no pain at all, which makes me very happy. I hope to reduce my intake of painkillers still further, if […]

The Snorchestra

Imagine the scene. Six men in a ward, so there are no spare beds. Night falls, and the lights are turned out at eleven or so. One by one we all drop off to sleep. By midnight the ward is very peaceful. I can no longer stay awake, and I think I’m the last to […]

Second Chemo cycle started

By Gillian We saw one of the oncologists yesterday at Worcester Hospital, and she confirmed that Christopher’s blood tests showed that his liver function is back to normal. His yellow colour has also faded, so we’re confident that he’s now over the obstructive jaundice. His white cell count was also satisfactory. So that all means […]

The battle of the thermostat

Before my cancer I was always the warm one, while Gillian wore extra jumpers to try to stay warm. Even so, her hands were often cold. I would compound the misery by wandering around the house in only short sleeves. The cold weather and cancer have changed all that. We first noticed that I felt […]