Tag: Writing

Posted in Living with cancer

ONE MORE TO GO

Posted on by WeeGee

O Hai!

I thought we’d do a quick hair status report before we get started:

Haircut: A smidge off Natalie Portman, circa V for Vendetta.

Eyebrows: Half a dozen each side, multiplying slowly.

Eyelashes: Three. The magic number.

——-

Since last I wrote I have mostly been thinking about 4×4 Porsches. Specifically, I’ve been busy trying to figure out whether people buy Porsche 4x4s because they want a Porsche, or because they want a fancy 4×4. I mean if you’re in a position to be buying ANY fancy 4×4 of your choice you’re going to want a customised Range Rover, aren’t you? And if what you want is a Porsche then surely you’re going to want something a little bit flashy. Showy, even, no? All I’m saying is I don’t know what’s going on in peoples’ heads when they buy Porsche 4x4s. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that. As an aside, I suppose now might be a good time to mention I’m starting to get a bit bored of my sick leave…..

How have you all been anyway? All is well here in WeeGee land. Or at least as well as can be expected when you’re six months into five months worth of chemotherapy. Still, yesterday was chemo number 15 out of 16, which means there’s one more to go! I’m looking forward to being able to tick something off the list at last, but I’m tired and I’m keen not to get ahead of myself. My active treatment won’t finish until at least the end of the year and that means there’s still a long way to go. In my case, the chemotherapy isn’t even the primary treatment – it’s neoadjuvant, literally meaning before the main treatment. My main treatment will be the surgery, and it won’t be until that’s done that we know what we have been and are up against.

two to go
The ‘two more chemos to go’ face

Of course, I’m glad I’m nearly at the end of chemotherapy, but I’m only glad in a small way. It’s that thing about not counting your chickens, I guess….

Six months later

Oddly enough, six months ago today, I was busy having my first chemotherapy session – it feels like a lifetime ago. It was Christmas Eve, and while I don’t exactly know what the opposite of festive is, I think it’s safe to say that’s pretty much what I felt as I walked into the Osborne Building, past the jolly holly Christmas tree in the foyer, and  up to the chemotherapy suite for the first time.

I’m still not entirely sure how I got myself to that first appointment because every single fibre of my being was SCREAMING at me not to go. I was still at the ‘this isn’t really happening’ phase, still more than half convinced that somebody had made a terrible mistake somewhere along the line and still wondering why, if I didn’t feel ill, I had to have the treatment at all. In the end, I suppose I  got myself through that day in the same way as I’ve got myself through pretty much everything – by putting one foot in front of the other until I didn’t need to anymore.

I’m sure there are all kinds of ways to get through chemotherapy. You just go with whatever works for you and for me, it was one foot in front of the other, in front of the other, in front of the other until I got myself here with the finishing line in my sights. It’s been a bumpy old road, that’s for sure.

Six months is a long time to do anything for. After six months, the thing will have smashed a path into your life, established a new set of routines, and settled in for the long haul. After six months it isn’t even a new thing anymore, it’s just a way of life. After six months, that thing that you didn’t want to do with all of your might, is just a standard flavour of normal. After six months you find yourself somehow attached to the thing – to the tedious, repetitive nature of it all, to the cotton wool you’ve been wrapped in, to the rhythms and routines.

All of this is really just to say that I’m still feeling a bit reflective as I near the end of the chemo. Either that, or it’s Stockholm Syndrome….

Ring my bell

As I near the end of chemo, a couple of people have asked me if I’ll be ringing the bell and the short answer to that is no, for a couple of different reasons.

The end of treatment bell is a relatively new concept here in the UK, brought back to Manchester via Oklahoma for a little girl called Emma, who was treated for soft tissue sarcoma back in 2013. Over time, the bells spread out of children’s wards and into adult hospitals and they are now fairly common up and down the UK. The hospital I’m being treated at has an end of treatment bell in the chemo suite, radiotherapy unit, and out-patient clinic.

End-of-treatment-bell

There has been quite a lot of talk in the cancer community recently about the end of treatment bell. This blog post, in particular, caught my attention and has generated quite a lot of conversation online about the impact that the end of treatment bell has on those receiving treatment for cancer that can’t be cured.

For my own part and for what it’s worth, my feeling is that there is perhaps an argument for moving the end of treatment bells away from main treatment areas, but I see less merit in the case for removing them altogether. In the past six months, I have seen countless people ringing the bell in the chemo suite during my treatment, and do you know what? I’ve never seen smiles like it. It always seems to me like a tiny moment of pure joy at the end of a thousand dark days and I can’t make a case for taking that away from those who want it.

As for my own decision not to ring the bell at the end of the next treatment, there are two factors. The first is that for me, the end of chemo doesn’t really mark the end of anything in the true sense of the word. There is, as I keep saying, still a long way to go and I’m not in the business of tempting fate right now. The second is that I’m not exactly mad keen on being the centre of attention at the best of times and ringing a great big bell so everybody turns to stare at me standing there ringing a bell like a giant plum is my idea of FUCKING NIGHTMARE. So you know, no thank you very much…..

Meanwhile, in other news.

Meanwhile, in other news, it is STILL raining here in Harborough, but the good news is, on the box sets front I’ve rocketed through The Good Fight, Chernobyl, Year and Years, The Good Doctor and Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve. I’m all out now though, suggestions, please?

Nothing else to report today so here endeth the blog post. It’s over and out with a song as usual. This one is more than 20 years old, and if you’re struggling to believe that, well I  guess that can only mean you’re as old as I am.

Love you all lots, like jelly tots,

WeeGee xoxox

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Posted in Living with cancer

Leap and a net will appear

Posted on by WeeGee

Hello there you lovely lot. How’s it all going? I’m sorry I’ve been absent – I’ve been busy having chemo, and writing short stories and passing my creative writing course WITH A DISTINCTION. Go me.

I’ve also been relatively busy despairing about the state of UK politics, but that’s not exactly news, its just what we all do now, isn’t it?

Eyebrow news

Since last I wrote, three whole weeks have passed and, WAIT FOR IT, there is eyebrow related news to report. No less than six of the little beauties had sprouted at the last count, although the situation on the ground is fast changing. It could be as many as EIGHT by now. Okay, so they’re nothing much to write home about just yet, but I’ll take them. Huzzah!

he man giphy
One day soon. One day.

Two more chemos to go

Things have also been going pretty well on the chemo front since we last spoke. Reducing the dose of the paclitaxel worked wonders for the awful pain that I haven’t moaned nearly enough about, but also delivered the happy coincidence of much better liver function test scores. As a result, I managed to have four chemos on the bounce with no breaks in between and, as I write, I have only two more chemo sessions left to go. It  feels both awesome and strange in equal measure.

I haven’t enjoyed chemotherapy. Nobody does, I guess. For the past six weeks, my mantra has become ‘I’ll be glad when this bit is over with’ because weekly chemo is hard going – it’s incessant, and exhausting and so utterly dull. Mostly I’m tired. I’m tired in my bones. I’m tired in my head. I’m tired my heart. When I walk out of the chemo suite in two weeks, I will be glad beyond any measure I can imagine.

I thought I was smiling 7A6DD366-A7DA-42CE-B4FC-F85FAE656331
I honestly thought I was smiling when this picture was taken – I guess this is just the face I pull during chemo now

Truth told, there’s another feeling mixed in with the anticipation of being free from the drudgery of weekly treatment. Fear – I think. Fear of what comes next, of how much longer the path ahead of me actually is, and of course, fear of where that path might lead me to, in the fullness of time. During chemo, I’ve been all wrapped up in the routine of it all, focused on ticking the next treatment off the list, and most of all, cocooned by the amazing NHS. The doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, and admin staff know me and what my story is. They’re looking out for me, week by week, treatment by treatment, day by day. As difficult as it’s been, I guess I’ve gotten used to chemo. I know how it works, what I’m doing, and how to get through it. What comes next is another huge leap into the dark.

What’s the plan then, Stan?

It’ll be a while before I know what I’m going to have to face up to next. There will be tests at the end of chemo, and decisions to be made about surgery, and then more tests, and more decisions about what to do once the full impact of the chemo and surgery is understood. There will likely be fairly extensive radiotherapy in my future, there might even be further chemo or additional surgery. I always knew I was on a long and uncertain path, and I am still absolutely resolute that I will do whatever it is the experts in charge of my care tell me to do.

So the plan at the moment is this: I get through the next two weeks of chemo, and I celebrate when it’s done. Then I get through the tests and await further instructions from my team. And then, when they say so, I leap.

LeapNet
I’m sorry about the ‘inspirational’ quote but as far as they go, it’s quite a good one.

Meanwhile, in other news.

Meanwhile, in other news, it has been raining here in Harborough FOREVER. Which is most disappointing in some ways, but it does make for some lovely cosy afternoons with the cat, a good book and Cadbury Darkmilk, which I’m eating by the bucketload because Jason Donavan told me to.

rainy days IMG_5234
Happy days. Rainy, but happy

Nothing else from me today, other than to say that I hope this post doesn’t seem too miserable. I’m perhaps feeling a little reflective as I approach the end of chemo, but I’m in good spirits nonetheless, and my chin is very firmly up.

I’ll leave you with a song as usual. I think we just have to accept the fact that all of the songs are going to be old now because, well, I is old and new music mostly baffles me.

Love you all lots like jelly tots,

WeeGee xoxox