Phase two..
After the positive news of being cancer free but not out of the woods yet. I have decided to change the format of the updates and bring you monthly update that summarises the previous month. I will redo October in a short form and then see what the feedback is before moving onto the next month. I will start with the year to date summary so you can pick up from there.
TARGETS
Summary of 2021
January to September
There are nine previous parts which goes into much more detail of this period of time. I had various tests and things towards the end of the summer and then many and varied tests and procedures through the autumn and winter. I was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer in December and plans were drawn up for the new year. For the start of the year I spent the first quarter in pain and waiting for a proposed operation which was scheduled for the end of January that was postponed due to Covid-19 escalation. It eventually happened on the 1st of March. There was a period of recovery from the major operation which was then followed with the suggestion of going through months of Chemotherapy. In between those two scenes I had the joy of being made redundant which I could go on and in detail about that, but I will save venting for another time. Chemotherapy was not the greatest, but I got through it before the end of July. We then had a period of time where I was simply waiting for the ‘all-clear’ which I later discovered that the ‘all-clear’ would not be announced to me this year. This is due to a programme of tests and checks which will continue for another five years. Even if there are no signs of Cancer in my body, I still won’t get the ‘all-clear’ for some time yet.
October 2021
The October summary will begin with a run through of the targets we have above. Firstly, leading the walking group began again this month along with the face-to-face gaming nights returning. On the health front I had had many appointments and false dawn for myself with being told that blood tests had no signs of cancer and then being told that a CT scan is required to be sure. I had the CT scan last month and then told that it would take six weeks for the results to come through (it only took 30 minutes when in A&E a month or two back). Due to that delay I had to wait for an appointment which was booked for the 21st of October. Later I had another appointment booked for the same day due to some abnormal blood tests. Just like a bus, nothing for ages then three appointments arrive in a week. I had my Covid-19 booster shot appointment booked in the same week as well. They did the flu jab on the same Monday. Tuesday, I had a call from the cancer team telling me that there was no sign of cancer in the blood or in the CT scan so no sign. All is well now! Then on Thursday I was told that I do have issues with my heart, but they are not as bad as first feared. I diet and meds should bring everything back in line and then you could look at losing some of the meds from then on.
At the end of October, we have quite a few Birthdays to celebrate, and you also have Halloween my favourite holiday as we are normally away staying in a cottage that week which will not be happening this year. The plan is to go another time but with the planet turning to poop it’s going to be a tough one to deal with. I am sure we can play some games and enjoy a spooky evening instead. I am sure we will enjoy it anyway.
November 2021
Here we are in the month of fireworks, terrified dogs, and pets of all kinds. Christmas planning and the weather changing from "Hmm, Should I bring a jumper/fleece?" to "got me fleece on should I bring my winter coat?" As for the month let’s begin with the news of having some blood tests sorted this month ahead of some more appointments coming in early December. I feel I should start this new system with a little run through the list of targets above. Challenge 33 is now the most important thing for my health at the moment and walking and charity walks need to be focused on. Finding a new job could be interesting as I have just noticed that my old job is being advertised at the moment so I may take a closer look at that due to new management there, but I will do some investigations first. The next four items are already green and ticked as done. Those being the new car, completing Chemotherapy, going back to the football, and leading the walking group. The next things on the list are getting the garden sorted which may have to wait until the new year with things on order and being patient. The next charity walk must come back into focus as this is something I really need to get onboard with and I must stop talking and start doing. I have mentioned Scotland before, and this is another item that will have to wait until 2022 but we live in hope. The tour with Mim will have to wait for much much longer as International Corona Virus rules have to be considered ahead of anything. Been to Bristol and would love to go back but need to contact the guys there first. Next was the major walk and that was hoping to be another London to Brighton but that seems a really really tough ask at the moment. Getting the house tidied is something we need to do, and recent vibrations have taken its toll so we will need to get some repairs sorted as well. The next paragraphs will be what actually happened in November. Let’s hope it’s a good one.
What an amazing start to November - I am writing this paragraph on the evening of Fireworks or is it Bonfire Night or if you are traditional like me it is Guy Fawkes night. The month has begun in a hectic way as we have a friend/builder/handy man in the house for a couple of weeks. He is helping to get the garden ready and sorting many things around the house that needs doing which helps tick off one of those things above. There are many things to do and we have thrown all the cupboards and cabinets out form our room, which means we are living out of bin-liners and just dumping them out of the room being worked on then moving them back or onto the next area. So on and so on an such.
For me tomorrow sees a return to football as my team makes its first appearance in the F.A. Cup and the thing with the F.A. Cup means that you can easily just play once, and you are done for the season. If you want a full report on that game, it will be listed on the other parts of the blog. There is still the romance of the cup at this lower level which makes it that little bit special when your team gets involved. There is also the risk of not getting a good draw, but the real romance is that ‘your’ team may get a fantastic draw and it should be all random - so it could just happen. Winning means going through the whole process of dreaming again.
From the highs to the lows as part of leading the walking group which is for a charity called Sport In Mind. I lead a walk for people suffering with mental health issues and it has become a real tight knit friends’ group. Sadly, one of the members died recently and I am keen not to share names on here. However, I would like to say that she was almost a founder member of the group. She was ever present and attended almost every walk, in fact she had attended more walks than I had. When the ground was thick with snow, and we thought it would be safer to cancel the walk, she still arrived and wanted to walk (she wasn’t alone that day). She was friendly and encouraging to other members she would almost round people up to get them to come along for the walk. She became an integral part of the walk and whenever she wasn’t there everyone would ask where she was, so I can assure you that she will be missed by the group as a whole. This month sees the anniversary of the walk and I normally do something which shouldn’t be any different, but I am not sure of what.
It all appears to all be happening in November as whilst surrounded by bin liners, deliveries of doors and banging and drilling going on I had another job interview at a local school. It was probably one of my worst performances in an interview and they phone me back and verbally offered me a job. I will keep this news on here and not update the official (online) blog as I do not have the official letter and do not know the details as it could all go wrong. Making me think I will put it on here and just wait for everything to be official before uploading it and telling the world. Hopefully I will have lots more news by the time I am ready to upload. The small update is I have been sent the paperwork so its official the wages are small but so are the hours and it’ll give me the opportunity to get back into a work mentality and getting up in the morning (early starts and what not). Looking forward to it as it may well develop into something more (let’s hope!).
The next paragraph should be labelled Covid-19 as we have had some positive cases in the household. The long version is both kids were unwell and had a brief time off school but continued to test negative. Then my wife started to feel unwell and whilst I was out tested positive. I got a message sat around a table! Obviously concerned PCR test were ordered and the impatient wait for them to arrive. 3 days wait and the test were completed and sent back the same day they arrived. Then you have the next wait for the results. Mine came back first and negative. Then my wife who was positive. Then my daughter who was negative then the surprise one the following day as my youngest tested positive as well. We get the call from the track and trace people and they say about isolating and what not. I say I’ll call friends to help with the shopping and he tells me you are triple jabbed and have tested negative you don’t have to isolate there is nothing stopping you going shopping. Huh What? You can go about your business as usual. OK mate I will. Not that I have, I have been keeping myself in check and only going out when needed. As I type we all took ‘Lateral Flow Tests’ yesterday and all have shown negative results so I assume (HOPE!) that we are over this current test of survival and kindness and can move on to more important things of sorting things out again as we still don’t have the house back together after the builder was here. He might have to isolate and that will be a really bad thing for him. The guilt you feel is real and it’s not your fault because someone gave it to you in the first place, but you don’t know who. What I can say heading into the winter this thing hasn’t gone away and it’s not something we talk about in past tense as it is still here and getting worse again.
I know I said I wouldn’t do daily updates, but this morning has prompted to me to fall back into old ways. Now I know the whole nucleus of all this is me and I poop at one point in the story so be warned for this paragraph so this apparently is going to be all my fault just so I am making you all aware. This morning after waiting for a month for an appointment at the doctors for a diabetic check-up the surgery had given me two appointments one to take blood and a second to discuss the results. 9am was my appointment time. I had been sleeping on the couch as we had a positive covid-19 test and the although the isolation period has ended, I didn’t want to go back until I had this appointment. I’d got the Lateral Flow Test ready to do before going in. My alarms went off and I dozed. Waking I checked my phone, and it was 9:15am precisely. OH Sh!t I panic (as you do) I get dressed and then think I should just call the surgery. The electronic voice on the phone tells me you are number eleven in the queue. Whilst resigning myself to a wait I decide to get ready. I sh!t (for real this time not just saying it), brush my teeth, wash my hair, take the Covid-19 LFT (its negative), change all my clothes, turn on the computer, update somethings online. They answer the call and I confess to missing the appointment and the receptionist tells me she will check with the nurse to see if she can squeeze me in and “call me back”. That was around 10am. Around 10:50am I realise they are not going to call me back that quickly, so I go online and book a blood test for the cancer check which I was going to ask to do whilst taking the other blood this morning. At 11:00am I manage to book an appointment for a blood test at 11:00am (yes, I know!) I accept it and drive like the wind to the surgery 11:10am. I get to the blood test centre at 11:15am. The nurse cannot find my appointment I show her my phone and she point out that I am booked at Reading Hospital and I need to rebook try and do it now quickly. She talks me through, and we book for 11:20am and I stand, walk in and she takes the blood. Bosh done I drive home and still no phone call. Being able to contact the surgery ends at noon but being home by 11:30am I thought all was good. At 12:09am I get a text message saying you have an appointment booked on Monday 13th December at 11:30am. However, that is all I was told – now I get to play one of my favourite games… guess what that is about. The simple answer is that it is a straight replacement appointment basically screw you for missing the appointment you have to wait another 3 WEEKS for another blood test. OK that is fine I don’t care, punish me for missing the appointment. You of course realise that I have the results appointment booked for the Thursday 2nd December 11 days prior to the bloods being taken. I am not going to cancel that booking as it could be the blood test and this new booking is the results booking. Unfortunately, the surgery is closed for contact so beyond walking in there I and asking there is no way of knowing. I will just wait for the next appointment when I get a phone call for the nurse to call me with the results of the blood test I am having in a fortnights time. This is why people get angry with NHS staff… What’s that about a piss up and a brewery?
That is the end of November then. I will add that my mum spent some time in hospital this month as well which is always a worry. She is home and recovering but she was so tired when I met her made it difficult to assess myself, but I am hearing positive things so hopefully we will be good for December and a Christmas getting on with just spending time together. Let’s hope the worries over the pandemic do not prevent this from happening again this year after the last year, we deserve it – don’t you agree?
I didn’t have my blood test for diabetes by hey the Doctors don’t give a s*** so why should I? At this moment in time the result appointment is currently before the blood tests after I missed the initial appointment. Added to that I have not heard from the new job offer yet. I was told they would send a link in an email. I was also warned that the DBS check would need to go through as well, but I haven’t heard about that either. Again, after leaving the tour and then completing the paperwork form the house was full of Covid-19 so I thought it best to scan and email those forms over which I did but I haven’t had a confirmation of this or anything else. I called them yesterday (the 29th) and was told that they would give me a call back. This has not happened yet, and I am just worried that we could be waiting for the DBS check, so this is just moving back and back. We are moving into Christmas month, and I have some really basic and boring ideas for gifts this time with just cash handed out to allow people to get what they want in the January sales. I think that is the fairest and the least commercial way of doing it as well. Sorry but early November is too soon even for me Mr Christmas which has made me a little anti-Christmas. Not the festive business but the whole spending like a mad-one. I love to see the faces when presents are unwrapped, but this year will just have to be different as mine are too grown up to be overwhelmed with plastic toys and small things they now want holidays and PS5’s and they aren’t going to happen now are they. The thing we can hope for is a successful football results and play some board games. We should be able to manage half of that at least.
For me the hope of an exciting Christmas seemed to have been a long way off when this year began and facing a trip to hospital. I thought the last one could have been my last and here we are looking forward to another. This should be more appreciated just that little bit this time around don’t you think. more I would hope. We are nearly halfway through the final day of November, and I still have not heard back from the new job and concerns are starting to rise. They told me to expect to complete a medical and I have no idea if the criminal check has been completed or even started yet! The plan is to get through today and then start to chase again. I need to sort the house out today as well as tomorrow is December and advent kicks off. Not in the first week of November which the media and the retailers would have you believe. I will try and stop being so cynical and try to embrace the happiness of Christmas soon enough and then try to actually enjoy it. For the rest of this month I’ll be writing up some of the other blog pages on here, so go check them out. Football, music and movies seem to be the themes at the moment.
December 2021
Today (the 18th of December) is the first anniversary of being diagnosed with Bowel Cancer. It has been a journey to get to a year down the line. There were points where I never thought this was going to happen a year ago. Well, I am still here and looking forward to another Christmas and this one will be low key this year. With everyone wanting money to get their own thing its hard to get excited about the randomness of a wrapped box and what is contained within. Now there is a cheque with a number written on it enjoy! Well, that done. I will get back to moaning. Shall I get back to the diabetic check business as this just gets better and better. So, I get a phone call on the 9th which I didn’t answer from the doctors because it was the appointment for the results of the blood test I will have the following week. I mean really!
Meanwhile… I get offered the job at the school and we are looking at a start date and they suggested the 13th (of December), or the 3rd and I said either would be fine. Oh, I forget I have a doctor’s appointment on the 13th to have bloods taken. Would this still work? Yes, because there is some online training happening which you could join on the Monday afternoon and then come into the office for the first day on the Tuesday. Excellent it sounds like a plan. Monday, I get up and don’t eat or drink ready for the 11.30am blood test. I get a text message saying due to illness the blood test has been cancelled and I must reschedule the appointment. I send a message requesting a new appointment back to them. (there is app that we use). I am yet to hear a replay with any dates. The next annual review will be due in June, which is coming around quickly we are already halfway there.
Job wise I managed to get through the training on Monday, so I had my first proper day on Tuesday getting ready for the real kick off in the new year. Wednesday was done before Thursday with the slightly less hours. We then had a short day on Friday as we were breaking up for the Christmas holiday. For a short week I am shattered and looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Well, I will end the year in employment and these were the first five days that I’ve worked this year and I am already on holiday again until the new year. There’s lots of things to learn and remember but hopefully I will get there ahead of the new year. We are just a week away from Christmas so I will write an Xmas update below for you, in a week or two’s time.
Christmas is over and all the hype and build is over in a couple of days. If I am honest for us, we fill three days’ worth with Christmas joy. Christmas Eve used to be my day and a lot of the things I used to put into the day have become traditions and have continued despite my two being teenagers. Which is fantastic for me, the only ‘tradition’ that was lost this year was the playing of ‘reindeer games’ a board game that has a DVD involved and you have to rescue the toys before the Abominable Snowman gets them. This was finally deemed too childish to continue so if anyone wants a boardgame then let me know. That said all the other Christmas Eve traditions were conducted and as a result will be attempted again next year. Christmas Day was predominantly at home and was great with us all together with my mum so thanks Boris for not changing the rules the week before and I understand there is an announcement early this week. Boxing day was at my mother-in-law’s and again it was another pleasant day with too much food and nice company. I was forced into watching ‘The Holiday’ which was better than I thought it was going to be. That was that and that was pretty much the festivities done for the year. We are a brief time away from the new year and all that celebration business to happen I may break my rules and have a glass or two of an alcoholic beverage. Just this one time though before the new year’s resolution kicks in and the endless attempt to lose weight kicks off again. Will I be able to do it? That has been asked and failed before, but it won’t stop yet another restart attempt. Will have to wait and see and then keep you posted on here as much as possible.
With a new job and a new routine to slip into this may affect the updates on here and I believe I may have tapped into a new mine of bad movies that I could review. Watch this space as I look to take advantage of this and those that have asked me to review poor movies have not commented on the fact that I have watched them and reviewed them yet. This was about a month ago as well. If you are requesting a movie, be aware I expect a response back once I’ve reviewed it. I have a couple more on the horizon and I will be back reviewing as much as possible. There maybe video happening but that has been said before but never actually happened, but you never know I may get my butt in gear enough to get this going. Maybe, 2022 is the year for this? That is it, we are nearly all done for 2021 and a year I am struggling to sum up in a word or two. Ultimately, it was a year I started with Cancer and finished with little or no sign of Cancer so that must be good doesn’t it. OK there was Chemotherapy and the prospect of a CT Scan every six months, but I can live with that can’t I? I like to think so. I guess I should be thankful to 2021 for highlighting what is truly important to me and that’s the dog!
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