Sunday, 30 October 2011
Saturday, 29 October 2011
It's been a while...
...to quote a song.
Sooooo, how to sum up, what, 5 months in one post? I can probably do it in 3 words. Now excuse my french, it's going to get sweary...
SCARY AS FUCK!
Back in May, me and the boy wonder had a cold. Whoop de doo, you say. Mine went, his didn't. I hear you say 'whoop de do' again. Thing is, when husband had bone cancer 3 years ago, The Prof said it was 50/50 whether it'd come back and if it did it'd most likely be in his lung(s). So anyway, it did, and it was.
The last 5 months have been horror and terror and general crap. he's had chemo with a view to shrinking the 16cm interloper in his right lung. It's done a good job so far - scan number 2 shoed it's shrunk from 16 to 10cm, which is not to be sniffed at. And it's looking 'a bit poorly', according to The Prof - it's no longer a dense chunk of cells gone mad, but a patchy looking blob. That's a (relatively) good thing.
So, 6 cycles of 3 weeks consisting of 4 or 5 days in hospital for the boy blunder - sick boy as he is now affectionately know - 4 or 5 days of him being sick (not so much now The Prof has found an anti-emetic that works) and 'meh' and me travelling to the hospital twice a day with food because I am such a good cook. Not really - the chemo fucks up your taste buds and in his case your sense of smell. Result? Everything tastes like shit. Except my totally amazing cooking, of course. :-) Anyway, 2 trips a day with nice food. and the 2 weeks indetween? Well, they usually turn into 3 weeks because, despite my best efforts at feeding him up and getting to inject him with something to boost his immune system, his blood doesn't usually manage to recover sufficiently to enable him to stick to his 3 weekly regime. And when you have no immune system, the slightest hint of an infection can become literally life threatening: take the day when I managed to launch myself over the handlebars of my bike in Bolehill Woods and I had to ring J to come and pick me up. I knew he wasn't very well, but when we got home and I checked his temperature it was 38.something. 38.something=not good at all. I rang the hospital and they said "Bring him in. NOW!". So I did. He stayed for 5 days. Apparently they were quite worried about him. Me too...
So chemo? Yeah. not just hair loss and sick. There's lots of things to be aware of. Lots and lots of things. It's a pretty unsophisticated way to solve a problem really, isn't it. BUT if it solves the problem.
Inbetween chemo and vomit, I have had some amazing support from my friends and, unexpectedly, my manager. She can be hard work as a manager, but as a person she's pretty cool and having been through cancer herself she understands the trials and tribulations and as such she's been pretty damn cool about it all.
Another unexpected but cool side effect is that I have lost a fair chunk of weight. I can't say I recommend the stress diet - plays havoc with the skin and my hair is like straw (okay, that might be all the hair dye???) - but getting into size 12 trousers is not to be sniffed at! Even if they are a vanity sized 12 and stretchy...
Hubby's endured 6 rounds of chemo so far, each consisting of 4+ days in hospital and bonus visits for high temperatures and infections and the cherry on the cake is surgery in a short while to remove the tumour from his lung. Hopefully anyway. The surgeon The Prof has lined up sounds like something of a maverick, but he has a very good reputation - what more can you wish for. Actually, we have to wish for a good scan that shows more shrinky shrinky and a tumour he can pop out like a zit. We can hope...
In the meantime, here are some kittens...
With regard to exercise:
I have been slacking totally. I haven't cycled much at all, despite acquiring a road bike. I *have* run 6.5 miles in one go but I couldn't walk for 2 days afterwards. Going to have to get my arse in gear because I told my bro I'd run the Nine Edges with him in 2012. Look it up - it's 20 miles of off road stupidity. What WAS I thinking...
TTFN.
Think Shrink.
x
Sooooo, how to sum up, what, 5 months in one post? I can probably do it in 3 words. Now excuse my french, it's going to get sweary...
SCARY AS FUCK!
Back in May, me and the boy wonder had a cold. Whoop de doo, you say. Mine went, his didn't. I hear you say 'whoop de do' again. Thing is, when husband had bone cancer 3 years ago, The Prof said it was 50/50 whether it'd come back and if it did it'd most likely be in his lung(s). So anyway, it did, and it was.
The last 5 months have been horror and terror and general crap. he's had chemo with a view to shrinking the 16cm interloper in his right lung. It's done a good job so far - scan number 2 shoed it's shrunk from 16 to 10cm, which is not to be sniffed at. And it's looking 'a bit poorly', according to The Prof - it's no longer a dense chunk of cells gone mad, but a patchy looking blob. That's a (relatively) good thing.
So, 6 cycles of 3 weeks consisting of 4 or 5 days in hospital for the boy blunder - sick boy as he is now affectionately know - 4 or 5 days of him being sick (not so much now The Prof has found an anti-emetic that works) and 'meh' and me travelling to the hospital twice a day with food because I am such a good cook. Not really - the chemo fucks up your taste buds and in his case your sense of smell. Result? Everything tastes like shit. Except my totally amazing cooking, of course. :-) Anyway, 2 trips a day with nice food. and the 2 weeks indetween? Well, they usually turn into 3 weeks because, despite my best efforts at feeding him up and getting to inject him with something to boost his immune system, his blood doesn't usually manage to recover sufficiently to enable him to stick to his 3 weekly regime. And when you have no immune system, the slightest hint of an infection can become literally life threatening: take the day when I managed to launch myself over the handlebars of my bike in Bolehill Woods and I had to ring J to come and pick me up. I knew he wasn't very well, but when we got home and I checked his temperature it was 38.something. 38.something=not good at all. I rang the hospital and they said "Bring him in. NOW!". So I did. He stayed for 5 days. Apparently they were quite worried about him. Me too...
So chemo? Yeah. not just hair loss and sick. There's lots of things to be aware of. Lots and lots of things. It's a pretty unsophisticated way to solve a problem really, isn't it. BUT if it solves the problem.
Inbetween chemo and vomit, I have had some amazing support from my friends and, unexpectedly, my manager. She can be hard work as a manager, but as a person she's pretty cool and having been through cancer herself she understands the trials and tribulations and as such she's been pretty damn cool about it all.
Another unexpected but cool side effect is that I have lost a fair chunk of weight. I can't say I recommend the stress diet - plays havoc with the skin and my hair is like straw (okay, that might be all the hair dye???) - but getting into size 12 trousers is not to be sniffed at! Even if they are a vanity sized 12 and stretchy...
Hubby's endured 6 rounds of chemo so far, each consisting of 4+ days in hospital and bonus visits for high temperatures and infections and the cherry on the cake is surgery in a short while to remove the tumour from his lung. Hopefully anyway. The surgeon The Prof has lined up sounds like something of a maverick, but he has a very good reputation - what more can you wish for. Actually, we have to wish for a good scan that shows more shrinky shrinky and a tumour he can pop out like a zit. We can hope...
In the meantime, here are some kittens...
With regard to exercise:
I have been slacking totally. I haven't cycled much at all, despite acquiring a road bike. I *have* run 6.5 miles in one go but I couldn't walk for 2 days afterwards. Going to have to get my arse in gear because I told my bro I'd run the Nine Edges with him in 2012. Look it up - it's 20 miles of off road stupidity. What WAS I thinking...
TTFN.
Think Shrink.
x
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