I was suddenly feeling a lot better come the Spring of 1996. I didn't know why or want to raise hopes that something dramatic had happened but there was a difference. By now I was practically hairless and suffering some nerve damage from the chemo that gave me aggravating tingling in hands and feet but ...
It was June and my wife and I had been placed in a cubicle awaiting a consultant. She came in smiling with an entourage. The news that I was in remission was probably the sweetest most exquisite thing I have ever heard. I remember saying that I wished she could give all her patients that same piece of news. Smile? Yes I did. My wife and I had between us with the help of others licked the disease.
I was asked to continue the course of chemo over the following 2 weeks whilst they sent all xrays and scans for rechecking to see if they had got it wrong in the first place!
My thoughts are still with the people helping cancer suffers and with those shouldering their fight with the disease.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Cats And Dogs - Delete Dogs Insert Hedgehog
Grub up! Well it's easier than finding my own snails and such like.Dino Might
The identical twins born to a well-to-do single white witch were inseparable even after one had learnt to cast morphing spells to considerable effect.
Poetry In Motion
Who does he or she think they're kidding? I mean the person who wrote POETRY IN MOTION? All I can come up with is "crap stinks methinks" or "the browner I done out of my bum went downer the pipe after a gripe" or "turn the other cheek and let your bottom speak" .... no, no, no there's no poetry in motion else Wordsworth and his mates would have bin there and done it.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Grow Potatoes Successfully In Supermaket Bags
1st and 2nd early potatoes planted in initial 3 to 4 inches of compost mid-March & mid-April 2009
Harvesting successfully from mid-June after adding more compost as plants grew
I Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma In 1995 - Here's What Happened part 3
I started chemotherapy within a few days of being discharged from hospital where my cancer had been confirmed. It was a time of confusion having so much information pushed upon one together with getting on with the job in hand. I was told that the prognosis for Hodgkin's was good but that I would probably go on to have other problems associated with having chemo and long-term I would be at higher risk of getting diabetes (which I now have) and other assorted problems - it was a case of accepting the chemo as the lesser of the 2 evils. I just wanted to get started. I was feeling lousy is the best way to describe it. My energy levels were shot - I had to have a lie down after having a shower - and life was 'difficult'.
I was, I believe, reasonably cheerful despite it all and my wife echoed my positivity. We were fighting the disease together. The chemo started at the end of October 1995. By January 1996 we attended a review of the chemo with the consultant only to be deflated by the news that the treatment had made no headway on the cancerous cells. It was not a good time. They wanted to try a different chemo drug that would have different effects including hair loss. What else could I do but agree. I had been seeing Denis, the spiritual healer regularly for my time on chemo and trying to eat foods that would promote my body's immune system. But it hadn't, at that point, turned the tanker round.
In the bleak midwinter alright.
But there were two developments at Easter that made me sit up and notice. On TV I half caught a programme, Beyond 2000 I think it was, that had an item about the cancer killing compounds that were being studied in Shiitake mushrooms. The second item of interest was a magazine article about, again, the cancer killing properties of the drink Green Tea. These two products and the interest they genereated in me for a cancer killing diet made me want more informaton. I had a lengthy telephone conversation afterwards with a well renowned Bristol shop and was eager to know if they could give me more information but much to my annoyance they completely cut me down on the subject saying there was nothing in it, no scientific studies had been carried out so it was all bunkum! I was quite depressed with the attitude and that there just wasn't any studies going on. What was cancer research consisting of? Merely trying to find more and more potent drugs to attack the problem?
Anyway I integrated the mushrooms and green tea into my diet.
I haven't mentioned another element to the story that may have been part and parcel of the end result. Another very strange coincidence and for those who don't believe in coincidence it can't be denied that it was strange.
Prior to becoming ill I had set about trying to start a self employed business having taken redundancy after 30 years working on the railways. I had started putting ads in places. I had not received one enquiry prior to going into hospital. I had not given the business any thought whatsoever. Yet when I came home from the hospital - the same day remember the Daily Mail got me on track with a spiritual healer - there was a message from a guy, Ray Hicks (he too is no longer with us), who was interested in my doing some work for him. I had to ring him to say sorry but my circumstances had changed and I explained about my illness. He said that if I was interested I could see him anyway and he could give me electronic acupuncture treatment whilst I could work as and when I was able. And that is precisely the course of events - I had regular electronic acupuncture aimed at boosting my immune system and there were times I was glad of a little work to keep my mind occupied.
So you see there were these strands that had all come together by the Easter of 1996. In my last post on the subject I'll conclude my journey.
I was, I believe, reasonably cheerful despite it all and my wife echoed my positivity. We were fighting the disease together. The chemo started at the end of October 1995. By January 1996 we attended a review of the chemo with the consultant only to be deflated by the news that the treatment had made no headway on the cancerous cells. It was not a good time. They wanted to try a different chemo drug that would have different effects including hair loss. What else could I do but agree. I had been seeing Denis, the spiritual healer regularly for my time on chemo and trying to eat foods that would promote my body's immune system. But it hadn't, at that point, turned the tanker round.
In the bleak midwinter alright.
But there were two developments at Easter that made me sit up and notice. On TV I half caught a programme, Beyond 2000 I think it was, that had an item about the cancer killing compounds that were being studied in Shiitake mushrooms. The second item of interest was a magazine article about, again, the cancer killing properties of the drink Green Tea. These two products and the interest they genereated in me for a cancer killing diet made me want more informaton. I had a lengthy telephone conversation afterwards with a well renowned Bristol shop and was eager to know if they could give me more information but much to my annoyance they completely cut me down on the subject saying there was nothing in it, no scientific studies had been carried out so it was all bunkum! I was quite depressed with the attitude and that there just wasn't any studies going on. What was cancer research consisting of? Merely trying to find more and more potent drugs to attack the problem?
Anyway I integrated the mushrooms and green tea into my diet.
I haven't mentioned another element to the story that may have been part and parcel of the end result. Another very strange coincidence and for those who don't believe in coincidence it can't be denied that it was strange.
Prior to becoming ill I had set about trying to start a self employed business having taken redundancy after 30 years working on the railways. I had started putting ads in places. I had not received one enquiry prior to going into hospital. I had not given the business any thought whatsoever. Yet when I came home from the hospital - the same day remember the Daily Mail got me on track with a spiritual healer - there was a message from a guy, Ray Hicks (he too is no longer with us), who was interested in my doing some work for him. I had to ring him to say sorry but my circumstances had changed and I explained about my illness. He said that if I was interested I could see him anyway and he could give me electronic acupuncture treatment whilst I could work as and when I was able. And that is precisely the course of events - I had regular electronic acupuncture aimed at boosting my immune system and there were times I was glad of a little work to keep my mind occupied.
So you see there were these strands that had all come together by the Easter of 1996. In my last post on the subject I'll conclude my journey.
Male And Female And Neither Of These
I think I'd like to enter the sex/gender debate I've heard is ongoing. Now forgive me if I'm wrong but my interpretation of the work/life balance for these two words is based on the premise that sex is what you do with the wherewithal you're endowed with within your gender. And the sex act is performance art for 1 or more entities on a given stage. Whatever way you look at this function (the sex act) it's a ridiculous event in the time/space continuum with only the redeeming feature of sometimes creating life. Procreational or recreational there's not a cigarette paper's difference between them and if there were the cigarette paper would dissolve in the bodily fluids. There's the adage of 'pain is sex' but then there's also 'pain is not having sex' but if we get into 'pain is gender' then that's a whole new ball game for the female who wants to change sides. Hormones have a lot to answer for!
Not Quite Far Far Away
Not a stone's throw from Shrek's Far Far Away is a very pleasant little place so good in fact they named it twice.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
I Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma In 1995 - Here's What Happened part 2
My 2 weeks in hospital confirming my GP's suspicion of Hodgkin's Lymphoma were quite depressing. I wrote to my GP some time later because actually, after what I read of the the 'condition' subsequently, it is not that simple diagnosing it and so I expressed my gratitude that he like the GP before him (see my previous posting on the subject) had not taken an easy option - else quite simply I would not be here because of the then advanced stage of the disease in my body. As I said it was 2 weeks hospitalised and not being able to get on with dealing with the problem. Poked and prodded being the order of the day. Unpleasant biopsies and doctors doing rounds and me being a 'not very good patient'. My wife was a towering support and daily visited bringing hope as well as some decent food - the hospital food was not designed for nutrition but for the convenience of the hospital catering management but also, primarily, for a budget. Patient considerations within the catering department of the hospital were way down the list. One particular low point was the day I had a doctor give me the confirmation of the state of my body when my next contact with humanity was a lady offering me the food order of the vegetarian option as being fish. I wrote to the catering department and complained from the comfort of home many weeks later and I got a most indignant and unrepentant reply saying that, "a lot of vegetarins eat fish". Dimwit. Probably a highly paid dimwit and so I knew I had been wasting my time! Obviously I was an inconvenience.
I remember quite distinctly a strangeness to the day I was discharged. Relief at being able to go home and tackle life or the endgame to that life but also of the coincidence of buying the Daily Mail newspaer to find an in depth article on Spiritual Healing together with contact details for their governing body. My wife and I had not been religious over the years, she being Church of England baptised and me Roman Catholic (lapsed I think is the description). Anyhow the feeling now was that we should tackle the problem together and not rule anything out. We contacted the governing body and they provided two names in our locality, a man and a woman, with telephone numbers. My wife asked who she should call and my instincts were to telephone the woman which she did but this healer said that she did not deal with things like cancer! Not a very encouraging beginning. So then she rang the second number and he didn't want to know what the problem was and invited us to his home. He was Denis Rouse who sadly is no longer with us.
I'll relate more on what happened in my journey on the path of cancer in my next post on the subject as well as other coincidences or were they just coincidences?
I remember quite distinctly a strangeness to the day I was discharged. Relief at being able to go home and tackle life or the endgame to that life but also of the coincidence of buying the Daily Mail newspaer to find an in depth article on Spiritual Healing together with contact details for their governing body. My wife and I had not been religious over the years, she being Church of England baptised and me Roman Catholic (lapsed I think is the description). Anyhow the feeling now was that we should tackle the problem together and not rule anything out. We contacted the governing body and they provided two names in our locality, a man and a woman, with telephone numbers. My wife asked who she should call and my instincts were to telephone the woman which she did but this healer said that she did not deal with things like cancer! Not a very encouraging beginning. So then she rang the second number and he didn't want to know what the problem was and invited us to his home. He was Denis Rouse who sadly is no longer with us.
I'll relate more on what happened in my journey on the path of cancer in my next post on the subject as well as other coincidences or were they just coincidences?
Friday, 21 August 2009
Statue Of Liberty
The statue she had just bought at the garden centre was posing the problem of where to hold it to carry to her Volkswagen Beetle.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
I Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma In 1995 - Here's What Happened part 1
It seems a lifetime away now and somehow like it all happened to someone else really but the facts are there. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in October 1995 and the following Spring was told by a consultant that I was in remission adding, "whatever you're doing carry on doing it". That last comment has such resonance with me because it says to me that the medical staff with whom I came into contact, the medical episodes at that time, nothing and nobody was convinced that the 2 different chemotherapy courses I underwent had anything to do with my remission. Of course I was elated together with my wife and family - I'm sure I'll never quite get a real handle on the effect it had on them (probably more so than that which I experienced).
I shouldn't be here now - I know this for a fact. Before the diagnosis I had been having flu-like symptoms for several months and told myself "doctors don't want to be bothered with virus infections". Eventually I went to a doctor at my local practice who referred me to a specialist but after a month of waiting for an appointment I saw a 2nd doctor from the practice who had me in hospital that same day. It was many years later that my wife told me yet another doctor at the practice, whilst I was being treated, told her, "I admire your positivity but you ought to prepare yourself for losing your husband". And so she aught for during a 2 week stay in hospital after x-rays, bone marrow, liver, lymph node biopsies it transpired that the cancer had spread through my lungs and was described as 'stage 4' - well progressed.
In the ensuing days and weeks I was put on a regime of chemo therapy with the comforting observation by a cancer professional that if I were to get a cancer this was the one to have due to its better prospects.
As visits to the hospital came and went I was feeling pretty sick but I was really struck by 2 things - 1) overwhelming compassion for the nursing staff who were so horrendously overworked and 2) overwhelming compassion and empathy for fellow patients - my eyes would well up seeing the suffering of others that it made what was happening to me seem small fry.
I did, at the outset, think to myself that if my number was up so be it but my wife and I would explore what we could do for ourselves. In my next post I'll go into detail of how this took shape and I'll leave the reader to decide what to make of it.
I shouldn't be here now - I know this for a fact. Before the diagnosis I had been having flu-like symptoms for several months and told myself "doctors don't want to be bothered with virus infections". Eventually I went to a doctor at my local practice who referred me to a specialist but after a month of waiting for an appointment I saw a 2nd doctor from the practice who had me in hospital that same day. It was many years later that my wife told me yet another doctor at the practice, whilst I was being treated, told her, "I admire your positivity but you ought to prepare yourself for losing your husband". And so she aught for during a 2 week stay in hospital after x-rays, bone marrow, liver, lymph node biopsies it transpired that the cancer had spread through my lungs and was described as 'stage 4' - well progressed.
In the ensuing days and weeks I was put on a regime of chemo therapy with the comforting observation by a cancer professional that if I were to get a cancer this was the one to have due to its better prospects.
As visits to the hospital came and went I was feeling pretty sick but I was really struck by 2 things - 1) overwhelming compassion for the nursing staff who were so horrendously overworked and 2) overwhelming compassion and empathy for fellow patients - my eyes would well up seeing the suffering of others that it made what was happening to me seem small fry.
I did, at the outset, think to myself that if my number was up so be it but my wife and I would explore what we could do for ourselves. In my next post I'll go into detail of how this took shape and I'll leave the reader to decide what to make of it.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
August Word Of The Month
Not to beat about the bush - well it's not a million miles away - the month's word on a pedestal is, ta da, "SPHINCTER". Lovely word. So rich yet it rolls off the tongue - not literally (yuck ... athough ... no, second thoughts, don't go there) - and rewarding the listener with a hard edged crescendo that rounds off the concept beautifully. The word conjures a rich mind picture but with an element of fun that ameliorates the basic function the word conveys. As a term of abuse it isn't up there with its hardcore brothers but still has a capacity to get under the skin quite superbly. One can't imagine an American using the term but more your colloquial Brit who has engineered himself into a drunken corner whilst on some stag do or other. Yeah, right. Use it and ENJOY it.
Monday, 17 August 2009
You're A Fool If You Ever, I MEAN EVER, Believe A UK Politician
You see, Bob Ainsworth may be close to sainthood for all we know and it may be the case that there is not one scintilla of fiction in his pronouncements. We may have the holiest of holies in the higher echelons of the MOD with 100% accurate appraisals of where we are in Afghanistan. Gordon Brown may be next to Godly. BUT. Politicians in this country, the so called United Kingdom, have an absolutely horrendous record of duplicity, double standards, hypocracy, downright lying, corruption, greed, and so, so on. You're a 24 carat fool if you believe one iota of a UK politician. If you are not 'served' by UK politicians you are ahead of the game by a long, long way.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Bandage Aid
Maybe I've missed something but I can't seem to get an answer to a question that has troubled me for some time and that is 'does the invisible man activate automatic doors'?
I mean he's presumably just as important as you and me but with the disability of a lack of visibility - sufficient I'd have thought for a considerable disbursement from a laudable social care system - and not being technically savvy viz-a-vis the sensor arrangements I cannot form a view. I'm mindful that should they not operate then this may be a design flaw and taking things to a logical extreme it must surely be a flagrant discrimination that some ambulance chasing lawyer would give his right arm to squeeze a shed load of dosh out of somebody or other.
And while we're there, what of the CARNAL question? Is he in need of, ahem, additional bandages from time to time? If there were offspring from conjugals would you be able to see right through them or would they sort of opaque up a bit? There's a whole can of worms half opened by H.G. Wells - I knew his brother Tunbridge by the by - and with the genie half in and half out the bottle I'm perplexed.
More questions than answers. What if he'd gone to The Village where one of the mantras was 'be seeing you'? There's a school of thought that if he were around today he'd be obese (around today twice!) and suffer the idignity of being labelled the Michelin man! One thing's for sure the choice of bandages available today is greatly improved so one can rest assured I think it's fair to say that chaffing in certain areas might be a thing of the past.
Be seeing you.
I mean he's presumably just as important as you and me but with the disability of a lack of visibility - sufficient I'd have thought for a considerable disbursement from a laudable social care system - and not being technically savvy viz-a-vis the sensor arrangements I cannot form a view. I'm mindful that should they not operate then this may be a design flaw and taking things to a logical extreme it must surely be a flagrant discrimination that some ambulance chasing lawyer would give his right arm to squeeze a shed load of dosh out of somebody or other.
And while we're there, what of the CARNAL question? Is he in need of, ahem, additional bandages from time to time? If there were offspring from conjugals would you be able to see right through them or would they sort of opaque up a bit? There's a whole can of worms half opened by H.G. Wells - I knew his brother Tunbridge by the by - and with the genie half in and half out the bottle I'm perplexed.
More questions than answers. What if he'd gone to The Village where one of the mantras was 'be seeing you'? There's a school of thought that if he were around today he'd be obese (around today twice!) and suffer the idignity of being labelled the Michelin man! One thing's for sure the choice of bandages available today is greatly improved so one can rest assured I think it's fair to say that chaffing in certain areas might be a thing of the past.
Be seeing you.
Rocking Horse Menace
There is real fear in the escaped wooden rocking horse community as news gets out of the Mayor of London signing a cull order.
Friday, 14 August 2009
Day 1
Here endeth the first blog lesson. Wonder what it'll look like on day 6 - resting on day 7 no doubt. If there is anybody out there - HELLO.
Marriage
Marriages EVOLVE don't they? I mean after say 30 or so years, when you think about it, every cell in your body has been completely replaced several times over so its hardly surprising marriages undergo metamorphosis. My wife and I have been around the block a few times and I think the best indicator I can give you dear reader of our marriage status right now is through reciting an episode from a recent holiday.
It was morning and breakfast was in play. Our young child of six - if she'd been a boy I'd be calling her Damien - had just been admonished for threatening to launch a frisbee in the room. I sat down to enjoy nature's bounty for breakfast with the added ecstacy of a piping hot mug of coffee. Not two spoonfuls of porridge oats and blueberries had passed my lips when a frisbee launch was detected from stage right that could not have been more devastating if Damien's sister had meant for it to go where it went. The precision was remarkable catching as it did the side of my PIPING HOT (did I mention that?) flagon of coffee with sufficient acumen so as to tip the said hot drink bullseye-like into my lap. My exit from the room was remarkably free from expletives for which I believe I do deserve some credit although with the recent publication of evidence suggesting that swearing actually helps in certain situations then looking back I may have done myself a disservice. However the crux of my revelation is that our marriage has reached the point where my better half prioritised ensuring the carpet in our holiday accommodation was not stained before checking on my needs and discomfiture. At least the carpet was saved. I think if we had been still in the first flush of marriage, I might be wrong but I don't think so, my scolded nuts might have received more urgent attention ...
It was morning and breakfast was in play. Our young child of six - if she'd been a boy I'd be calling her Damien - had just been admonished for threatening to launch a frisbee in the room. I sat down to enjoy nature's bounty for breakfast with the added ecstacy of a piping hot mug of coffee. Not two spoonfuls of porridge oats and blueberries had passed my lips when a frisbee launch was detected from stage right that could not have been more devastating if Damien's sister had meant for it to go where it went. The precision was remarkable catching as it did the side of my PIPING HOT (did I mention that?) flagon of coffee with sufficient acumen so as to tip the said hot drink bullseye-like into my lap. My exit from the room was remarkably free from expletives for which I believe I do deserve some credit although with the recent publication of evidence suggesting that swearing actually helps in certain situations then looking back I may have done myself a disservice. However the crux of my revelation is that our marriage has reached the point where my better half prioritised ensuring the carpet in our holiday accommodation was not stained before checking on my needs and discomfiture. At least the carpet was saved. I think if we had been still in the first flush of marriage, I might be wrong but I don't think so, my scolded nuts might have received more urgent attention ...
Something To Say?
When I was a kid I was always told, "if you haven't got anything sensible to say don't say anything at all."
Nice to be able to live the very antithesis of that now - and hey I'm shouting in a vacuum cos nobody knows about this blog.
They're coming to take me away haha ...
Nice to be able to live the very antithesis of that now - and hey I'm shouting in a vacuum cos nobody knows about this blog.
They're coming to take me away haha ...
BeeLog From Bee Cop
Daa dada da der. I'm a cop. I'm on the case ... OK holdall ... what do you mean carrier bag? There's been another colony collapse. I'm investigating. Looks like an inside job - some worker bee did a smelly number two near the queen and she ordered an evacuation. Must have been a dodgy curry pollen the night before. Yeah.
I keep the streets clean - no bees cut loose in my patch. Zero tolerance on intoxication from fermenting overripe plums. Bees on my watch need to be the bees knees behaviour-wise. Bee-tween you and me I get a buzz outta laying the lawn down - so I can practice grassing up.
I keep the streets clean - no bees cut loose in my patch. Zero tolerance on intoxication from fermenting overripe plums. Bees on my watch need to be the bees knees behaviour-wise. Bee-tween you and me I get a buzz outta laying the lawn down - so I can practice grassing up.
True People Have Their Foibles
The trouble with the Ramblers Association is that they never seem to get to the point. And if, by chance, some do get to the point there will be a proportion who will be so tired they'll keep going and drop right into the sea.
It's a fact that True is a very small place as I mentioned earlier and is continually surrounded by a dense sea fog which goes some way to mitigate the strangeness of its people. The inhabitants have grown to believe that they are God's gift but they have not met up with Noel Edmonds yet so their deflation awaits his introduction there (a prospect to salivate any number of witless TV media execs no doubt). Should our Noel chance upon this demi-paradise he'll be sure of a welcome invoking that age-old custom whereby the hairy chinned one would get the shaft with coconuts sphinctorially inserted until top and bottom are mirror images. Squeal or no squeal?
It's a fact that True is a very small place as I mentioned earlier and is continually surrounded by a dense sea fog which goes some way to mitigate the strangeness of its people. The inhabitants have grown to believe that they are God's gift but they have not met up with Noel Edmonds yet so their deflation awaits his introduction there (a prospect to salivate any number of witless TV media execs no doubt). Should our Noel chance upon this demi-paradise he'll be sure of a welcome invoking that age-old custom whereby the hairy chinned one would get the shaft with coconuts sphinctorially inserted until top and bottom are mirror images. Squeal or no squeal?
Is life really a series of 0's or 1's?
It would be true to say that something was true if it was but false otherwise. I hope this clears things up for the inhabitants of the miniscule Pacific island of True which lies in the archipelago of Nunsuch. A story is a story is a story for the fiction bookshop on three floors. The truth is out there but that's a lie of course. New Labour is the best thing since sliced bread. Or is it?
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