24 Tuesday Mar 2009
Have decided to get creative about this …
Had the latest PET scan last Thursday, after having been “rescued” by my new oncologist a few days earlier. She was the first person since all this started last May to point out that CEA marker tests were totally useless in my case (they always ended up “normal” even when I actually had tumours) and also suggested that CT scans were probably not going to be that helpful either. Hence the latest PET scan. And well, it wasn’t very good news …
19 Thursday Mar 2009
Posted in cancer, food & drink, friends, health & happiness, hospitals, photos, sevilla
That’s Pilar, aka “mi Pili”, and one third of The Team.
Yesterday I had my third PET scan, which had been recommended by my new oncologist last Friday. Susan (Pip) couldn’t come with me for this one as she has a friend from the US visiting, and so I was very lucky that my friend Carmen was available. Based on the last two PETs, I told her we would probably be out of there in about three hours. Wrong! We ended up there for six hours, so I definitely owe her one. Though she said she didn’t mind at all as she had nothing planned that afternoon and had brought books and some stuff from work, plus when we were both waiting together we talked, played Hangman on my iPhone, went for a snack, and had quite a good time…
16 Monday Mar 2009
Posted in cancer, friends, health & happiness, life stuff
I’m afraid the black clouds were back this weekend.
I think the oncologist visit on Friday kind of threw me, as well as some other info I’ve been reading elsewhere. It suddenly hit home that I am in a remission state at the moment that I’ve been taking way too much for granted. Which at first felt like a bit of a wake up call, and I set about making sure that I didn’t waste any more days. Then I totally collapsed about half-way through my “wonderful day” and I realised that I need to do things differently. It seems that even taking things one day at a time is still more than I can handle, so I dunno … take things by the hour? Seriously, I think making lists and then just focusing on the job at hand is probably going to be the best way of coping for now. A little therapeutic tunnel vision. Hour by hour. Because trying to deal with a whole day is sometimes just too overwhelming.
So I’ll be starting today off with an hour of coffee & reading in bed, then an hour of yoga, and then … well then we’ll see if I can get the sun to come out. One hour at a time. . .
13 Friday Mar 2009
Posted in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals, rants
Met with my new oncologist this morning.
First of all I have to say that Ana is fabulous. Very patient, very straightforward, very clear … in fact, I spent over an hour talking things over with her. Given that she is the “sub-directora” (what’s that in English?) of the oncology department at my hospital, part of me felt a bit guilty about taking up so much of her time. But if I hadn’t kept asking questions we would never have got to the place we are now with my treatment. Which is still very confusing but, as Ana said, at least I will feel like I am doing everything possible…
10 Tuesday Mar 2009
Posted in cancer, fitness, health & happiness
Going back to pilates class today!
After having been back to thrice-weekly (Mon-Wed-Fri) yoga classes since the beginning of January, I’ve decided to take the plunge and also go back to doing pilates classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
So today I will have my first pilates class since last April.
Will let you know how it goes …
“When I hear somebody sigh that Life is hard,
I am always tempted to ask, compared to what?”
– Sydney J. Harris
casa azahar 