The Complaints Department!

My mom has complained that my posts are getting too long! so today there will be two revisions, one short for my mom, the slower readers of you out there or the one’s of you out there in a hurry today.  The second will be a more detailed account of a day in my life, the life of cancer/chemo.

The short version – woke up, ate, took chemo tablets, took dog to vets which cost £70, back home, feel shit, tried to do some work, ate tea, Ian popped round for a beer and then I went to bed! All true but lacks substance I think.

Okay mom you don’t have to read any further!

My day in full – The above is all true but with more detail it went like this. Steve had gone into the office to work today however after talking to me on his morning fag break and sensing how low I was he decided that I shouldn’t be on my own and came home, bless him. I tried to do some project work ahead of a meeting I have planned for Tuesday. In the late afternoon, Rebecca and I took Molly out for her daily walk. It was lovely to walk and talk with her, just sharing stuff, moments.  I had an hour’s conversation on the phone with my very own Mary Poppins (Alison from BHS in Kingston) Rebecca and I cooked another meal from the Hairy Bikers cookbook, a creation of chicken and tarragon, Steve played the music for us. Molly’s eye is responding to the treatment, which is good as it cost £70.03!  Otherwise I would be definitely complaining!

Tea was a success and we relax with a coffee in our chemo gazebo. Now Steve’s new plan is that instead of taking chemo tablets within 1/2 of food he wants me to take them straight after eating as he has read that this may help with the dizzy feelings I am getting at the moment, on top of all the other side effects. I manage to put taking them off until after coffee, so chillax time it is :-).  And then the door bell goes, it’s Ian, a dear friend who calls round on a regular basis. The one, if you remember during the recent election thought me not going bald through chemo could loose us vital sympathy votes. The one who made me walk, in pain, up a hill for a photo opportunity the day after I was told it was cancer! Now before you think Ian is a terrible person, he isn’t. He has a great dry sense of humour, he is a valued dear friend and over the years of sharing life’s moments together he feels like part of our family.

Our house this evening has turned into a medical centre, so after coffee, I have to take my chemo tablets, the dog has to have her eye cleaned and drops administered plus an injection of painkillers into her mouth. Rebecca has earache so I have to give her drops into the ear! And where is my other nurse? nurse Judy? Sunning herself on ‘buffer face island’, enjoying herself, how rude!

We all sit in the chemo gazebo eating apricot cheesecake with cream accompanied with my all important second cup of coffee. Steve and Ian discuss the Greek crisis and the effects on the global economy, heavy stuff. So I ask Ian about my blog, tell him of my mom’s complaint and does he think they are too long. His answer is that he reads them on the loo and sometimes his bum goes cold, funny as! I think of another friend who I met through work, Mr Grumpy Bum. Now he always kept a book in the loo at work and this made me chuckle, how many people read my blog sitting on the loo I think? I know some of you read it with cups of tea and a biscuit, some with a glass of wine and some of you read it on your daily commute to work but it seems my male readers are reading it whilst on the loo, quite fitting I suppose.

Anyway we quickly turn to the sexy bits of the blog, Rebecca has joined us and we all tease Steve, until he his hiding his face under his fleece with embarrassment of sharing that part of our relationship with not just friends but the world wide web . Rebecca has not mentioned the sex bit of the blog at all and like Lauren I wondered if she was embarrassed to read it. We spent the next 1/2 hour planning when she was out this week so that Steve and I could be alone and also to plan when Ian couldn’t come round LOL, so Tuesday and Thursday it is then, poor Steve or happy Steve as the case maybe as at least now we have a plan 🙂

Throughout the evening whilst we were having fun and laughter which was a relief and very welcomed after feeling low today I started to receive texts from Lauren. Now one of the helpful Macmillan books did say that it’s very common for people dealing with cancer and their loved ones is that they are not always at the same place emotionally at the same time and this can cause problems. Very very very true. So we are all having a laugh but Lauren’s texts are sad, full of worry and although I try to cheer her up to lift her mood, nothing is working. I try empathy, I try being positive and I even try humour. So to one text I reply “it’s not all bad Lauren, I had great sex with your dad this week” not even that worked, now I’m worried.

These texts continue over about an hour. In the end I stop Steve and Ian’s global economic debate and tell Steve that I’m really worried about Lauren. We discussed the texts and then out of the blue Ian says “haven’t you got an emergency cute kitten you can send her?” Priceless and in fits of laughter we search, select and send an ’emergency cute kitten’  picture, no reply from Lauren, so we send another but this time it’s cute and funny. After a few minutes she replies “your crazy! haha.” Thank God for emergency cute kittens is what I say. Here are ours.

 

 

Here is Ian in the now famous chemo gazebo.

So I need your help, are my posts too long????? Please let me know as I don’t want to bore you all.

After a lovely evening, 3 beers and only having 3 1/2 hours sleep I go to bed at 12.30 and I sleep until 5.30 🙂 Peace and sleep at last.

Awake, Molly’s eye seems much better and I’m looking forward to my meeting as Leanne is working in Staines today, that’s a funny coincidence don’t you think 🙂

As I drive towards the motorway I get a text from Alison to say she is at work with Emma and Linda. Just the thought of them makes me cry all the way into Staines. I’ve been better on the crying front for a while but thinking of them, my old life, my team, my friends, sharing in their lives just always makes me cry.

At Staines everyone knew I was coming (I wonder how Leanne?) and I had a wonderful welcome from everyone. So lovely to see Teresa, Carolyn, Monica, Michelle and Adam. They all read and love my blog and were pleased that I’d had some married life action ;-). I’m so sorry that I didn’t come to say goodbye but I was getting too tired and got rumbled as Guy (my boss) turned up and I’m not really allowed in stores further away than High Wycombe but I needed Adam’s help with my project work. Now Adam is jealous of Steve or Mr Grey as he is known to you guys. He also wants a feature and his own pseudonym and he won’t agree to help me until I honour his request (he didn’t really say that) anyway so Adam is now Mr Vines to you. He is called Mr Vines because of his awful taste in wine. He thought it would be funny to buy me 3 bottles of the shit to cheer me up when I first found out I had cancer, cheers Adam and here is the sexy beast himself

Leanne and I had lunch, lovely to catch up as I’d missed not seeing her a few weeks ago. She made me laugh as one of her friends who reads my blog thought that the chemo gazebo was where I actually had the treatment pumped into me and not in a hospital. The gazebo just has that nickname as I lie in it all day and most of the night, glad I cleared that up, but it is funny.

Chemo bud Karen update – she appreciates all your thoughts and good wishes. She had her meeting today with Dr Weaver, she is going to start a new regime for 3 days every 2 weeks. So we all wish you well and Rita will be doing her bit for you in church on Sunday, cheers Rita x

Well I can’t ramble on, well I could but Rebecca has gone out to watch a film 😉 do not disturb sign is now up for a few hours lol lol ……………