I’ve always really hated the expression – ‘the new normal’. When I was first diagnosed, I was often told ‘cancer changes you’, but I was also told that at some point I would come to understand what my ‘new normal’ was. For a long time I fought the idea. I don’t want a new normal, I…
Effective treatment of established CIPN, however, has yet to be found. Lastly, paclitaxel causes a unique acute pain syndrome which has been hypothesised to be caused by neurologic injury. No drugs, to date, have been proven to prevent this toxicity.” (Wolf et al, 2008, p.1507) It occurred to me just yesterday that I need to do more…
It is odd not having feeling on your chest. This is something that surgeons have a nasty habit of forgetting to tell you. My surgeon certainly didn’t say anything about this lack of feeling. I’d read about it, so I thought I was prepared, but really, I wasn’t. On one front, the lack of feeling…
There’s a hole in my belly, dear Liza, dear Liza, There’s a hole in my belly, dear Liza, a hole! (Sang to the tune of the famous Childrens song) Sorry, the song has been going through my head all afternoon! I have a hole in my belly. If you are interested in what it looks…
So I did it. Yesterday, on my birthday of all days, I started taking tamoxifen. This is a medication that blocks your body’s production of estrogen – which is what was feeding my cancer. It is interesting, as the information package talks about how the medication is used to treat breast cancer. It is used to…
I seem to be going through these cycles. The first time, I called it chemo recall. It is when my body gives me the same symptoms I had during chemo, except that I have not had chemo since October 30! Neuropathy is one of those recall symptoms. Today (started yesterday or the day before) it…
Not a lot of time for reflection today I’m afraid. I have a busy day ahead of me. To the world around me, it doesn’t matter that today is my birthday. Today, I’m 44. I am happy to say good riddance to 43 – for me, in many ways it shall be the year that…
I had started reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed shortly after I was diagnosed with cancer – just as I began chemotherapy. Unfortunately, that didn’t go over too well. Reading about her mother dieing of cancer left me with thoughts of my death and how difficult that would be on my loved ones. I was overcome…
I should be packing for our camping trip, not blogging but I really wanted to report on my latest bike adventure. I went out my recumbent today and successfully rode 10 km. The ‘bent being the bike that I rode around the world, there is a special place in my heart and mind when I…
Yesterday was #bellletstalk day – for those who are not in Canada, it is a day that the major telephone provider encourages people to talk about mental health, and donates money (e.g. 5 cents per tweet or text) to mental health charities. It has been criticized here by Torquil Campbell as purely a marketing stunt…
