Wishing you all a Blazingly Good New Year…

Day 22
 

General status update

Hair: Panic-stricken about FEC 2 and trying to retract itself into its follicles, but I think that only works with testicles

Nausea demon: Seems to be arranging some kind of New Year’s Eve party with the

Chemo Muse, who is busy trying on, and then discarding on the floor, numerous party outfits. If she doesn’t put them all back on the hangers, then there is going to be trouble.

Sleep, lack of: Currently acute - I went to bed at 3.50 am this morning, and was up at 8.

Anxiety level (1-10): Rocketing, but I’ll tell you why tomorrow.

State of mind: See Anxiety, above.

 

 

 

 

New Year’s Eve at the oncology clinic turns out to be much like any other day: although there is still some festive tinsel around, the holiday lull seems to be over and the room is, as usual, full of bald men, and women wearing headscarves, or knitted woolly hats – no wigs in evidence.

When I am called in to see Stan, he greets me cordially, comments on how well I am looking, and asks how things have been since he came to my rescue during the Great Nausea Meds Crisis on day 7 of my first chemo cycle, 2 weeks ago.

‘PerfectlyfineMyonlymajorsideeffectssofararethenauseaandsleeplessnessandthewhole
hyperactivitythingdoyourememberyoutoldmeI’dbesurprisedbyjusthowmuchIcoulddo
whileIwashavingchemo,well,youwereabsolutelyrightandI’vebeenworkingamazinglyhard
onawritingprojectI’vewrittenmorethan20thousandwordsnowandI’vealsoraisedabout450
quidforTheHavensofarbygettingpeopletosponsormychemoandIhopetoraisealotmorebytheend..’

I am forced to pause for breath, but before I can continue gabbling Stan lifts his hand and says ‘Hang on a minute. Did you just say you were getting people to sponsor your chemo?’

‘Yes!’ I beam at him, ‘I think it may quite possibly be the world’s first ever sponsored course of chemo.’

‘I think you are very probably right there’ says Stan, slowly.

Then he smiles at me ‘Caroline, I’m proud of you for making something positive out of this – I know how terrified you were of having chemo’.

I manage not to burst into tears, but it’s a close-run thing.

Stan, of course, has absolutely no idea that he has been co-starring in this blog for the last 3 weeks (along with Hank the Hungarian Visla – it’s a close call as to which of them has the most fans), nor that several women have already indicated to me that when they get cancer, they definitely want Stan to be their oncologist. I decided not to mention any of that – we wouldn’t want him getting big-headed, or anything.

Today’s YouTube clip is a special New Year’s Song by the wonderful Northumbrian folk singers the Unthanks; it accompanies pictures of a traditional north of England New Year’s Eve ceremony, the Allendale Tar Barrel Procession, another fiery event of (possibly spurious) Viking origin.

 This song is dedicated to @fionalaird by way of apology for her Hamster Viking Funeral-related distress. Look, Fiona - lots of flames, and NO dead hamsters!

 

 

Happy New Year!