This last week has gone extremely well. I have been cooking almost all our meals, and have even been able to cook what I think of as normal food. That includes all the sorts of food that were totally off limits three weeks ago. For example, yesterday we went out to one of our favourite […]
By Gillian I found yesterday to be a very hard day, as we had an appointment booked with our solicitors to start putting Christopher’s affairs in order for when/if he becomes too ill to look after them himself. Although we hope that is still a long way off, it made me realise in a visceral […]
The following is the text of a letter I sent to the editor of the Independent newspaper, responding to a letter in today’s paper in which an oncologist deprecated the use of the word “fight” in relation to a cancer patient’s management of his or her cancer. Sir, Dr Bruce Sizer takes issue with the […]
By Gillian It’s very difficult to plan ahead at the moment, as Chris feels so different from one day to the next. For the last few days he’s been having a run of feeling remarkably well, and has picked up some of his favourite hobbies (photography, Librivox) again. I suppose we got over-confident, thinking that […]
When I had my CT scan before Christmas I asked whether it would be possible to have copies of the images. I was very pleased to find that, yes, it was possible, although it might take a couple of weeks to get it onto a CD. The original plan was to hand the CD to […]
By Gillian Right from the initial diagnosis, we’ve been told by all the healthcare professionals (consultants, specialist nurses, dietician) that it’s vitally important for Chris to avoid losing more weight than he can possibly help. Essentially, we need to take normal dieting rules, and invert them – so he needs snacks between meals, desserts, no […]
I’m becoming concerned that I may have given the misleading impression that dealing with cancer is a bed of roses. While I have been able to find a lot to be positive about, there are some things that are simply unpleasant and have to be borne. Regular vomiting is probably my number one bugbear at […]
What could be so hard about taking a shower, you ask. Normally I’d agree with you but right now I have a permanent drip feeding into my arm. It is driven by an ambulatory pump, which sits in a small waist pack attached to a belt. The pump feeds into a PICC, which is a […]
I was recently asked what I thought of Barbara Ehrenreich’s writing on a positive attitude to cancer. I hadn’t read much of what she has written, but I found a piece on the Guardian that I believe sums up her opinion quite well. In brief, she finds that positive thinking is touted as an unthinking […]
After trials, tribulations, and postponements I finally got my date, and went into hospital on Monday this week, as planned. There was still plenty of snow around, so we decided that it would be safer to get a professional driver to take me. Stuart, the taxi driver, was great. He drove sensibly in the conditions […]
