What can I say? Spurs beat Wigan today NINE - ONE!! It doesn't get better than that (except if it was Arsenal, Man Utd or Chelsea of course :) Well done chaps - RESULT!
I had my first experience of acupuncture on Thursday - I had needles in my left shoulder, the front of my neck and in each wrist and hand. The arm ones were for the nausea and the shoulder/neck ones for breathlessness. The needles are extremely fine - like a human hair really - so didn't hurt at all and didn't cause any bleeding, just a slight sensation when they went in.
I'm not sure I noticed any immediate change, but I will be having about six sessions, and the effects get more lasting the more sessions you have, so we'll see how things progress.
The steroids are still doing a good job. I'm still short of energy, but I'm able to get up the stairs without necessarily needing a rest at the top. However, I'm in the middle of the course now, so soon I will have to go back to normal, and at that point we can really see if the acupuncture is helping.
I've got a gig next weekend which I'm a little worried about. This might have to be my last, we'll see how it goes, but my strength is definitely waning, and there will become a point when I just don't enjoy it any more due to the effort involved. The gig is in a pub in Didsbury, so hopefully it might at least be ground floor which would help. It's not somewhere we've played before though so I'll have to wait and see.
Not much else to report this week. Just had a nice weekend with my brother and his girlfriend up here for a visit, and now looking forward to Top Gear and Match of the day (nine - one! Can you believe it!!?).
Speak soon whenever I've got something to say!
In the meantime, thanks as usual for all the emails texts and blog comments - I really do appreciate it!
Cheers,
Col x
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
Monday 16th November 2009
Hi All,
Quite a busy end to the week, so I waited til today to post an update - sorry for the delay!
I had a bit of a bad day on Thursday - I felt really tired and a bit nauseous. I went to the Hospice therapy session and met the doctor and social worker (she's going to help me get a blue disabled badge which will help).
The doctor recommended some drugs for my breathlessness and to help me through the weekend, and she is also going to start me on a course of acupuncture this Thursday to see if she can alleviate some of the underlying nausea I still get.
I got an appointment with my GP Thursday evening and she prescribed me the drugs the Hospice doc had recommended - OraMorph (oral morphine), which helps breathlessness when taken in small doses, and a course of the Dexomethasone steroids I was on during my chemo. These have both helped quite a lot and I've had a pretty good weekend on the energy front, despite suffering a bit from the nausea.
Friday I took delivery of the awesome Audi R8 for the weekend:
Saturday we set off for the MPH Show at the NEC featuring Top Gear Live courtesy of the Stig (thank-you kindly sir, much appreciated!). We had to wait for him in the foyer so he could come out and give us the tickets. When he came out in his civvies it was really funny to watch hundreds of people pass within inches of him with "I am the Stig" t-shirts on, completely unaware that the real thing was standing right by them!
The show was excellent - culminating in the Stig performing a loop the loop in a car - check out the videos ...
Clarkson, Hammond and May racing Reliant Robins - hilarious! ...
Stig doing the loop ...
Sunday we took the R8 out for a run to the East Coast - Scarborough, Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby. I'd been to Whitby before when I was about 9, but neither of the other places so it was a nice trip. I won't mention the speed that the R8 made on the York bypass :) Awesome car, just awesome ... I have to admit that I was pretty knackered when I got in last night though. Driving is still one thing I can do in relative comfort, but it is quite tiring in the end, especially when driving in the dark where my night vision is not quite as sharp as it used to be so I have to really concentrate.
Unfortunately the car was collected this afternoon, so its back to normality for a while - next hire will be a Ferrari F430, so looking forward to that already!
I did mean to post on the 7th Nov, as that was the anniversary of my diagnosis. I am now officially a Government statistic as a "one year cancer survivor". It's been quite a year, but as I've said before, I just seem to have gone along with it and got used to it.
It doesn't really feel any different although my eating and drinking, my energy levels and the fact that I look like one of those guys photographed in a concentration camp at the end of the war with all my ribs sticking out are really different circumstances to get used to.
I'll let you know how I get on with the acupuncture - that's my highlight of this week (and the fact that I officially go off work on Wednesday)
Cheers,
Colin.
Quite a busy end to the week, so I waited til today to post an update - sorry for the delay!
I had a bit of a bad day on Thursday - I felt really tired and a bit nauseous. I went to the Hospice therapy session and met the doctor and social worker (she's going to help me get a blue disabled badge which will help).
The doctor recommended some drugs for my breathlessness and to help me through the weekend, and she is also going to start me on a course of acupuncture this Thursday to see if she can alleviate some of the underlying nausea I still get.
I got an appointment with my GP Thursday evening and she prescribed me the drugs the Hospice doc had recommended - OraMorph (oral morphine), which helps breathlessness when taken in small doses, and a course of the Dexomethasone steroids I was on during my chemo. These have both helped quite a lot and I've had a pretty good weekend on the energy front, despite suffering a bit from the nausea.
Friday I took delivery of the awesome Audi R8 for the weekend:
Saturday we set off for the MPH Show at the NEC featuring Top Gear Live courtesy of the Stig (thank-you kindly sir, much appreciated!). We had to wait for him in the foyer so he could come out and give us the tickets. When he came out in his civvies it was really funny to watch hundreds of people pass within inches of him with "I am the Stig" t-shirts on, completely unaware that the real thing was standing right by them!
The show was excellent - culminating in the Stig performing a loop the loop in a car - check out the videos ...
Clarkson, Hammond and May racing Reliant Robins - hilarious! ...
Stig doing the loop ...
Sunday we took the R8 out for a run to the East Coast - Scarborough, Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby. I'd been to Whitby before when I was about 9, but neither of the other places so it was a nice trip. I won't mention the speed that the R8 made on the York bypass :) Awesome car, just awesome ... I have to admit that I was pretty knackered when I got in last night though. Driving is still one thing I can do in relative comfort, but it is quite tiring in the end, especially when driving in the dark where my night vision is not quite as sharp as it used to be so I have to really concentrate.
Unfortunately the car was collected this afternoon, so its back to normality for a while - next hire will be a Ferrari F430, so looking forward to that already!
I did mean to post on the 7th Nov, as that was the anniversary of my diagnosis. I am now officially a Government statistic as a "one year cancer survivor". It's been quite a year, but as I've said before, I just seem to have gone along with it and got used to it.
It doesn't really feel any different although my eating and drinking, my energy levels and the fact that I look like one of those guys photographed in a concentration camp at the end of the war with all my ribs sticking out are really different circumstances to get used to.
I'll let you know how I get on with the acupuncture - that's my highlight of this week (and the fact that I officially go off work on Wednesday)
Cheers,
Colin.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Sunday 8th November 2009
Hi Folks,
Sorry for my distinct lack of posts this week - just laziness I'm afraid, no excuse!
This week I've been ok - I've been to see my GP for a general catch up, and she's prescribed me an anti-anxiety/anti-depressive drug called Citalopram, just in case my mental dip the other week is a sign of something a bit deeper. I've had a re-occurrence of a bit of eczema on my feet which I had a few years ago. This tends to be stress-related. Although I've not really felt stressed at all, the doc thinks this might be my body telling me something, which is another reason she gave me the Citalopram.
One of the side-effects of this drug can be nausea, so I'm on a low dose to start with to see if I tolerate it ok - just one tablet every other day for the moment. I've only had two so far, so nothing to report yet (it takes a couple of weeks to kick in apparently).
I also took up the offer from the Macmillan team to join the weekly therapy session at the local hospice on Thursday. I was a bit daunted at first because it was full of people a lot older than me and had the feel of a nursing home. However, once I'd met some of the staff and other "guests" (as they call us) it was really nice - very positive and friendly atmosphere. They also provide alternative therapy treatments such as massage, reflexology etc. I had a "Theraputic Touch" session, which is a bit like Reiki, but with hands on.
The staff there offer all sorts of useful services - there is a specialist doctor who performs acupuncture and can provide advice specifically tailored to terminally ill patients, plus a social worker who can help with such things as getting a disabled badge for my car so I don't have to walk so far.
Other news - my hair is starting to grow back. Very thin and fluffy at the moment and only growing slowly, but definitely visible now, plus I now have to start shaving again - only every other day, but its definitely growing more vigorously. Nothing has yet grown enough to indicate what my hair will be like when fully grown, so we'll have to wait and see about that, but at least there is progress!
Last couple of weekends have been really nice, meeting up with friends I haven't seen for over a year in both cases, and had a rehearsal with the band today, although that was a real struggle as I've been totally without energy all day.
On my way over to Macclesfield last weekend, I had a chance to drop in on Alderley Edge where my family used to live. After my mum died in 1995, I planted a small oak sapling on the edge as a gesture, and I went to see how it was getting on. It's amazing how slowly oaks grow and I am always surprised at how small it still is after 14 years. It must have been about 18" when I planted it, and this is what it looks like now, bigger, but by no means big! ...
That's about it for today, except I can finally mention Spurs again after having to keep silent for a while due to an embarrassing run of defeats (Stoke at home for gawds sake! And Arsenal! It can't have been much worse!) Nice win over Sunderland yesterday to keep us in 4th spot for now. Just hope Man City lose their game in hand now, and we'll be fine!
Better get some rest now - good luck to Elspeth by the way!
Cheers,
Colin.
Sorry for my distinct lack of posts this week - just laziness I'm afraid, no excuse!
This week I've been ok - I've been to see my GP for a general catch up, and she's prescribed me an anti-anxiety/anti-depressive drug called Citalopram, just in case my mental dip the other week is a sign of something a bit deeper. I've had a re-occurrence of a bit of eczema on my feet which I had a few years ago. This tends to be stress-related. Although I've not really felt stressed at all, the doc thinks this might be my body telling me something, which is another reason she gave me the Citalopram.
One of the side-effects of this drug can be nausea, so I'm on a low dose to start with to see if I tolerate it ok - just one tablet every other day for the moment. I've only had two so far, so nothing to report yet (it takes a couple of weeks to kick in apparently).
I also took up the offer from the Macmillan team to join the weekly therapy session at the local hospice on Thursday. I was a bit daunted at first because it was full of people a lot older than me and had the feel of a nursing home. However, once I'd met some of the staff and other "guests" (as they call us) it was really nice - very positive and friendly atmosphere. They also provide alternative therapy treatments such as massage, reflexology etc. I had a "Theraputic Touch" session, which is a bit like Reiki, but with hands on.
The staff there offer all sorts of useful services - there is a specialist doctor who performs acupuncture and can provide advice specifically tailored to terminally ill patients, plus a social worker who can help with such things as getting a disabled badge for my car so I don't have to walk so far.
Other news - my hair is starting to grow back. Very thin and fluffy at the moment and only growing slowly, but definitely visible now, plus I now have to start shaving again - only every other day, but its definitely growing more vigorously. Nothing has yet grown enough to indicate what my hair will be like when fully grown, so we'll have to wait and see about that, but at least there is progress!
Last couple of weekends have been really nice, meeting up with friends I haven't seen for over a year in both cases, and had a rehearsal with the band today, although that was a real struggle as I've been totally without energy all day.
On my way over to Macclesfield last weekend, I had a chance to drop in on Alderley Edge where my family used to live. After my mum died in 1995, I planted a small oak sapling on the edge as a gesture, and I went to see how it was getting on. It's amazing how slowly oaks grow and I am always surprised at how small it still is after 14 years. It must have been about 18" when I planted it, and this is what it looks like now, bigger, but by no means big! ...
That's about it for today, except I can finally mention Spurs again after having to keep silent for a while due to an embarrassing run of defeats (Stoke at home for gawds sake! And Arsenal! It can't have been much worse!) Nice win over Sunderland yesterday to keep us in 4th spot for now. Just hope Man City lose their game in hand now, and we'll be fine!
Better get some rest now - good luck to Elspeth by the way!
Cheers,
Colin.
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