Not very eventful week but more positive information on the 'wellbeing' front

Apart from the continuing glorious weather, the highlight of Saturday 23rd was the new ‘Dr Who’ episode, and Sunday we just chilled out (and I did some more ‘stuff’ sorting), but Bank holiday Monday was a bit more eventful. Karen and I drove up to a local ‘tourist site’ - Ryecroft Hall which had pretty impressive gardens (owned by Tameside Council) but then gave up trying to get into another local garden centre (because of the queues).  In the evening we went to the Chernobyl 25th Anniversary memorial concert (organised by Lydia) at St Ann’s church in the city centre.  Les’s Beech Road band was in good form with their English and Irish folk tunes and Bolton Clarion choir were in good voice.  It was lovely to see all my former singing colleagues and I mouthed along to the words of the Russian song we learned nearly 2 years ago.  The evening was part of a world-wide memorial and particularly poignant in the light of the Fukushima catastrophe.  

On Tuesday, the District nurse came to check out Karen's wound dressings and the GP called to discuss my new pain med regime and make a referral to the consultant at St Ann’s Hospice for an in-depth discussion about ‘prognosis’ etc. Then Peter, Karen and I had a lovely afternoon with cousins Colin and Anne.  On Wednesday, Karen drove down to Northampton (to pick up more of her ‘stuff’ and see friends) and Peter came to stay over for the night.  I had some pampering in the afternoon (Pedicure and Reflexology), but more importantly, received through the post a lovely letter from Terri (Bolton choir) and information about an organisation called ‘canceractive’ which is a non-profit-making organisation dedicated to publishing information for cancer patients on research, what the various drugs are designed to do (and their side effects), treatments (alternative and otherwise) and is basically about improving one’s wellbeing and holding the disease at bay as much as possible.  I’m very interested in all this (and have nothing to lose from trying things out) and will be posting more about this as I try things out.

Lots of visitors on Thursday and then on Friday a short sojourn at Bernard and Debbie’s “Not the Royal Wedding” party (Neil was my Chauffeur). Today’s highlights were a lovely few hours with Tony Lloyd reminiscing and talking politics, Karen’s return from Northampton and ‘Dr Who’.

Recycling and Radiotherapy

Having made lots of headway sorting through ‘the stuff’, I’ve got an appeal to send out to you. I’m looking for a good home for a collection of French stamps.

One of my teenage obsessions was with everything French – including stamps.  I built up quite a collection and my father contributed some fairly valuable ones (amongst his many other obsessions after his retirement being buying and selling stamps and coins). There are some complete sets and some very old stamps – all catalogued and labelled.  However, the dealers I consulted some years ago said its not really worth much and any collector would just take out the one or two worth more than a few pounds, which would spoil the sets, which I wouldn’t like to do.  So, if anyone out there knows someone – young or old – who would take an interest and give it a good home, please let me know.   

The LP archiving is nearly complete and I’m hoping the Council Library service will be sending a van out after Easter to collect the file boxes.  Then I’ve just got to decide what to do with holiday photos (???!!!) – any ideas? and every postcard ever sent to me by every friend on any holiday anywhere, ever ……. OMG!!!   Not to mention diaries, theatre programmes, birthday cards… etc … even more OMG!!!  What was I thinking for all those years?   

I spent a lovely afternoon with John Shiers on Tuesday.  We talked politics and shared our cancer experiences and he gave me lots of useful information - more of that in next posting.

Radiotherapy at the Christie on Thursday took 3 hours (mostly waiting in oppressive, hot and airless waiting rooms) – the actual treatment was less than 5 minutes.  The Doctor changed my pain med regime because he said there would be some more pain later (which the Oncologist hadn’t mentioned) and I needed Morphine patches.  But it took a long time for it all to kick in and I was in pain most of the night.  Karen and I were hoping to go to Colwyn Bay on Friday, but given my lack of sleep and Karen’s exhaustion from the heat and the driving, we decided not to go.  Having seen the reported traffic jams on all the coast roads, I think it was the right decision.  Anyway – we both slept really well last night and have had a much better, relaxing day today.

Karen has finished the book typesetting, produced a snazzy cover and e-mailed it off for 2 proof copies to be printed (at an amazing cost of only £20 within 3-4 days), so just proof reading and decisions about publishers to be done now.

Lots to do

Not much change since last week.  Have a date for the radiotherapy appointment (next Thursday) and am having acupuncture twice a week (5 sessions to date).  I seem to have much more energy and less of a problem with pain, so it must be doing some good. 

As the weather was so fantastic again on Saturday, Karen and I went across to Pete & Jenny’s and we had a great barbecue lunch.  Sunday and Monday were quiet and I finished the book (at least the writing)!!!  Karen is now doing the typesetting and trying to squeeze it all into one volume rather than two.  I may have to cut out some of the appendices.  Had visitors on Wednesday (1) and Thursday (3), and following acupuncture on Thursday, K, P & J and I all went out for a fish meal in the city centre - 'Livebait') which was very good.  Lots of family visited yesterday (brother and sister and cousins) which was nice but a bit tiring.

So its now back to the archiving and chucking out years of accumulated rubbish.  To those of you out there who are hoarders like me, can I suggest you start clearing out your ‘stuff’ now, otherwise it’s an overwhelming task.  Years and years of ‘stuff’ that I’ve no idea why I wanted to keep.

What a lovely day its been today

I had a lovely afternoon in Fletcher Moss Park with Gita today and managed to walk around most of the gardens without getting too breathless. Stairs are still a problem though, but having the stair lift has made a big difference since I can now go up to the loo without panting for breath for 5 minutes.

Since the last posting I’ve started to have some difficulties with pain again, but I’m hoping the acupuncture will address that rather than having to increase the number of tablets.  Also, another 2 lumps have appeared under my armpit and I saw the senior Oncologist at lunch-time today who confirmed that a blast of radiotherapy should sort them out - appointment expected within 2 weeks.

Despite all this, I’m still feeling very well; eating and sleeping well, so am optimistic that I’ll have 4 months rather than 2.  Karen is doing well and getting stronger every day. We had our first trip out into the world last Saturday (an overnight stay at Peter’s house in Macclesfield) but it highlighted the difficulty of being away from familiar surroundings and the joy of ones own bed, which led to my decision not to risk the possible trip to France at Easter.  There’s nothing much else to report other than I’ve almost finished the epilogue for the book and Hilary Wainwright is about to start on the Forword that she promised to write for it, so I’ll be looking for visitors again in a week or so.