Month: September 2015

…my hair is starting to grow back!  It’s just a little soft fuzz at the back on my crown at the moment but its definitely making a comeback, whoop whoop!!

This is therefore probably the right time to start the sweepstakes.  My brother in law Tony has already picked red and curly, I’m just hoping for curly 🙂  To be honest, I’m really looking forward to seeing how my hair evolves.  The only other time you really get to go through this is when you’re a baby although many babies are born with a good head of hair already and I’m not sure that they are really focussing on what their hair might be like!

Anyway, I digress.  The thing is it’s all part of building the new normal.  Physically I am probably (although not definitely) going to be different, mentally I will definitely never be the same again, neither of which are necessarily bad things 😉  One thing is for sure, it will be much easier for me to deal with my new look than it will be getting into my new normal.  Luckily I have this awesome support network to help me through it.  Most important to me is that I don’t waste this opportunity to have a different perspective.  In a strange way I feel I am privileged to be able to look at life from this perspective, I need to ensure I don’t waste it.

Today Mum and Richie arrived for a visit 🙂  We will be having fun, I will keep you posted.

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx

 

 

What a difference a day makes.

Today we went to Minsmere RSPB site to meet up with Dad and Chris for lunch.  It was cold and grey this morning and I am feeling the cold so much at the moment (when I’m not having a hot sweat!) that I have to layer up with clothes over my sore arms and shoulders and I could easily have wimped out but as I said last night, I need to take my own advice and get over myself so I applied some makeup using my new ‘look good feel better’ tips and techniques, felt better and we set off. It really works ?

We arrived before Dad and Chris and had a chance to wander around and explore a bit before we had lunch.  Minsmere is very close to the Dunwich Heath National Trust site that we went to a while back but much more focussed on the birds (well it is a RSPB site).  We found the children’s activity area and Phil got this great shot from inside a ‘burrow’.

Then the wind dropped and the sun began to shine.  We all sat outside the cafe and had a lovely lunch and put the world to rights.

So the nausea has almost gone, still working on keeping my digestive system moving and I think we now need to work on the nutritional maintenance plan to begin building the new normal diet plan of optimal effect.  This will be a great week ?

I hope you all have a great week too.

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx

Tonight was the launch of this year’s Strictly and now I feel that all is well in the world again!

With me being so tired this week we haven’t been out and we haven’t had any visitors either.  I felt I wanted it that way, I wasn’t up for anything more but I was wrong.  Taking things easy is one thing but closing out  the outside world is another entirely.

Today Franck and Donna called round with their boys for a cup of tea (and for Franck to help Phil move some furniture (thank you ?)).  Just to have an hour of distraction, chatting and drinking tea has really given me a boost.  I know I have talked about the importance of taking time to connect with friends and family before… about time I took my own advice!!

Only to be topped off this evening with the strictly launch show!  As Munchie will testify, there is nothing like a bit of sparkle to change your state, he is obviously almost as excited as I am!

Time to get over myself and focussed back on the case in hand, to slam dunk these tumours into submission so that we can get on with building our new normal.

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx

I have been taking it really easy for the last few days.  I have been for a couple of walks with Dude and Phil but not much else.

I have been keeping my mind active and my spirits high. I have to confess I have been struggling with the swings between feeling really cold and then having hot sweats.  I think this could be one of two things.  It could be either the chemotherapy but that is usually in the form of night sweats and I am having them day and night so I think it is probably the menopause.

I knew early on that the chemotherapy was likely to bring on early menopause what surprised me was that it is only considered premature if it is before the age of 45!  So as I have a month until my 45th birthday, I am considering it early onset!!

Having read about the side effects of the hormone suppressant that I will begin taking in a couple of weeks they will be similar so I probably need to get used to it ?

I have no new side effects to report which is great news.  I’m just really tired but am sure I will bounce back soon because I’m listening to my body and taking it easy!

I hope to have something more interesting to talk to you about next time ?

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx