Rather than read each page, here is a single file with all the posts to date.
The main characters in my medical drama show
The characters in my Medical Dramatic Presentation (in order of appearance): · The Worrier/The Rock/SuperRock – the husband · The Old Family Doctor – our…
The Lump (a retrospective entry)
It all kicked off back in November 2024 because, apparently, my body decided it wanted to star in its own medical drama. First, I was…
Bad geometry (a retrospective)
Stent Day finally arrived—also known as “the day I’d been dreading but pretending I wasn’t.” We got to the hospital bright and early like the…
The Referral (a retrospective post)
When the letter for my follow-up appointment arrived, I actually thought, “Wow, that was fast!” which, in hindsight, should’ve been my first clue that something…
The Diagnosis (the final retrospective post)
This time, I was smart. I brought The Worrier with me for the results appointment. And look, I’m not being a Drama Queen here, but…
The Mask. The teeth
Once you’re officially “in the system,” things move very fast, kinda like Amazon Prime but for medical terror. This was my first trip to the…
Back to School
Going back to Diagnosis Day (aka The Day of the Apocalypse); this was the day The Rock met The Oracle, that Macmillan nurse who somehow…
The Practice Run
The Rock came with me for the practice run, which meant he finally got to witness the whole “head clamped to the table” situation in…
Final Preparations and Blowout
So, I wrapped up work. I told the people who genuinely needed to know, set my out-of-office to something dramatic like “I may be some…
And they’re off…
And so it begins… Surprisingly, I didn’t sleep. At all. Today was Day One of Treatment, and apparently my brain decided the best way to…
Bump In The Road Number 1
Mama Bear is a genius. Truly. She had warned me I’d feel rough at the weekend and wow, she was not wrong. By Saturday morning…
Bump In The Road Number 2
The next few weeks were, shockingly pretty uneventful. My days became a predictable little routine: wake up, take meds, lounge about like a Victorian lady…
The Tube
You get weighed every day in hospital. Temperature every four hours. Morphine on tap like some sort of dystopian cocktail bar. “You’re losing a lot…
Ring The Bell
The Rock and I have very different study vibes. Mine is sleek, minimal, and 100% paperless. Apple Store chic. His, on the other hand, is…
The Big Sleep
Something they tell you, repeatedly, is that the effects don’t stop when treatment stops. That would be far too easy. Instead, you’re informed (with suspicious…
The Tube Extraction
Very little happens for ages after treatment. The days all blur into the same crappy routine: sleep, take pills, walk a tiny bit further than…
The Big Scan
Things have actually been getting better and better. I can now walk for about 45 minutes without fainting, collapsing, or needing revived with a biscuit….
Back To Work
My wardrobe hadn’t been updated since pre-Covid and I had finally accepted that the “round” silhouette only really works for snowmen and circus clowns. Now,…
The Long Long LONG wait
To be fair, to Dr Lump didn’t realise how literal I take things. She said the results normally come in about a week and that…
The Call
Normally I keep my phone off during meetings, but I had set my iPhone to MAX volume with a siren ringtone if the NHS called….
The Longest 48 Hours In The History Of Time
I have now read the entire Cancer Research website on failed treatment. I had trawled the Macmillan forums for other people who had failed the…
Constant exhaustion
I am now back at work full time. I am TRYING to stick to Lessons 24, 25 and 26, but I am slipping back into…
Let’s try Again
So it’s PET scan attempt number two. Yet another day avoiding pregnant ladies. I kept imagining what I’d say if a pregnant woman sat beside…
Battle (0): Cancer (1)
It’s taken me a few days to pull myself together enough to write this one. After another three-week wait, we returned to the scene of…