I haven’t posted here in a while. I have been recovering from the ileostomy op I
had 8 weeks ago (I will allow the delights of being an ostomy newbie a post all
to themselves), and getting on with radiotherapy, which was completed on the 30th
of June.
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| End of Treatment Bell |
So radiotherapy is over.
I rang that bell and the first milestone on the road to recovery has
been reached.
Congratulations! Yay! Go
me! It felt great for a few days but then the side effects (severe abdominal
cramps and nausea, which, when they hit, send me to bed with a hot water bottle
and a bottle of liquid morphine) and the scanxiety kicked in. “Scanxiety?” I
hear you ask… Yes it is a real word apparently, at least in the world of cancer
patients and survivors, and presumably any patient whose treatment involves
scans and the potential for less than good news.
Scanxiety is, as you would expect, the sense
of uneasiness whilst waiting for the results from scans.
I have to wait 6-8 weeks, whilst the
radiotherapy is still working its magic, before having scans that will show us
if it has worked to shrink the tumour.
I
say ‘if’ because there is always the possibility it hasn’t worked.
There is also the possibility that it has
spread elsewhere in the meantime, or that the nodules on my lungs that were ‘indeterminate’
have grown and are now very much ‘determinate’.
I’m usually a pretty positive person, but I have to say I have been a
little on edge trying not to imagine the worst.
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| Sun, sea & eating sand |
Anyway as a result I have been a bit lethargic and uninspired;
but last Saturday I returned home from an unusually sunny family holiday, feeling
refreshed and energised by sea swimming, sandcastle building and wildlife
spotting! So energised in fact, I have signed up to do the Great Scottish Swim on
August the 26th. In a moment
of madness, I rationalised that training will keep me occupied and motivated in
the coming weeks thus minimising said scanxiety, with the added bonus of
raising money for a worthy cause! That’s the idea anyway; it could all go
horribly wrong resulting in my having to be rescued, half-drowned from the
middle of a freezing loch. I used to be
a fairly big swimmer, visiting the pool weekly plus donning a wetsuit for a
wild swim at every opportunity, and have done the Great Swim in Windermere in
the past. However I haven’t been swimming,
not counting taking the children for a splash about, for well over a year now;
plus I can’t get through the day without morphine, so I think swimming half a
mile presents a fairly decent challenge.
I had probably better get some training in!
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| Just one of the many... |
I am going to be fundraising for Bowel Cancer UK. A pretty obvious choice, I’m sure you’ll
agree. They do an amazing job supporting
research into bowel cancer as well as campaigning for early diagnosis. Their Never Too Young campaign, which aims to
improve clinical practice and policy in the diagnosis and treatment of younger
sufferers, particularly resonates with me due to the issues I had getting a
diagnosis. I really hate asking people for money (so don’t make me!) but if you
did fancy supporting me please check out my Just
Giving page and donate (if you like) or share it with your friends and
family (if you like). Either way thank you very very much!!
