Hello friends ❤️
At the risk of being boring… I have nothing but good news again!
Last Thursday was a busy day with appointments for both of us. We went to see Phil’s consultant just after lunch and then I had my regular 3 weekly bone treatment and re-issue of capecitabine later in the afternoon.
Phil’s consultant went through everything he had done in Phil’s heart (in the second angiogram) and then explained in more detail the purpose of all the drugs (there are a lot). He said he was really happy that Phil had given up smoking; that the risk of recurrence drops like falling off a cliff when you stop and his efforts with exercise and nutrition are great 😁. Then, to almost quote a Sinatra classic (or Williams and Kidman for my younger readers 😉) I went and spoilt it all by saying something stupid like ‘what about cake?’ 😂
You see, all that time Phil was in charge force feeding me nutrition, I just obediently kept eating (well it is my favourite pastime 😊) now that Phil has some enforced changes, he is not quite as compliant. I know he has been absolutely amazing however, ‘we don’t want to spoil all that good work by giving him diabetes’ that’s a quote from the consultant not just me spurting my own special form of wisdom again 🤓
Now that I am the (admittedly self appointed) food police I am having to revoke my favourite saying of Nana’s ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’ because cake cannot be a daily treat, it has to be moved to the occasional category which I know is almost as hard for Phil as giving up smoking.
I believe we need to to a bit of reconditioning of thinking. When Phil first came home from hospital and I was trying to be a good wife and carer (not my forte but I tried!) one morning I got myself going eary and headed off to the supermarket. I had to go to the pet shop first for supplies for Dude which means driving past Macdonald’s. ‘Ooh, I’m early enough to get a sausage and egg McMuffin – I could treat myself’ I thought. And then I thought again. I used to ‘treat’ myself to one of those when I travelled a lot with work, it was my ‘treat’ for having got up early or driven a long way or just because….. when I thought about that now I thought ‘is it really a treat?’ It’s certainly not for my digestive system, for my amazing liver or for my ever expanding waistline! If I eat mindfully, that kind of food is never going to be a treat. When I eat mindfully appreciating the flavours, textures and ultimately the nutritional benefit I’m getting from it, that kind of food could never be seen as a treat.
We have been conditioned by experiences and clever marketing to think it’s something special to have. Maybe if we think mindfully about food more we can recondition ourselves to see a bowl of fresh strawberries just picked from the garden or a nutritious home made lentil dish as the ultimate treat… I don’t expect it to be easy but aren’t all the best things worth working for?!!
Then we went for my appointment 😊
I had a routine CT scan on June 25th but am not due to see Dr Alexander until the end of this month so wasn’t expecting results, just my usual bone treatment and re-issue of capecitabine. I see Pip my oncology nurse most times I go for this and had to have a chat with her this time because I’ve had a sinus infection that has required antibiotics and she wanted to make sure I was properly better before I start the next course of capecitabine. I have gone for a second week of antibiotics to make sure it is properly better before I take the capecitabine but sensible to delay a week to be sure it’s all gone as Pip instructed! I also had an issue with my port, I won’t get too graphic but they couldn’t get it to work so I had my treatment via a cannula in the back of my hand, old school stylie!
Anyhoo, Pip gave me a sneaky peek at my CT report and it was of course fabulous 😍 all stable, no progression very boring, just the way we like it 😁
I went back to the hospital this morning and had some Mr Muscle drain unblocker (or the port equivalent) squeezed into my port (on the third attempt) and an hour or so later it had worked its magic and my port is now functioning again so when I go back in 3 weeks time we should be good to go ❤️
I hope you’re all getting a healthy dose of good news too
Talk to you soon
Lots of love Mand❤️
PS the picture is Missy, one of the local pea hens with her two babies in our garden ❤️My heart is filled with joy every time I see them ❤️