A good day tinged with a little sadness

It was a good day and the meeting went really well and apart from a couple of minor problems a good time was had by all.

The sad news was that one of our number who is fighting esophagus cancer is losing his fight and that is so sad as until recently all the signs were good. There really isn't a lot to do about it either. Rather than all of us contacting him, one person becomes our collective voice and it is inevitable what the outcome will be and in not a great deal of time either.

He is very straightforward about it and is facing up to it well, his daughter who, ironically, is one of the world's top specialists in this area, is flying back from the US to see him soon.

There were good signs yesterday that my mental dexterity is back as I was able to fire off some very good one-liners at the meal after the meeting and keep the troops entertained. When asked about my successor (who doesn't quite get it right all the time) taking over next year as being "natural succession" - Not in the way that Darwin may have written about - no but rather it was his turn. Thank goodness for that I thought I was going to have long term brain slowness after the operation.

The Week

Shot past. I am on a mission tonight to get all the work I need to get done for tomorrow ready.

I envisage that I will be up for at least another 4 or 5 hours getting it sorted out.

Then I have to be there at about 9 tomorrow to make sure everything goes to plan.

At least this is my last big event this year - a few smaller ones to come in July but this one is massive and needs my attention so the weekend will be busy.

Treatment starts on Monday and I hope that I can be fit enough to return to work on the Wednesday morning. We will see I suppose.

Blimey

Another busy day and finally I got to turn up at work in my Masonic Suit and the cat was out of the bag. I got my exhibition pictures mounted today which was great and managed to thrash through a load of tasks and get things finished.

As for health - well I have stopped bleeding but I'm not quite right - I think that my body is putting the plumbing back where it should be. Of course, I'll just get to be fine and they'll knock ten bells out of me next week.

Today already

I went off to my Jazz night and I have been going for 20 years and one month now! Met up with some lovely people and of course, this time last month I was recovering!

Great news, well received. Good day at work - it went really well and I was involved and useful.

Big day later - today actually - a meeting in London. It is almost the end of the Masonic season and it is so busy. A meeting later then Friday another and Saturday my biggest meeting of the year!

I need to prepare for that so I will probably miss the Friday meeting to allow me time to prepare.

It will be my last year as Secretary starting Saturday - I will miss it especially as the last 2 years I really haven't been well enough to go out on all the visits I should have.

A really good day today

Apart from some more blood - not much - enough to take notice though. Thank goodness I wasn't on treatment this week!

Anyway, the day was good as I got so much done yesterday and today - mainly because I had stuff prepared and I am getting used to it these days. At least they are happy with me - they still don't know how I can do things so fast though :-)

Staff meeting tomorrow so an opportunity to move things on again.

I really like this job - it just keep presenting challenges and is so varied.

Buzz

What a day - it is late evening and I have just got in. I did so much work this today it made my head buzz and we had an enjoyable evening meeting in London. We even got home at a decent time. Often, at this meeting, I have been home at 2 in the morning!!!

I should be OK for work as I was careful what I drank tonight - there was as much wine as you wanted but that is very dangerous of course....

The rest of the week is as nightmarish as this - I think it is only tomorrow that I have a free day...

Phew - that made me tired

I fixed the roof yesterday - the lower one as I had some people in to do the upper one. Spent a day cutting wood, ripping down the old one, repairing the rot etc. Absolutely wiped me out and I can feel various sections of my body aching. It probably also started off the passing of a load of debris again! That has stopped now as well.

I suppose it is a good thing I am not having treatment starting tomorrow. It is the beginning of a busy week as I have relatives coming over today, passing through and it is the music festival, I am out tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (possibly) I have my big meeting next Saturday and on the Monday after that treatment starts...

At least during the treatment I'll be taking things a lot easier.

Over Analysing

That can be a problem. Trying to find answers to things that may not need answers, trying to understand what you are going through. I know some people who just get on with everything and act as if nothing is there or happened and take it all as it comes.

Me - I like to try and work out what it is and why I am feeling a particular way and often why I should then be doing contrary to what I think I should be feeling. That's me - I think too much :-)

I thought the last couple of posts were interesting as they are the beginning of a change in me. I met someone Thursday and I said to them I was enjoying my job and they said "you can see that" and I do, it is a great job. I can see that light at the end of the Tunnel and I can feel myself changing and becoming more positive and more optimistic - it is most probably relief. Relief that the end is in sight, that this chapter is drawing to a close, that I am building the foundations of a career where I make a difference. Every time I do something, I am helping someone. Great feeling to be useful and valuable and to have that valued.

So - two things then, relief that the end is in sight, delight that the career, what I do most days is way beyond expectations and that all of that in turn is leading to a new beginning (in a way). The last two posts? Well perhaps you have to say goodbye to the "old you" and give it a good send off, have a wake and move on? I can't change what happened but I can get it off my mind, stop worrying about it as it is, after all history, and move on confidently to face the challenges, surprises and opportunities of the future.

Post Traumatic Stress and shock

I never gave myself an opportunity to grieve (if that is the right word) over the diagnosis of having cancer - I didn't lose a bit of my body but I took an almighty blow to my self confidence and I found out I was mortal. I realised I had probably been the architect of my own downfall and had reaped what I had sowed but I determined to do whatever I needed to do to combat and win against this.

Humour and self deception have got me through - let's face it, how can you see the positives in getting some of the treatments which really should shock you. You make a positive spin on it and of course that is the right thing to do. You know, like I only have six more treatments and one operation left to go and if clear then I can be in remission or whatever.

The previous post is all about the knowledge that he light is at the end of the tunnel. That I can see an end to this now, that I have to put up with this next lot of treatment, that perhaps I'll get some of my life back and that I may actually get over this fatigue and tiredness that claws away at me.

So I feel that the release I seek is more a case of actually having the emotions that perhaps I should have had 2 years ago and getting the whole thing off my chest. The release is just that, having lived with this for so long, to be able soon to say it has gone and I don't have it anymore or perhaps it is no longer a threat or perhaps that I can put it behind me and not think about it every day are the emotions I am going through now.

It will be a release and it is the release that I struggle with. There have been so many positives, it hardly seems possible that there is a down side but there must be, it IS a worry no matter what you say. You do fear for yourself and those around you. You do realise that you are mortal and you do have to come to terms with that as well and many of these things are presented to me when I am far too young to have expected to deal with them.

Anyway, whilst I still feel that there needs to be some sort of release of emotion somewhere, I still have no idea how it will manifest itself. I am beginning to enjoy life again although stamina is the one thing I could do with - I was out three or fours times this week and I feel it.

Survivor syndrome - perhaps - more delayed shock I feel, as if walking away from a huge wreck and wondering how on earth did I get out of that?

Strange thing - a growing feeling

I really just want to go and have a really good cry somewhere and let it all out. I have been feeling this for a long time and I am thinking it is a release of some sort, I just want to get id of all the stuff that has built up and let it go and move on.

I think I have done it professionally - although I have a morbid interest in seeing my previous lot get fried at some time in the future.

This feeling though is different. I'm not a particularly emotional sort - my profile confirms that I am bit clinical and a bit of an "ice man" but right now, and for a few weeks, I feel the need for a complete release. The trouble is that I think it is going to be like a dam bursting and that I am going to completely crack up.

I don't particularly want to do this alone but I don't know who I should inflict it on either if you get my meaning? It is the most peculiar feeling - it is something that I can feel and am controlling. It is brimming under the surface but at the moment it gets to no more than a wet eye as I think about it.

Part of the healing process? Massive relief? Whatever it is, it needs to get out. I just need to understand what it is and to let it release without damaging me or those around me.

A Late one again

Not used to this getting late trains and getting home at 10 in the evening even if it is work related - absolutely knackered. Last 's fright with the debris hasn't recurred although there were some "bits" that fell out, at least I didn't get the "port" with them :-(

Thanks goodness that the BCG isn't until Monday week. Well I need to get to bed - I had an interesting late meeting and then bumped into some old and then some new friends!!!

Oh Sh1t

I have had a great day at work and I was feeling a bi strange on the way home but got here and had a nice dinner and then my Nephew phoned and we went for a beer, which was nice. We beat USA at Soccer (we call it Football) and had a nice laugh a few serious bits and all that - so I went to the toilet and I am peeing lumps and scarlet! Twice. I haven't checked yet - I have just got home and taken a glass of water and a tablet.

I will check later and hopefully it will just be the odd scab dropping off.

I have my appointment to start BC - 9th June which is later than I thought but fits in better with everything else.

Now to tell myself that it is only 6 of these BCGs to go. I was originally expecting at least 12 so I can use some reverse Psychology here somehow - maybe :-)

The Days Flash By

These days - I can hardly believe that I've been to work today I was really hard at it all day and the poor old boss can't keep up. I've suggested that we sit down for 30 minutes and take stock tomorrow. That way I can get my next set of objectives and get cracking on those. I have an inter charity meeting tomorrow which I am going to enjoy.

They must be getting used to me as well as we had a bit of a laugh today about"my jewels" - I look after some medals - called jewels and said that "the light had gone out on my jewels" meaning the display light - they obviously took it to a different meaning altogether which was funny.

Anyway - happy as Larry as they say.

Miserable Day

It is wet and windy and quite horrible outside. I'm sort of OK this morning - I had some more debris drop out of me overnight which was a little larger than I expected but it isn't anywhere near like Saturday's episodes - they were quite frightening.

I am getting on with the odds and ends I need to here to clear my desk. I realise that if I am going to be on treatment that it will knock me about and I will loose 2 days a week again - only for 3 weeks but I will need to be super clever with my timing as I have a number of things to accomplish.

Something I need to get used to at work. I completed those preliminary documents before I went into Hospital and no one has had the opportunity to read them yet!

Debris and fall out

Today was a strange day really as there was still the odd spot of debris followed by nothing then a load of debris and nothing and so on. I guess that this is just the scabs there is very little blood this time so just all the last bits dropping out.

I'm not as worried about this as I am getting used to the possibility that this is what is going to happen for a day of two whilst the final remnants of the scabs work their way out.

I am hoping that tomorrow I will get to sit down at my desk and do the work that I should have done yesterday and today. At least I won't have the excuse of having the motor racing and the golf stopping me!

Next weekend it is the local music festival which I hope to get along to at least one of the bands playing. I may well then be on Treatment - I wait to hear this week about that. At least if I am that ill get that out of the way and I can sort out holidays with the family.

Overnight OK

Apart from being up every 2 hours going to the toilet with the sheer amount of liquid I drank.

All is clear and has been since last night! Phew, worrying even though I knew what it was. Today is again going to be an easy day as I will just relax and take it easy. I have a stack of things to do but being hunched over my desk isn't going to make things right today.

It is really quite scary and alarming seeing blood and bits escaping your body but it is over again now. I tend to be OK with it when I know it is going to happen - post operative, post treatment but when it is out of the blue (so to speak) it is very alarming and very upsetting.

That will do for now. Have calmed down a bit and will rest up for the remainder of the day - thank goodness it didn't happen at work or last weekend.

Got worse before it got better

Yuk, it was pretty bad the next time I went to the toilet and even though I guessed what was going on i was still disturbing and it actually made me feel ill and almost sick - I think that is just a natural reaction to the unnatural situation that it actually is.

The time after things had settled down and it was mainly debris that fell out and wasn't too bad and just a few minutes ago it was hardly noticeable. I have been drinking a lot of water and just sitting down which is the best thing to do. Off to bed now for some more rest and hopefully that will allow things to settle down.

I was on a call with a friend earlier and he invited e out n Monday week to a meeting and suddenly I realised (after saying yes) that I may not be able to go as I could be on treatment by ten! I hope to find that out next week.

Anyway, feeling OK now but these things are quite a shock and stark reminder of what it used to be like.

Blood

I wasn't expecting that as I haven't been overdoing it - well maybe lifted a box yesterday but that was in the morning and it is early afternoon and I've been to the toilet a number of times today and this last one was a bit grim - although not dark blood (a little goes a long way).

So I am slightly disturbed by that and just taking it easy - I need to make sure that I am getting sufficient liquid through me but take it easy as well. I am not as worried about it as last time as I actually got the letter and the confirmation that all is OK so this is most probably the scabs coming off from the biopsies.

No matter what - it still the most unnatural thing you can imagine and even if you know that it is to do with the recovery it is still something that must be pre-programmed into out brains.

I watched the qualifying from Monaco and I am now watching the support race. Unfortunately I am not there this year!

Splat

I am so tired I can hardly believe it. Bed beckons - I have a pile of post to catch up on. But for now - sleep is the order of the day!

A weekend off - well almost

I cannot believe how much work I have to do to keep up with all my commitments. It used to be fine when I worked at home here for most of the time as I could fit an odd hour in here and there. Of course now travelling means that I tend to get in, have a coffee, sit down, have a meal and then try and answer about 50 e-mails and go to bed!

Phew - no wonder I hardly get anything done. The weekend is the Monaco Grand Prix - I was hoping to go this year but maybe next year. What will be nice is to know that I can get planning soon and decide on a holiday destination and can fill in my calendar.

So as it is bank holiday weekend I am planning to spend a day of that just catching up, it is going to be raining and miserable and windy so Sunday will be OK to watch the Grand Prix.

I'm feeling quite well and still feeling great about the result although somewhat subdued in terms of only a few of us have celebrated the fact. Next weekend sees the local music festival here which I hope to get out and see some of this year.