Category Archives: cancer

a day at the hospital

11 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, friends, health & happiness, hope, hospitals, life stuff

≈ 12 Comments

day at the hospital

It was just supposed to be a routine appointment.

[warning: long, rambling and not very interesting
– just the way it actually happened!]

Last January when I had my post-surgery check-up I mentioned that since the operations (this had been my third in seven months) I’d been experiencing a painful burning sensation along the outside of my right thigh when I was in bed. I couldn’t remember if I’d had it before the ops, and the surgeon thought it was worth me getting it checked out. Though he clearly didn’t think it was too serious as my appointment with neurology was made for six months later. Yesterday, in fact. Of course, last January I didn’t know I’d be back on chemo . . .

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time out…

08 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by in cancer, change, chemo, fitness, food & drink, friends, health & happiness, home, hope, life stuff, yoga

≈ 17 Comments

healing

Remember multi-tasking az?
Well, she is taking some time out.
She needs some time to heal.

I just couldn’t do it all. I’ve spent the past two months going through the horrors of chemo for the second time, trying to organise work projects and find new students to teach, pay my bills, make new contacts … and all it’s doing is wearing me out. I haven’t actually found any work and I know that – things being the way they are in Seville – the chances of anything picking up for me workwise won’t realistically happen until September. So it’s time to stop hitting my head against that brick wall for now and time to start doing what I know will help me.

I’ve spent the past few days “practicing” my new healing method and you know what? It feels great. I’ve been listening to exactly what my mind and body need and then doing just that. And I know that, for me, this is the best way to heal.  I also know that doing this isn’t going to make me one euro, and I have no idea how I’m going to make ends meet over the summer … but I just can’t worry about that now.

This is what I need to do. Follow my heart.

round 4 …

04 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by in cancer, chemo, friends, hospitals

≈ 20 Comments

chemo_drugs… and really dreading it.

Last time I had a really bad reaction to the infusion. By the time I got home I felt sick & weak, my tongue was swollen, vision blurry, eyelids were twitching like mad … I ended up heading straight for bed and collapsing. When I told Dr Ana about it yesterday I thought I just needed them to give me an extra bottle of saline solution in the drip at the end, but apparently the solution won’t be so easy…

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race for life

02 Tuesday Jun 2009

Posted by in cancer, fitness, friends, hope, love

≈ 10 Comments

race for life

My friend Sara (happily owned by those two wee rapscallions Foley & Murphy) did the central London Race for Life with her mum this past weekend. Considering that she just finished treatment this past January I think this was quite an accomplishment. It also brought happy tears to my eyes when media naranja Steve sent me this photo yesterday saying, “this picture is just to let you know you are in our thoughts, and that you are not alone, no matter what”. For every so-called friend or family member who has dumped me over the past year, this really makes up for it.

Thanks Sara & Steve. That really made my day.

They were running for life up in Oirland as well.
Here’s a video of h2g2 pal Beatrice doing her part…

Well done, girlfriends!

yoga bear

01 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by in cancer, fitness, health & happiness, yoga

≈ 4 Comments

yoga bear

Remember when I was finally able to start going back to my yoga classes in January? After three major surgeries  since last May, and two months of chemo last summer, I was so looking forward to doing something “normal” again. It was slow going at first as I was still quite stiff and sore, but just being there with all my old yoga buddies (and a few new ones) was so good for me. It’s a lovely ambiance there and my yoga instructor, Ana, is wonderful. Now that I’m back on chemo again it’s quite a struggle to get to class some mornings, and I don’t always make it, but when I do it’s always worth the effort.

Yoga Bear is a national (US) non-profit organization dedicated to providing cancer survivors with more opportunities for wellness and healing through the practice of yoga. The organization connects cancer survivors with yoga classes in their community free of charge. I think it’s a wonderful idea and wish something like this existed in Spain.

Until the end of the day on June 6, 2009, you can blog for a cause and spread the word about the benefits of yoga in improving recovery for cancer survivors. If you blog about your experience with yoga, and link back to YogaBear following these instructions, YogaBear.org could win $6K to support its efforts to provide yoga classes to cancer survivors!

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.