A bit better

This always happens during treatment - you just get back to normal and the next treatment comes along and smacks you back down again.

We are off to a wedding this afternoon - or the reception for one. It was abut 25 years ago we went to her first one :-) mind you I am still yawning so I might get there and fall asleep.

Apart from the tiredness, I am feeling remarkably well and enjoying just about everything at the moment. Work is great, it is coming up to summer proper and I can really see the things that I am doing making a difference now.

Tiredness and another early night

I can only imagine that the treatment has knocked a lot more out of me than I let on or than I realised before. Today was a lucky one as I had to get away early from work to sort out some frames for pictures for our exhibition and the chap I needed to see wasn't there yesterday. Anyway, that appears to be a good move as the price is a lot cheaper.

I'm off to bed in a minute and I hope to have a bit of a lie in. We have a wedding to go to tomorrow and so I had better be cheerful and chipper for that!

I will get to drive the car for the first time in weeks too! Crikey I had forgotten that, I walk and take the train everywhere these days and working in London don't take the car at all.

Tired still?

I'll say - I even left early today to go and get some quotes for the pictures at the exhibition to be framed and got home and promptly fell asleep again.

I do tend to feel that the treatment I had last time occurred when I worked at home most of the time - I know there were the odd day here and there where it didn't.

So I can only deduce that the treatment makes you tired and that as I hadn't been up and about and working at the rate that I do now, which makes you more tired, it just makes the side effect that much more noticeable.

Tired

I am pretty tired. I did a full day's work and feel pretty tired and need to get off to bed now. It is surprising how much it takes out of you that you don' realise.

I got home and was boiling hot - another side effect you do get the odd hot flush when you least expect it and then had a meal and promptly fell asleep in the chair. I have come upstairs to sort out my e-mail and do this blog and then go to bed :-)

I have some minor throbbing pain but OK otherwise. No debris or bits so that was good.

It is always a surprise

When lumps of blood or debris come flying out when you go to the toilet. Nothing had happened for 24 hours and yet lat this afternoon I got a small fallout. Nothing since just the one lot.

Actually - the strange thing is that generally the side effects get worse but the debris is getting less. I am guessing that the stuff that was coming out before was the cancerous bits and now it is just the last remnants of the work that needed to be done.

I am very pleased that I wont have to do this for years on end. Very pleased indeed. I had resigned myself to having to go through this sort of thing for 3 to 8 years. This is indeed a time when less is more.

Just Great!!

The Jack Hammers / Pneumatic Hammers started at 8 this morning. When they weren't going the people a little further down are having trees removed and so there is a chipping machine also going full blast.

So a lie in this morning wasn't possible. Actually - I feel pretty good compared to normal this was a 4 on the Richter scale that is BCG side effects. Although, having said that it was for a very short time very painful indeed and my middle now aches and so I won't stay hunched up over my PC for the rest of the day that is for sure.

I had a series of cramps and joint pains last night but not enough to be a serious attack just a niggling set of slow cramps that didn't need rubbing. I got plenty of rest yesterday and overnight and so I am pretty pleased that I am OK this morning.

Only 2 more to go this session and 5 more in total. It sounds like the count down to a launch 5 - 4 - 3 - 2- 1 - Blast Off (or Thunderbirds are GO! - if you remember back that far?).

As my Urology Nurse said yesterday - "See, I told you you'd be glad to see me again, despite what I do to you". Jokes aside, both nurses are absolutely great and considering the job they have to do are great. Not sure if I could be a Urology Nurse considering what you are dealing with every day?

Just slowly getting ready

Had my shower, got the note book and pain killers by my bed. The Bleach and bits are in the bathroom and I'll need to take my book in there as well as I will spend some time in there later just letting things happen.

I am not nervous about this time and neither am I looking forward to it. I am pretty neutral - I thought that I'd be upbeat - which I suppose I am really given what I am going to have done, looking forward to it isn't exactly the top of most people's lists.

I got a lot done earlier. I hope I can do a bit more soon before we go off to the Hospital.

Keeping busy

This morning I am keeping busy and getting ready will begin at 11:30 when I take an early lunch and then at 12:15 stop drinking - 2 hours needed to ensure that the BCG isn't overly diluted.

I need to get all my bits together - note book, pain killers, anti-inflammatories, bleach tablets and anti bacterial wipes, etc.

It is a lovely day today as well but I will be stuck inside this afternoon resting up. At least the next door pneumatic hammer gang haven't arrived - we were expecting them. Knowing my luck it will be tomorrow when I need a lie in!!

Well the Treatment looms

Tomorrow I'll be back on it for the first of three for this session, 9 weeks off and the next 3 and who knows, with any luck after December, perhaps I can be signed off and not have the treatment after that.

Of course, bladder cancer is a bit naughty and can come back even after quite a while and so I need to make sure I keep well, keep observant and be on my guard.

I need to get back into routine and also to get back into the mentality of this comes first. I know that I want to go back to work on the Wednesday morning but I have to be alright on the Tuesday to do so.

I will be getting back to my routine tomorrow and need to remember the eat and drink early and to get everything set up for the treatment and after effects themselves.

It was a year ago that I was on the 6 treatments which started a year ago last week (as I recall). I then went to Wales and all over the place on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week. A year ago since I started with the company who were launching their wonder product a few week later! They just relaunched it again. That sort of says something about how things are going.

I suppose one thing I am glad about is that with all that trouble, I had a nagging feeling that I'd affect my recovery. Happily that hasn't happened and my real recovery is going to be through giving this lot of treatment every chance of success again and getting past that winning post of being clear for more than a year. It would be the launch to the new year that I'd be looking for and would turn around a pretty awful few years for me.

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!!!