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Post cycle 3 chemo - Day 6 We are half way through the chemotherapy - and when I say 'we' of course I mean Jane, who is as strong, amazing and more beautiful than ever.  With each session of drugs so far, it seems to take longer than last time to feel normal again, though of course real "normal" won't be for a while yet.  The drugs in the chemotherapy treatment so far are  f luorouracil  (also called 5FU) e pirubicin c yclophosphamide docetaxel  (also called  T axotere ®)    (FEC-T from the initials of the drugs name)   The side effects include risk of infection, bruising, feeling or being sick, diarrhoea, sore mouth, anaemia, loss of appetite, taste change, hair loss, sore eyes, skin changes and of course,desperate tiredness and aching bones.  This is what I am watching my daughter suffer, and this is why I feel useless. It's past the time of trite comments of "why her and not me ?"  and wishing that I could take i...

It happens to most of us at some point in our lives. We, or a family member or friend becomes ill and we begin to analyse our life style, desperately searching for an answer to how this could have happened and even more desperately hoping for a simple solution to the problem. There has to be an antidote to all the "bad" things that we have knowingly done to our bodies up to now and if we stop doing some things and begin doing others, all will be fine, we think. We sometimes conclude that it's "just one of those things" and we were unlucky to have this happen to us. It was no one's fault and nothing could have been done to prevent it. Fortunately, many of us recover from the illness with no lasting side effects. Whether this was from the medical intervention we received or the changes we made in our diet and lifestyle - it is likely to be a combination of both - doesn't concern us too much. The illness that blighted our life has gone and we are tha...

Two days before assaulting a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson was told by a doctor that he might have cancer and that being given the warning was one of the most stressful experiences of his life.   He has attempted to explain his state of mind at the time of the attack by saying  "Two days before the “fracas”, I had been told, sternly, by my doctor that the lump on my tongue was probably cancer and that I must get it checked out immediately. But I couldn’t do that.  We were in the middle of a Top Gear series. And Top Gear always came first.’ Clarkson said he had now been given the all-clear, but wrote in his column in The Sunday Times : ‘That was the most stressful day I have ever had in 27 years at the BBC. It was beyond-belief stressful, everything was gong wrong, and then you know... there you go. But everyone has stressful days, and they manage to cope better than I had."   The Sunday Times Well, yes. We do all have stressful days and we all have dif...

It's been a very long week.  Can it really be Friday today, and not only Friday but the 13th too ?  Yes it can and it is, and whether the superstition of today being unlucky is true or not, I don't think it's going to make much difference to us as a family. The news that we have had to digest is, almost, digested and I had a bit of a crash in my car yesterday (no one hurt) so am not expecting anything major happening or any news that will unsettle us further. Of course, we weren't expecting this either.  From an appointment with the GP to a diagnosis of breast cancer five days later - with mammogram, scan, biopsies and CT scan in between - is pretty fast moving. The emotional and physical stress that Jane has gone through in that time is immense. Added to this is the experience and memories of her eldest child , my eldest grandson now 14, having non Hodgkinsons - T Cell Lymphoma, when he was 2 years old. He is now well and ready and able to support his Mum...