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Category Archives: hope

scanxiety!

22 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by azahar in cancer, chemo, hope, hospitals

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

cancer, hospitals, pet scan

It’s that time again … got a call from the hospital yesterday (while I was fretting about having to make this terrible decision) and was told my next PET scan would be on Monday at 8am. And then the scanxiety set in. I haven’t had it this bad since last year at this time. In fact it will be almost exactly a year, just one day off. Though of course I had my last PET in January.

I was nervous last time but, as I only had a couple of day’s notice, I didn’t have so much time to worry. This time it came as a surprise because I thought it wasn’t going to be until the end of July, and so now I suddenly have almost a whole week of sleepless nights ahead of me.

The other thing that makes it scarier this time is that since my last “all-clear” two very dear friends have had inoperable recurrences and have been given chemo as a last resort, and I worry that I’m next. As usual I am kicking myself for not having made all the healthy lifestyle changes I should have, as if daring the cancer to come back – how stupid was that? But of course there’s nothing I can do about that now to change Monday’s outcome.

I have so much planned for the summer now that work is finally picking up, and I so want to be able to do it all. In fact, I have a tapas tour on Monday evening. Wonder how I’ll manage to do that if I end up getting bad news. BUT… all of this is scariest in the wee hours as I lie awake and turn it all over and over again in my mind. Right now the sun is shining and there’s lots to do.

three years ago…

04 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by azahar in cancer, change, chemo, death & dying, fitness, health & happiness, home, hope, hospitals

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

cancer, chemo, hope, hospitals

May 4th 2008 was the last day I ever felt “healthy and normal”. The next morning I woke up with excrutiating abdominal pain and the rest, as they say, is history.

Three major operations and two bouts of chemo later, I am in remission and have been since September 2009, but of course the risk of recurrence is always there. This was seriously brought home to me when my friend Gaelen was recently diagnosed with new metastasis after three cancer-free years. Around the same time another friend – my power twin Jed – got sick again and is now facing a treatment-without-cure situation. It’s made it harder for me to go along in my usual state of semi-denial, which makes for a lot of sleepless nights and general emotional upheaval. But mostly I’m okay. Because, as far as I know, I’m still okay.

Anyhow, not trying to be a downer, but anniversaries are always a bit poignant in that “will it be my last??” kind of way. As I’ve said here before, perhaps if I’d made more of an effort to do all The Right Things I’d be feeling less, well, annoyed with myself right now. Every day I wake up determined to eat broccoli and forego wine and spend two hours at the gym, and then … it’s not that I can’t be bothered, but things are never simple and I’ve had lots of stress in other areas of my life and I can’t seem to get it all together at once. As if I have all the time in the world to get it right…

One thing I’ve learned these past three years is to be less judgemental about people who can’t seem to get it together. Well, except for me. Are you very hard on yourself, or are you able to just go with the flow?

probability

20 Wednesday Apr 2011

Posted by azahar in cancer, cartoons, hope, humour

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

probability, xkcd

xkcd.com

It’s still always there, in the back of my mind…
but I was only given 50% for five years.

azar is 16!!!

07 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by azahar in animals & pets, birthdays, cats, home, hope, love

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

azar, birthday, cats


He really is the love of my life, this little guy. And now that he’s getting older with his health becoming a bit fragile I extra-value every day, every waking moment, that I have with him. I found him upstairs on the red chair the other day, enjoying the light coming in through the glass door of the terraza – can’t really say he was enjoying the view as I doubt he can see much anymore because of the cataracts. But it’s a delight to watch him racing up and down the stairs, hanging out on the balconies, and even sitting out on Loki’s window ledge. There’s still quite a lot of kitten in him.

Happy birthday mi vida!

Here is the story of how I met Azar.

cat library

28 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by azahar in books, cats, hope

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

books, cats, design, library

Love this! May redesign my bookshelves…

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