The outside world!

Just been outside in the sunshine for a little walk up the road! So pleased to be doing that only a week after my operation! :-)

Last night in hospital!!

I was moved yesterday afternoon from the ICU to the HDU (one stage down). Since then I've slept a lot but I am now totally disconnected from all the monitoring and tubes and have been walking around and tried some stairs!! I'm really excited that it's all happening so quickly! All being well, this time tomorrow I'll be at home!

I'm not meant to use my phone here and have a weak 3G signal so I'll sign off for now!

Night night xxxx

Greetings from ICU

Well I managed to wake up again! ;-) I'm on the ICU being cared for by some lovely nurses! The op apparently went well and I'm recovering like a good patient!

I'm still rigged up to the oxygen mask and have my epidural and IV paracetamol running as pain relief. I'm on a bag of saline to replace fluids and have a catheter in. I also have various monitoring things in / on me and a drain at my wound site, although apparently not much is coming out there, which is good.

I've not had and food yet and am just sipping at water, even though I'd live to gulp down a glass!! When I tried this earlier it made me bring it straight back up so won't try it again in a hurry!! Was given some anti-sickness drug which immediately spaced me out! Ha ha ha!

If all goes well tonight I should be moved to a normal ward tomorrow and that'll be a good sign. Fingers crossed.

They're turning the lights out now so I think I'll try and have another snooze!!

Xxxx

My own room!! Well bay anyway!

Well folks, I'm here and am the only 'guest' in this bay of the surgical admissions ward. Mum, Dad and sis have just left and I'm sat waiting for the doc to come for a chat and blood test.

It's been a strange day but here's some pics. I bought some new elmo pj's for the occasion. I then proved that I can pack light. We came across some heavy showers on the drive down to Guildford. As I am not allowed any food after midnight, I stocked up on pasta at Jamie's Italian!! I'm now settling in for the night, having had my carb preload drinks - basically sugar water!!

Thanks for all your messages and support! I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update as I'm going for my op first thing in the morning and then it's ICU for up to two days afterwards. Not sure if there'll be signal there or if I'll be allowed to use my phone. Will update when I can though.

Xxxx

Not the best idea!?

Is watching the 'Brothers & Sisters' episode where Kevin has liver surgery the night before I go into hospital for liver surgery a good idea?!?!

Xxxx

Long time, no write

Wow, I hadn't realized it has been so long since I last updated this blog, but I look back and it was the Race for Life that I was writing about! I am now on the final countdown of having cancer!!! Yes folks, the end of cancer for me comes next Thursday morning when I have my operation!! Of course, I still have 12 weeks of chemo to get through after I recover from the op, but technically I will be cancer free once this tumour is cut out on Thursday!! It's quite strange to think that this is it for me and cancer, but it does make me smile!! :-D


Anyway, what have I been up to in the last few weeks, I hear you ask. Well I guess that the main excitement was my holiday to Spain with 7 of my friends! We had a really great time relaxing in the heat and the sunshine. We had a nice villa on the edge of Moraira, about an hour north of Alicante on the coast. I must admit that I barely moved from the villa, be it lounging by the pool or cooling down on the sofa, each day, but we went out for dinner in town all but one night. One evening we did attempt a BBQ at the villa but it didn't quite go to plan as the coals took so long to heat up. We did manage to BBQ the burgers, but everything else was grilled!! Oh well, all good fun though! The week we were there corresponded with the annual Moors v Christians Festival. This seemed to involve a lot of cannon fire and fireworks on the weekend! A lot of the fireworks were set off whilst it was still daylight, which seemed a bit of a waste, but on the Sunday night they did save some until after dark, so here's some photos looking back towards the town centre: 

I think my little point-and-shoot did pretty well with these photos! One afternoon we went down to the main beach in the town and some of the others went for a swim in the sea - I wasn't brave enough to do anything more than paddle - the water was a bit too cold for my liking! I did end up with sunburnt feet though, so a not entirely wasted day!! I also managed to burn my back early on in the week, which meant a lot of aftersun was used and I ended up with some lovely tan lines!! These are still there for my surgeon to admire next week!! On our last day we booked ourselves onto a boat trip along the coast. Now we had just spent a week in a quiet castal town that seemed to be very out of season, with the bars closing up around us each night and the only club only having the chill-out patio open and not the actual club on the night that some of the others went!! This meant that we were very surprised when around the breakwater came a boat almost packed with minimally clad 18-30s with a thumping base line!! It was a bit of a shock but we soon settled in and enjoyed the trip up the coast. Some of the others went for a swim in the sea when we dropped anchor for the BBQ lunch in a sheltered cover, along with a number of other boats. It turned out to be a great way to spend the last day of our holiday before catching the packed Ryanair flight back to cold and very rainy Stansted that night!!! All in all it was a brilliant holiday - thanks Aisling, Gemma, Lindsay, Vicky, Andy, John and Paul!! 

Aisling & John by the beach

Moraira Beach

Out to dinner - Paul, Aisling, Vicky, Lindsay, Gemma, Andy & John

Lindsay & Gemma

Lindsay & Andy

Aisling & me

Lindsay & John doing a spot of astronomy - so many more stars than London!

the view from our villa

our villa

Vicky & Paul

all on the boat

Vicky, Aisling, Lindsay & John taking a swim in the sea

Andy & Gemma

the girls on the boat ...

... and the boys

the party boat!!

Since coming back from Spain, I have been 'enjoying' the British summer - will it never stop raining??!! I think I am turning into a prune with it all!!! I have been glad to have Wimbledon and the Tour de France to watch (good thing I am an arm-chair sports fan!!) to pass the time, but I have also been trying to make the most of having decent energy levels! I have been trying to get to the gym most days to do 30 mins on the cross trainer. This does leave me tired, but I think it is good for me and I am trying to get as fit as I can before the operation as hopefully it will help me recover. I have also invested in a rebounder (mini trampoline). This is something that has been mentioned in a number of the cancer books I have been reading over the last few months as a good way to get some exercise. I have only been managing 15 minutes a day but I have not banged my head on the light fitting yet and I have been getting more of a work-out fighting to fold the thing back up and back in it's bag than I have bouncing on it! If anyone else is thinking about getting a rebounder, I do recommend it but make sure you have a good sports bra (boys included)!! ;-) Other things I have been doing to try and make sure I am as healthy as I can be (well, none of it can hurt anyway) is to have a shot of aloe vera juice and a glass of wheatgrass every day. I have also been making green juice and having a glass of that every day (I have not yet got the recipe totally right for my taste, with the balance of different leafy green veg, but the idea is to try and increase my chlorophyll intake). I am also, weather permitting, going for an hour's walk every day. All in all I feel great!!

In a way, feeling so great at the moment makes me a bit apprehensive about the surgery as it will really take me back to square one with not being able to move properly and highly dependent on others again. I think that I am going to get very frustrated. I am aiming to try and keep up my healthy habits though. I am going to get out for a walk every day once I am out of hospital, even if it is just along the corridor. I am hoping to be well enough to see the Olympic torch come through my bit of SW London on July 25th, but I will have to check the route map carefully I think so that I have the option of getting the bus!!! ;-)

A couple of weeks ago I had my pre-op assessment at the hospital and I learnt more about what'll happen with me. It turns out that the enhanced recovery programme that they run means that I could be out of hospital in 3 or 4 days after the operation, with up to 2 of those days in the ICU, so that I can be carefully monitored! This means that I could be back at home again by this time next week!!! We'll have to see how it goes though, after all I wouldn't want to be deprived of hospital food too soon!! ;-)

I have begun to think about my future plans once this latest cancer adventure is over. Where do I want to be in a years time?? I have even made an inspiration board to help me think about this, which now hangs on the wall. One thing that I would like is to get more into my photography and make use of my lovely digital SLR that I bought last summer. Whilst I can't take the camera with me into hospital, I am thinking of trying to make a photo diary of my experiences there. I am not sure quite how this is going to work, but I kind of want this to be something that others about to go through a similar thing can look at to get informed. You see, I would like to give something back. I would like to think that something useful can come out of this whole experience I have been / am going through.

OK, I am going to give up with this DVD from Love Film, 'The Fighter', that I am watching. It keeps skipping and pausing thanks to the scratches on the disk. This will definitely be sent back and reported as faulty! The other film I had this time though was 'The Descendents'. Now, whilst you can't generally go too wrong with a George Clooney film, I must say that it was the location rather than the story that got to me - Hawaii is most certainly on the 'places to visit' list! If only I could go now and skip the next 6 months!! ;-) The other film that I have seem recently was 'One for the Money'. Now I am a great fan of the series of books by Janet Evanesovich that this film is based on the first of, so I was a bit worried about how it would be adapted. I really enjoyed it though and hope that they make more of the books into films. I have also been watching 'Brothers & Sisters'. My TV on demand service has put up all the seasons so I have been catching up with the last 2 seasons that I missed on TV. Of course, there ended up being a cancer storyline - am I just sensitive to this at the moment, or do there seem to be a lot of cancer storylines everywhere at the moment??!!

In preparation for my hospital stay, I have been loading my Kindle with books to read and choosing books to listen to on Audible. I also bought a pile of magazines to flick through. I think that I might have gone a bit overboard though as I think I have got enough to keep me entertained for a couple of years!!! ha ha ha!! I'll let you know what I think of the books in another review session. 

Last Tuesday I went for a lovely massage. It involved some aromatherapy and I have fallen in love with the citrus & mint blend that the therapist made up for me! My dry skin is certainly appreciating the oil as I smother myself in it at the moment!! I can't wait to go and have another massage when I am able to after my operation - I guess I will have to wait a couple of weeks!! I'll also have to put yoga on hold for a bit - don't  want to pop a staple!! ;-) I am hoping to be able to do some relaxation sessions with Yogi Clare though and maybe some reiki and NLP. Discovering all these things are some of these things that I am grateful to the cancer for. This may sound odd, but who knows what sort of life I would have ended up with if cancer hadn't given me a wake-up call and shown me that there is more out there. My sister pointed out to me earlier that I have changed from a 'glass half empty' person into a 'glass half full' person, and this can only be a good thing! 

Anyway, I'd better leave it there as I think reading this post maybe qualifies you for an endurance medal!! I'll try not to leave it so long next time!! 

xxxxx

Race for Life pt 2

Sorry it's taken so long to post again - I am not sure where this week has gone! Monday was a trip to Guildford for an MRI of my liver. Just to make it worth my while, they spent an hour, yes an hour, taking images of my liver, some with contrast dye in my system and some without! This of course meant having a cannula in, but thankfully they hit the vein in the back of my hand the first time, so I only have one extra bruise. Yogi Clare and I have been doing some visualisation work to help with my needle phobia, which helped loads - there's nothing like picturing a beach in Thailand when someone is attacking you with a needle! Thanks so much for the help Clare!

On Wednesday night we bid my colleague, Clare, farewell and best of luck with her move to The Netherlands with her husband. We are going to miss you Clare, so keep in touch. It was a great night catching up with various people from work that I haven't seen for a while, and we enjoyed a really lovely meal at Kazan in Pimlico (highly recommended if you like Turkish food).

Anyway, back to the Race for Life last Sunday ...

The amount going to Cancer Research UK has grown further this week - thank you so much every one. I cannot believe how much everyone has given and I've got almost 10 times my target!! Wow!

Thanks also to Mum and Dad and the Coles family for cheering me on on the day, it meant loads to me to have the support. We missed the ice creams afterwards that I promised, but it was heading towards not being ice cream weather!! I'll treat you all soon, I promise.

Anyway, here are some pics that I took on the day ...

Our warm-up started with a spot of belly dancing! This caused much amusement within the ranks of the 2,500 women taking part!

After some more traditional warm-up exercises, it was time to muster at the start. I was with my fellow walkers.

And we were off, up the hill to the site of the Crystal Palace, creating a sea of pink.

After making it to the top of the hill, it was a lap of the terrace where the Crystal Palace stood.

Having walked down the hill with Dad, it was time to go and see the dinosaurs at the bottom of the park before walking the last km to the finish.

Once the finish line had been crossed, the medal collected and the t-shirt bought (they had printed up t-shirts with the names of all the participants on), it was time to go home and have a snooze!!!

All in all it was a great morning and I met some interesting people on the way around. 

Now it is time to double check that I have done everything I need to before heading to Spain in the morning!! I can't wait to get to the warm sunshine and stay there for a week! I am sure that half the stuff I have packed will not see the light of day again until I get home, but there's nothing new there! (Any burglars reading this, please leave my flat alone!!!)

I think that's it for a week, so I'll report back then

xxxxx