Saturday, April 28, 2007

I want to scream

Recently I asked people to pray for my friend Kayla who is very sick and has been in and out of hospital since I met her when my treatment was starting. I'd met her through Hystersisters and we bumped into each other at the Marsden - I was recognised by the handbag I was carrying. And she's the one who introduced me to Jo's.

Throughout this time it's her strength that has been an inspiration to me. Sadly, her husband recently posted on Jo's and they have been told that there is no more they can do for Kayla. She's been moved in to a hospice ward. She has a lovely husband, three children and is around the same age as me.

Z x

Friday, April 27, 2007

Calm

All the excitement of last week has died down and things are a lot calmer which in some ways is good, because I can get on with other things, like pottering in the garden (not overdoing it) and pottering at home, and phoning my contact at the local paper about the council's dodgy dealings with the development they want to build locally and stuff.

My hard work in the garden has paid off because it's looking lovely - my sweetpeas are growing and the peonies have buds and I still have more flowers to plant. I love spring!

Our tiny little greenhouse is a flurry of activity with seeds propogating all over the place - and of course I over planted so we're going to have more veggies than space. Although I have managed to negotiate a small veggie patch near the shed. So far I have cucumbers, onions, two varieties of tomatoes and pumpkins on the way and I'm waiting for aubergines, sweet peppers and chilies. We experienmented last year with a lot of these in pots and had amazing results - one of the good things to come out of global warming.

I've also planted some herb seeds in the window boxes in the front garden, which gets lots of sun, so hopefully we'll have a little herb garden.

The other thing is....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIP!!!!!
Love you lots and lots xxxx

Z x

Monday, April 23, 2007

Panic over...

Just to let you know that my check went fine, despite being very very nervous. Anyway - the appointment went really well, so much so that the doc got a bit over excited and said that I should start coming every 6 months instead of 3. He then back tracked so I DO have to go back in 3 months but then it will probably move to 6. Am very pleased - apparently I'm exceeding all expectation!

Also last Thursday there was a flurry of activity due to the new study that says there's a risk of ovarian cancer when women take HRT.

Firstly I was driven to the News 24 studios in Westminster (the ones where they say "and now live from Westminster, Tony Blair" and you see a head and a shot of parliment). Was a very surreal experience as was in a box like a photo booth talking to a camera and a disembodied voice in another part of London! I'd got home, got changed and was eating lunch, when I then got a call that ANOTHER news programme wanted to speak to me so I was just on the early evening ITN news bulletin!! It's been fun and tiring. There's a lot in the press about it but more info is here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6567847.stm

For the record, I was talking in favour of HRT, and for me the benefits outweighing the risks right now. If you want a laugh, here's one of the reports I was in! http://itn.co.uk/tags/hrt.html

The weather here has been amazing and we had our first bbq of the year on the weekend which was lovely. Deborah came over and sat in the garden with her knitting and I planted the window boxes (or rather put seeds in) and played with my food processor and made lovely salmon burgers.

On not so good news, I have a friend from Jo's Trust and Hystersisters who I met when was having treatment at the Marsden. She was having treatment for a recocurrence and it was very radical surgery - anyway she's been really fighting for the last year, but has had many problems. She's very very sick right now and I find it really hard - it reminds me how awful this disease is and how is can come back. Please send prayers and thoughts across to the Marsden for her and her family - she's a fighter but it's a very hard fight. It's especially hard as while she's not the first person I've come across that has had issues she's my first friend from the forums that became a real life friend. She's a very special woman.

Thanks

Z x