I've had man flu and survived!

Dear All,

I know it’s been a while since I sat down and spent some real time blogging, I thought that whilst I’m at work with absolutely NOTHING to do, (oh the joys of being a temp!) and clock watching pretty much from the moment I arrive until the moment I leave, it slowly dawned on me that this is a good time to update you all on what’s been going on! It also looks like I have stuff to do!

So ummm, yes. Where to begin? It’s tricky because I could track back to when I left uni and tell you all that’s been going on properly, but lets face it, that’s about 4 months, and although I have bugger all else to do, it could quite possibly take me all day to do that, and I doubt you all want a few thousand words to read!

On that note, I have started to write ‘my story’…have I mentioned this before?? If yes, forgive me, forget I’ve mentioned it and enjoy reading about it as if it’s the first time. If no, good! So yes, my story. I think I need to come up with a better name than that, but that involves far to much brain power at the mo. (Temping seems to eradicate brain cells daily, I think it’s the dire boredom!) I admittedly haven’t written anything for a while, but at my last word count I think I was up to about 8,000 and I hadn’t even finished the first day! I bet everyone’s really excited about reading it!! I don’t know if I’ll try and get it published, or if I’ll just keep it as a therapeutic thing, or as a diary type thing. What do you reckon??? Do you think that people would be interested in the written ramblings of a 23 year old about an interesting little blip in her health? Feel free to let me know!

As mentioned I am temping at the mo…finally!! It took a while before I got any work. I think all the students who were on holiday and college people had stolen all the work going…bastards! It started slowly, a couple of days here and there and have been in the same job since the end of September which I suppose is nice…..but it’s rather boring and the pay isn’t that great. But it’s better than nothing, so I continue to come in and be busy for about 2 hours of the day and try and string everything out for as long as possible. I have come to the conclusion that because I have had such a good work ethic drilled into me, when I’m asked to do something I do it straight away, and don’t muck around. Due to this I’m more efficient that some, and therefore do everything much faster, meaning I spend a lot of the time pretending to be busy. I would obviously ask to do more stuff if I could, but I’m working at the local hospital (ha ha ha!!) and my job it to ring bank staff to cover shifts. Once I’ve rung them all and got their availability and booked them in, there’s nothing for me to do. So I play a lot of solitaire and muck around on line. I did feel a bit bad in the beginning as they are paying me to do nothing for I’d say a day and a half, but I suppose when I am needed I’m here and get things sorted. Also they pay me less than 7 pounds an hour, which makes me even less bothered!! On the plus side, I finish at 4.30 (down side, only half an hour for lunch), they are very chilled about me having days off…I have social stuff booked in, and when I get tired they are happy for me to chill out. I also have an arrangement that I can come in a couple of hours later on Wed morning if I think I need the extra sleep, and they are extremely grateful that I am here, which makes it all ok! I was only meant to be here for 2 days at the end of Sept, and then someone was going to start doing what I do as a full time permanent member of staff, but they pulled out, so I’m still here! I’m leaving on the 21st Nov as I need to get a job lined up and a flat in London for when I make the big, scary but very exciting move in Jan. On that note, anyone know anyone who needs to employ someone in the new year??? Or anyone with a nice room going spare in as central London as possible??? Preferably for about a fiver a week?? No….bugger, cardboard box outside Sloane Square tube it is!

On the job front I have found a job at Macmillan Cancer that I would quite like! It’s PA/Team Assistant in Vauxhall. I reckon I’d be pretty good at that, and the salary isn’t too bad (£23,000) which means that I would have an ok amount to spend on rent/bills and of course nice healthy food! Especially as I’m still not drinking!! (Nearly 5 months, how proud are you of me?!?!!) So need to get that job application in by Tuesday. So I demand that all of you have your fingers and toes crossed with that! (Enjoy doing anything whilst like that!)

I feel that this might be a bit boring for you all, but I shall continue anyways! That’s the joy of sitting here and typing, I can do and say what I want, ha ha HA!

Ok, so weekend before last I went to a weekend arranged by Teenage Cancer Trust (google that if you want to find out more about them. They are truly wonderful! I would do a donations plug, but I shall leave that till later!) I had a great weekend hanging out with other cancer kids, although most of the people in their late teens/early 20s are all better now which is nice, because you can hear their story and not be like, fuck you might die, or need more hard core treatment etc cause they have been through it and come out the other side. It’s also fired me up to get involved even though I’m not completely out of the woods yet and help others who have just been diagnosed etc to get them in a really positive state of mind, and that being diagnosed is not a death sentence and that eating as healthily as possible all helps. This of course is also tied in with my wanting to work for Macmillan….as even as an admin person I reckon I could help, as I don’t want to go back to uni and train as a social worker or support nurse etc. It was also a great weekend cause no one could believe I am still going through treatment as I look so good!! I enjoyed all the compliments!! It also meant that I got to spend the weekend with a girl I met when I went to the launch of the cancer forum in Scotland last year. I can’t remember if I mentioned her? She’s called Hannah and had a tumour in her lung which due to a long story meant that she had to have her whole lung removed!! Anyways, she is great and it was great (how many times can I use that?!?! Really need to widen my vocabulary!) to spend some proper time with her. We are now officially buddies! Although she has bullied me into agreeing to run the Great Northern Run next year, so I’m afraid I shall be harassing you all for money…..again….and Milo is going to run the Athens Marathon possibly next year, or the year after, so you’ll get a double whammy of donations harassment! Bet you’re all REALLY excited about that! On the subject of my half marathon run, I reckon that if Hannah can do it with one lung, I should be fine! I am going to check with my consultant first though…

So what else?? Next check up in December should be fun! Oh, I should probably elaborate on my seriously short post from last time! Yes, the bone marrow was clear of Leukaemia, which was very exciting! I made at least one friend cry…and he’s male, ha ha ha! And there were a few others who got a bit emotional. The main response was WOO YOU’RE BETTER!! …I’m afraid to say that answer to that is not quite. All the counts were good, platelets still behaving themselves at 101. The Leukaemic rate was at 0.17%, basically the same as last time, this bugger has to get down though. Hopefully as the bone marrow is no longer producing the Leukaemic cells, the rate will drop and stay down! When these have stayed the same for 2 years, I’ll be taken off the drugs and see how it goes. They say that many people have to go back on the chemo, but I know I’ll be different and won’t have to. So although I’m really happy it’s all going so well, in 2 years time when I get the ‘all clear’ (it’s in inverted comers as far as the hospital are concerned, I know it will be the ALL CLEAR!) is when I’ll be fucking ecstatic!

One last thing before I go as I’ve written nearly 2,600 words (you can see how I’ve written so much of my book can’t you! Once I start I just can’t stop! It’s a bit like Pringles, but not quite…) I have officially had man flu, and survived!! I have had the seriously nasty cold/virus thing that’s been going around. Not only did it have the usual cold things…sore throat, blocked up nose etc. I also had a quite impressive temperature, and it attacked the right hand side of my face. My gland was so swollen, as was my cheek, it was really attractive, so of course I got sent to the local hospital for a blood test. It’s because they are paranoid about infection. As this is the first major cold I’ve had in ages, I wasn’t worried at all. I’m assuming the results were fine as they didn’t bother to ring and tell me. It really pisses me off. I have to get out of bed, go to the doctor, then go to the hospital and make the effort. Why can’t they take 30 seconds to ring and say, don’t worry, the results are fine…grrrr. Anyways, as it wasn’t real flu and not just a cold, it must have been man flu as man flu is so much worse than a cold! And I survived with very little moaning and ‘woe is me’ blah blah blah. So boys, be warned, I know what it’s like! And survived it easily!

Well I really think I should bugger off, this is close to 2,000 words, and it’s nearly lunch time! It’s helped while away the morning, alongside the odd phone call to sort out the two shifts needed today on one of the wards. Oh, if anyone who reads this is a nurse, or health care assistant, and wants some work on wards with elderly people with mental health problems, please be in touch! The wards are in a little unit by the main hospital in Colchester.

So until next time dear readers, when I shall be free of this job, and hopefully lined up with the next, I shall bugger off, and think of what I’m going to put in my job application personal statement bit this afternoon!

Hope all is well with everyone, and wrap up warm as it’s suddenly pretty fucking cold!

Lots of love, laughter and smiles,

XXX