The highs and lows of living with a brain tumour.
Facebook recently saw fit to remind me that this time last year, I was a cast iron, ocean going slapheed. For those who don't speak fluent Geordie, that is to say I was as bald as a coot, or as we shall see, as a bloke who shudders in fear at the words 'Operation Yewtree'.... Continue Reading →
Sorry, what? Sarah was right. Once the bell was rung, I could feel the tiredness kicking in even as we walked back to the car park. It was that release of something being over and done with, the breathing out when you didn't even realise you'd been holding your breath. I tried to make sure... Continue Reading →
Yes, I finished radiotherapy, and yes I rang the bell, but it was an anticlimax. Why? Well, lots of reasons really. First off, the day before my final treatment, at the weekly clinician review Sarah the Neuro Oncology nurse specialist reminded me that radiotherapy side effects usually get worse for a few weeks after you... Continue Reading →
Tomorrow is my last day of radiotherapy, the last of the 30 sessions, and the day I get to ring that bell like an enthusiastic Quasimodo. I've had a surprisingly easy ride, with relatively mild side effects, but the last few sessions have been a bit of a slog and I am more than ready... Continue Reading →
You're so brave! This is what people say to you when you're going through something like this. Nah. It's not bravery, it's lack of choicery. Life lobs these boulders in all of our paths, and you either climb over them or sit down and give up. No one makes it through unscathed, and we all... Continue Reading →
First off I need to make it clear that many people lose all their hair due to chemotherapy (even nose hair! who knew?) or alopecia and that is so very much worse than what is happening to me. I am lucky really, and need a dry slap. But I'm still going to whine. At length.... Continue Reading →
Although I knew full well that it takes around two weeks for any radiotherapy side effects to show themselves, it's hard not to interpret each and every twinge during the first half of my six weeks of daily radiotherapy as A Sign. Is this tired feeling a symptom of the treatment, a side effect of... Continue Reading →
What I most hope radiotherapy will do is turn me in to a superhero. Most likely the Incredible Hulk, because Bruce Banner got zapped by gamma rays and it happened to him. Surely radiotherapy will look exactly like this? Crosshairs, weird contraption chair? It IS a given. To say I spend an inordinate amount of... Continue Reading →
And speed up everything did. The day after meeting Paula, the mask fitting, an MRI and CT scan were arranged for the following two days. None of us could work out why it would take two days to make the mask. E suggested it's made on the first day and I get to go back... Continue Reading →
The thing about brain tumours is that there are over 120 types. Granted, adult primary brain tumours tend to be one of a handful of types, but multiply that by all the different places in your brain they could occur, and times that by the age and underlying health of the person who owns that... Continue Reading →
Not today, Satan. Not today. 