Another big thank you!

Thank you for all the supportive and helpful comments both on the blog and via email or text etc..

I can’t deny that it has been a scary couple of days.  It is so counterintuitive pushing a needle into your own body.  I have watched nurses do it to me countless times, even before this all happened I used to give blood regularly and it had never bothered me but this is a bit freaky!  Last night when we went to bed, I noticed that where I had injected yesterday I had left a sore lump that was also quite bruised.  This morning we were going to the Big C for a massage we had booked weeks ago and so I left Phil having his back massage and popped next door to the oncology unit just to check that I wasn’t doing anything wrong! Fortunately I’m not doing anything wrong; unfortunately, the bruising is not uncommon. I’m likely to have a purple belt by the end of this and I’m not talking about martial arts!!!

I have also learned from the messages some avoidance tactics such as applying gentle pressure and using ice amongst others so I will begin to apply those and as I get more confident I’m sure it will be better.

On a lighter note, I did have a really gentle foot rub after Phil had his massage.  Rachael was super gentle because of the clot but just the relaxing ambience and music did me the world of good ?

Recently, I have been struggling to switch my brain off when I go for my afternoon nap but if I don’t have one , I feel totally washed out in the evening.  At the Big C they have a library which also includes some relaxation CDs so I borrowed one this morning.

When I went for my nap after having a chat with Pat (my Red Arc nurse (which usually relaxes me anyway ☺️)), I put the CD on.  It was in two parts, the first was guided relaxation and the second was guided visualisation. I have to be honest, when the female voice began I thought oh dear, this isn’t going to be very good but I’ll give it a go!  Well she talked me through relaxing every muscle and joint in my body, and then told me I could get up or stay there and try the visualisation so feeling nicely relaxed I decided to carry on.  The first part had no accompaniment but now some gentle background music started and then it was an hour later!  I have no idea what the visualisation was but I felt great when I woke up!!  I’ll try that one again!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  We have Dad and Chris coming for a pre birthday celebration so we’ll have fun!

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx