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

Very exciting stuff once again!

A seriously quick blog, shall expand on it soon.


Most recent bone marrow resutls.....NO LEUKAEMIA IN IT!!! WOOP WOOP!!

So basically I'm nearly in full blown remission!!

Lots of love, laughter and smiles,

XXX

I forgot...

I also forgot to mention in the last blog that my platlets have gone up to 122, woop woop!!! They are finally begining to behave themselves!!

More news I guess after next check up mid October.

XXX

Leukemic rate of 0.16%!!!

Well my faithful little blogletts,

As you may have noticed when coming to have a look at my recent post I have managed to get a picture onto this site, woop woop!! Not sure why I had such troubles before, it was really simple!

I do realise that I have been rather crap recently at blogging, the days and months seem to fly by! It terrifies me how it goes by so quickly when I have done absolutely fuck all this summer! Tomorrow I will have done my third day of work since leaving uni! 3 whole days of work since June how good am I??!! So yes, my plan of temping all summer, save money and move to London by November hasn't exactly happened. The summer it would appear is a shit time to temp, in as much as there about about 50 trillion students and graduates all after the same 5 jobs. I'm hoping it will start to pick up, or I'm going to have to start selling drugs! I'm hoping that as I got a score of excellent in my data entry test in Adecco temping agency in Colchester (and then have the 2 guys who work there take the piss out of me, making out that I have no life and spend all my time practising data entry...they are charming! And obviously act in a highly professional way with their new employees!!) a extremely highly paid, yet boring data entry job will come up where they need someone til Christmas and then I'm sorted. Also if any of you know someone who needs a new member of staff in Jan, tell them about me!!!!

So job beg over I shall move onto health stuff.

Well it's all fucking brilliant really!! (I'm swearing twice as much as I haven't posted in a while, need to keep the swearing quota average up!) I had a letter in the post last week from my consultant, very kind of her! To tell me that the Leukemic rate had dropped again from 0.50% to 0.16% WOOP FUCKING WOOP!!!!

I had another check up at the beginning of this week so will know the results either at my next check up in October or might get another surprise letter in the post! I also knew that I was due a bone marrow test, so mentioned this in the check up. Instead of being told to book one in for the next week or two, my consultant said 'Aah yes. Are you around for the half an hour or so?' (I thought I was going to be picking up a new prescription which would have taken about an hour) so replied 'yup'. She said 'Good, you can have it now, just wait for the doctor to grab you!'. Oh good!!! So off I went to have the bone marrow test.

As I had had one before I knew what to expect, and once again the most painful bit was the anaesthetic. The rest felt odd, but didn't hurt. It feels a bit like when you bang your funny bone, not the immediate pain, but the odd ache afterwards. Also when the needle when through the bone wall my right leg shot out, the needle must have hit a nerve. Was very odd and made me laugh, as my body was doing things that I wasn't telling it to do, but rather what the needle told it to do when hitting nerves...ODD! The results from that take a couple of weeks to be processed.

What else, hmmm...oh, I also have a rather interesting moment getting more of my drugs, because Scotland and England are different (as you are constantly reminded by the Scots!) and have different NHS's etc there was almost a rather funny (well not really) incident. My consultant went to write out the prescription in the standard way, until I pointed out that the Hammersmith have never perscribed it, I'd only had it from Edinburgh. To which professor Apperley said 'Oh!'. She's had to apply to my local PCT (for those of you unschooled in the language of medicine, and shame on you for not knowing!! Ha ha ha! PCT stands for Primary Care Trust and they decide who gets their drugs paid for and who doesn't.) So I had my fingers crossed for a little bit on Monday praying they would agree to pay for the drugs. I had a good argument though, as Edinburgh paid for them no questions asked, my local PCT should honour that and carry on paying, and I do believe that they will. Thank god!! As I don't know how much these ones cost, but the last cost £24,000 a year, and I don't have that kind of money!! Once again, any donations to the 'I'm seriously poor fund' are kindly accepted.

What else, hmm, have to go in a minute, but shall carry on manically typing til I have to run get in my little broom broom and go to the gym.

I have a plan of what to do with my life, very exciting, don't know if I've mentioned it already.

I'm going to learn Arabic. If the hospital say I can go, I'm going to go to Jordan for a month to do an intensive, learn the basics course. Then either go to Egypt for a year, or go to the American School in Beirut (not sure how you spell that one, should probably find out!). And at the moment I want to go into Islamic Art. Not sure what part, maybe insurance, or buying and selling, or looking after someones collection etc. But knowing the language and really absorbing myself into their culture will teach me the right way to go about business deals etc etc

So ummm, I think that's about it. I'm also writing my story as it were. Don't know if I'll try to get it published or what, but I thought it would be a good thing to do. I also want to get involved with teens and early 20 year olds who get diagnosed with cancer to show them and help them realise that it's not a death sentence, and that by being happy and up beat you can help beat it, as I have. I know that so much of my getting better has been to do with my Mummy, and all the research she has done into alternative therapies and food to not eat(like dairy, refined sugar and caffine, all proven that cancer cells feed off them) and foods to eat (fresh raw veg, manuka honey, wheatgrass etc etc etc) have helped enormously. I also think that at this point I should give myself some credit and acknowledge the fact that I've been fucking brilliant, and that by doing some seriously good head work, and by not letting the cancer get to me, and by getting on with life and keeping happy, I have done a lot to get the cancer to fuck off!

So on that note, I'm going to bugger off to the gym as I HAVE to tidy my room later and it's going to take HOURS!!! So the sooner I go, the sooner I get back!!

So much love, laughter and smiles as always,

XXX

VERY VERY EXCITING NEWS!

Dear all faithful bloggers, today is a day we have waited for!


VERY VERY VERY exciting health news!

My Leukaemic rate today was 0.5%. In 2 months it has come down to that from 4%. The hospital were amazed! I am at least 3 months ahead of what they would expect with the drug treatment schedule. (I think quite a bit of it, is to do with the fact that I gave up alcohol at the begining of July....) So that's amazing. The best news is yet to come....Out of 3 different things (I forget what they are called) I'm in remission for 2 of them. I need to have the leukaemic rate at around 0.02% and have only 1 leukaemic cell out of one million white cells for two years and they will take me off the chemo!! WOOP WOOP!!!! They said that only 5% stay in that state of remission without drugs...2 in a hundred. My answer to that was, I'm not meant to have what I have, so why can't I be one of the 2???? The consultant did say fair point to that! Also I know that with all the alternative stuff I'm doing, that I'm going to be one of the 5%. So I'm basically nearlty half way of this interesting little journey in my life, as I was diagnosed 18 months ago, and because I'm at least 3 months ahead of the game!!

FUCKING BRILLIANT STUFF!!!

More stuff about other stuff another time!

(next check up in 6 weeks)

So much love, laughter and smiles!

XXX

Happy day!!

Well my fellow bloglets happy news is to hand, the parentals have FINALLY got the wireless router installed which means...you've got it, I can use my laptop and sign in and blog! Woop!! (Sorry if any of you thought the happy day was cancer related...in my mind, this is far more exciting than anything the hospital could say!)

I have also come to the conclusion that I can't sign in on the retals laptops because they are running Internet explorer from the dark ages, facebook tole me that! Aren't they a clever bunch at facebook. Not only do I get twitchy and rather like a crack head who has had their supply taken away if I can't check facebook at least twice a day, they also tell you when you need to update Internet explorer! I use mozilla which updates itself all the time...this is getting rather dull, shall stop rambling on about Internet explorer an mozilla....

Ok, so what's new. I drove home a couple of weeks ago, actually thinking about it, more like a month ago, where is the time going??? The drive home was very uneventful and traffic free which was nice! And I've, to be honest, been bumming around not doing much! Have been to my cousins wedding which was a brilliant day, and have been up to London quite a few times to do not a lot. I did have the hospital on Monday, so I suppose I should mention that, and my results!

White count, 4.7 (I think, around what it normally is)
Platelets has gone down to 62, which didn't really surprise me as my hair has not been as nice recently and have been feeling more tired. I don't have another check up til the 21st July, so they can't be that concerned! They also don't think that a bone marrow transplant will be necessary, so that was a nice piece of news! I have another bone marrow test booked for September, which will reveal more information about what the next step will be. If I don't have the bone marrow transplant, I may be on the chemo for the rest of my life, which is not ideal, as I don't want to be tired for the rest of my life....

On the whole tired front I have a little tale to tell.

Once upon a time there was a young women who had been in London all day, hospital in the morning, then lunch and walking up and down the Kings Road finding presents with a friend all afternoon. After a nice refreshing smoothie in a very nice bar/restaurant she decided to leave to get the tube to the train station so she didn't miss her train. When arriving at the station ALL trains has been suspended due to a mile long length of cable falling down between London and home. After waiting for about an hour a couple of trains were allowed to go to a station half way home. Off she ran (yes, ran!) to the platform and squeezed herself onto the train. After standing all the way (by now, falling asleep as standing up) to the stop she got off the train to go outside where there were buses to complete the journey. Outside the station along with the by now the utterly exhausted girl were about 2, 000 people and riot police to control everyone getting onto the buses organised to get everyone home. (Some people had been waiting for 2 hours for a bus!) After the first bus left and she was no where near getting to the front, the poor, unable to cope with anything girl rang her mother, who of course couldn't really do much from central London, but told her to go and find someone in charge and explain that she unfortunately has cancer, is very tired and needs to get home. The girl then managed to find someone (who was being yelled at by some very pissed off people, and was therefore shouting back!) and got her chance to speak. She managed to get 'I'm sure there are lots of people here with special circumstances....' before bursting into tears (in front of a 2,000 people! Good work!) and semi wailing, 'I have cancer and just need to get home/sit down!' The happy ending to this little tale of mine is the next bus turned up in about 5 minutes and I got on it! Ad got home just over 4 hours after getting on the tube at Sloane Square! (The train should normally take about 50 minutes from Liverpool Street to Colchester!)

Oh another happy day for the commuter!

Am off to Corfu on Monday for a week, and then it's graduation week, so I have two weeks of fun coming up! Oh 0n the graduation note, I still don't know if I've got a degree, oh the joys! I shall hopefully know more tomorrow! And then the job hunt begins! (Well after my two weeks of fun!) I'm going to temp in Colchester for a bit so I can tell employers that yes, I'm fine 9-5 Mon to Fri, or I'm fine doing 4 days, or 4 and a half days etc etc It will also get some well needed cash into my bank account! On that note, donations are always appreciated....

Well I think that's about it really, can't think of anything else.

Will put a post on when I know about my degree.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Lots of love, laughter and smiles as ever!
XXX

Possibly my last post from uni!

Well my faithful blogetts what to say?

This might possibly be my last post from uni, which is a terrifyingly crazy and also exciting! I can't believe how quickly the last 4 years have gone by!

I had a check up last Thursday and had my bone marrow results explained...and I shall pass on what I understood. The consultant only speaks doctor, so no matter how many times she explains stuff, it doesn't make full sense/I don't get everything she says. Bring on the Hammersmith and their ability to speak english!!

So 34/35 Ph-ve means that 34 out of 34 cells were negative for the Philadelphia chromosone which is the reasos for the Leukaemia which is brilliant. On the not so brilliant side of things, Dr. Shepherd is not so happy with the Leukaemic rate, she was hoping it would be more like 1.% something or 0.% something opposed to 4.77% when I had the rate checked in April. I'm going to email her to find out the rate results from Thursday and will post them when I get them. Due to this she thinks that a bone marrow transplant may be the way forward with me. Which I was obviously not thrilled about as I had put that out of my head.....We shall just see what happens!

On a more positive point my platelets were at 114 which is really good as they have climbed a bit, and not dropped and my white count was 4.6 which I think is a bit higher than last time, so that's all coolio!

My little flit over the ocean to New York was AMAZING!! I loved it there!! Could actually see myself living there for a bit! We (Me, Tave (cousin) and Jess (Tave's friend, now mine as well)) were complete tourists. Went on an open bus tour of 'downtown' Manhatten, went on the ferry round Manhatten and past the Statue of Libery, went round Times Square, chilled out in Central Park, went to MoMA and ate, ate, ate, and ate a little bit more! And loved every second of it! I also got to see a family friend...you know who you are!!..who is in the best possible way, a loon!!! But I love it and of course her!! We went to the Met together and also did some eating! (I would get VERY fat there! Would have to live in the gym before and after work!) It was a wonderful break, and meant that I didn't get to bored in the Burg with all my friends living in the library due to finals. My lovely little flatty finishes tomorrow, so I get her back to play with, and we are going to have a crazy week before packing up and going home basically for ever! I'll be back for graduation week, and that's it! CRAZY!!!

I'm meant to have a check up here on the 12th June, but will see if I can change it to the Hammersmith, as I don't really want to come up here for it. If worst comes to the worst, I'll fly up and down in the day or something as about 2 people will still be up here then!

I'm trying to think if there's anything else of interest to say, and I don't think there is. I'll blog again during graduation week, other than that, it will be if and when I get access to a computer that likes this site (unlike the ones at home!).

Hope every one is well, and that everyone is enjoying the sun, we had 4 days of BEAUTIFUL sunshine, and it has in true Scotland stylee, fucked off! Hopefully it will be nice when I go home!

Will blog soon,
Lots of love, laughter and smiles,
XXX