It’s Official

  When I returned from our little holiday this week, I was delighted to open up a letter which held my FREEDOM PASS! I was more than thrilled yesterday to use said pass on the tram, and felt a great sense of satisfaction to pat myself on the back and tap the freedom pass on the reader knowing that I haven’t yet reached the milestone birthday! Ha Ha! 

Yup - going to be an OAP on Sunday. My 66th birthday. Proper pensionable age. 

Do I feel it?

Sometimes......... although I try really hard to keep that positivity (that I’m famous for 😋) present as much as I can, there are moments when I feel a bit aged. Most of the time, I feel no different to the chirpy music/drama student training to be a teacher in the mid seventies - just a bit wiser perhaps........ but then I realise that I’m starting to make a groaning sound when I get up from the chair on occasions - and also recognise that I don’t kneel down with alacrity on the floor to pick dropped things up, just in case I can’t get up again! 

The ageing process - what a bugger. I remember watching my old golden retriever, Tootsie, becoming infirm before our eyes. Like watching a film sped up.  

It’s strange, isn’t it, when one reflects upon ones current status? I’ve never been very good at remembering dates, or realising how long it is since a certain event. You just keep going, don’t you? 

This last year, I’ve had more time to reflect, and for the first time in my life, I feel as if I’m not in the hamster wheel any more. Covid has, of course, added to the strange feeling of disassociation, which accompanies retirement.......  I’ve found myself becoming a bit more reclusive, and feeling content to have no plans. I keep a calendar on my phone, and get slightly alarmed if the days are too punctuated with happenings - mostly social, but obviously with a few hospital appointments thrown in. 

*****Well- hold tight. The next two months have been blocked out on the calendar. *****

My consultant called me last week whilst I was away having a fabulous post lockdown reunion holiday in Wales with my oldest chums (friends since 1974 when we were all those bright eyed and eager students in West Yorkshire), and she gave me the news that I’d been waiting for. She’d taken my case to the MDT and they had discussed the best plan of action. The immunotherapy had worked wonders on the pesky colon tumour, but there was an area in the lower groin that was refusing to respond, and had started to show signs of progression. Dr Taylor told me that they all agreed that the best course of action was traditional radiotherapy, designed to finish off the cancer cells that remained. 

Yesterday, I met with her registrar, and he explained everything to me in great depth. There is a small area of activity, and that will be targeted, but they also plan to give low dose radiotherapy over the entire pelvic area, due to the cancer being found in small deposits on the peritoneum at the start of the recurrence, 18 months ago. He described it as “five weeks of ‘gentle’ pelvic radiation with a two week ‘booster’ at the end directed at the troublesome patch”. This is due to start on Tuesday 19th. Radiotherapy will be daily, excepting weekends and bank holidays....... for seven weeks. I think we have a few bank holidays coming up, due to HRH celebrating her platinum jubilee?  

So. A scattergun approach. My hilarious youngest son suggested that this might arm me with further “superpowers” (in the style of wolverine, perhaps) - and I hope that’s the case (perhaps without the facial hair......) I’m not a superhero fan - so I might have got the back story slightly wrong here......... 

Moving away from the ever present cancer update, at this point I want to include a picture of my fabulous old friends: Sue, Ali, Tim, Krissy - (all from Bretton), and John and Peter as add ons (not from Bretton) 

As you’ll see, we were blessed with Mediterranean weather - a complete bonus for North Wales in March - and when we visited Beaumaris Castle, on Anglesey, I couldn’t help but complete the Childrens activity of building your own castle....... with huge success I might add! 

Enough of the child in me! I’ve dwelt on the fact that I don’t feel my age very often...... 

Oh! But I must add, that.... whilst we were in North Wales last week, Ali and Sue and I celebrated the fact that we are on the cusp of SPA (State Pension Age for the youngsters among you) by doing the Velocity 2 Zip Wire......... it was BRILLIANT fun. I’d highly recommend it. 

However - I wouldn’t quite recommend being the only participant who got trapped in the faulty seat belt on the lorry taking us up to the top of the mountain! 20 minutes of being told off for wriggling and twisting in my seat, before the frustrated driver smashed the seat belt holder to smithereens. I felt that he wouldn’t have minded smashing me too! Well - I did get released in time to whizz down the zip wire - and it was an experience which added to the comedy of the event!

I shall be endeavouring to keep my blog up to date on a more regular basis over the period of radiotherapy treatment. I’m sure many people have a strange fascination with the machinations of x rays and rare therapies in general, so I shall describe it in precise detail.

Yesterday, they prepped me for the start - and my young friends will be delighted to read that I actually got TATTOOS!!!!! Yes... Real tatts.  I told the radiographer girls that they’re missing a trick. The RCA is just up the road from the Marsden, they could be employing all those amazing art students to pop down to the Cyber Knife Dept (I kid you not..... this is where I was) And have some work experience detailing those tattoos creatively! I rather fancied a superhero but I only got a dot. They did however, leave a lot of permanent sharpie in place on my skin too.

 

  Not the prettiest of selfies.............. but you get the idea!

Watch this space.......... (oh, and don’t invite me to anything in April or May please)