Compost, Cancer and Courses!
You know when you've lost something, and you know you've seen it recently but can't remember exactly where, and you just keep on searching in the same places,hoping it will just pop up? Well i've been like that this last week, struggling to find my lost item, and if you do get to the end of this blog post you'll see I found it....
Compost........that describes my sister's whole weeks holiday really, she was horrified with the state of my bins....( I know, I know we are a strange family). She likened the various degrees of composting material in my five bins, akin to baking cakes.....apparently I just keep adding bits to various bins willy nilly, without ever really emptying them. She said it was like baking cakes, but nobody was eating them, but I keep on baking...... She does have a point, maybe it was my way of playing the innocent naive gardener? The good news for me is she forked out and emptied all the bins, admittedly both Becky and I had to do the spreading, but it has provided excellent 'mulch' for the vegetable borders.
Don't go feeling sorry for her, she LOVED doing it, and it's good practice for her with her new career as a Gardener, but I did warn her not to put her business card in telephone boxes, she's attracting the wrong sort of 'clients'....
Monday I was on a course at the Isis Centre in St Lawrence called Living Well With The Impact of Cancer. It was an all day course that covered many different topics, and was run by two ladies from the Penny Brohn Cancer care unit in Bristol. Macmillan had organised them to come over to the Island for a few days. There were about twelve of us, and we talked about everything from relaxation to financial issues, as well as spirituality and healthy eating. There was definitely a strong feeling of unity between the group right from the start, and as with any emotive subject a few tears.
I do feel as if I came away from the course armed with a few more coping strategies, although I was shattered by 5pm, an excellent fitness session at St Mary's with the twins was just what i needed!
Tuesday was my meeting at the hospital, of which you have had the details in previous blog, and as yet I have had no date for my PET scan.
It's funny isn't it, when you sit there feeling a bit sorry for yourself, thinking about life and how its not fair, and why me, as well as a whole other host of questions, and then I read this article in the paper, and it totally brings me up short.
It was written by a lady called kate Gross http://kateelizabethgross.wordpress.com/, she is 35 and is married with twin boys, and she has terminal colon cancer... I will try and find a link to her article as there are quite a few paragraphs that she has touched upon that I can relate to, although my heart goes out to her, and I can only be encouraged by her approach to life.
My current problem is how to answer well meaning folk when they ask how I am, tricky, do I say as Daniel suggested replying "not too bad" often met with a quizzical look. Do I say aftter a big inhale of breath, 'well......actually" or do I just fib a bit and say 'fine' because thats really what people want to hear, and then I dont need to go into lengthy discussions about forthcoming treatments.
Kate Gross has a spiral plate, made up by a close friend I think it is pretty good, she explains it in detail, but I'll just show it here...
Finally, the very long day yesterday in London, out on the 7:35am flight and back in at 8:45pm, Jack and Becky and I flew to London City, I highly recommend it as an airport, very convenient, although the return flight had a lot of turbulence, can't be helped in a small plane.
We did see the consultant at the hospital for about 20minutes, and it does mean that we are now in the system, but need to go back to Southampton and get more genetics done... hey ho.
The thing I lost?
No, not Dan,(he just wanted in) it was my 'brave face'............ ;-)
Don't go feeling sorry for her, she LOVED doing it, and it's good practice for her with her new career as a Gardener, but I did warn her not to put her business card in telephone boxes, she's attracting the wrong sort of 'clients'....
Monday I was on a course at the Isis Centre in St Lawrence called Living Well With The Impact of Cancer. It was an all day course that covered many different topics, and was run by two ladies from the Penny Brohn Cancer care unit in Bristol. Macmillan had organised them to come over to the Island for a few days. There were about twelve of us, and we talked about everything from relaxation to financial issues, as well as spirituality and healthy eating. There was definitely a strong feeling of unity between the group right from the start, and as with any emotive subject a few tears.
I do feel as if I came away from the course armed with a few more coping strategies, although I was shattered by 5pm, an excellent fitness session at St Mary's with the twins was just what i needed!
Tuesday was my meeting at the hospital, of which you have had the details in previous blog, and as yet I have had no date for my PET scan.
What is Positron Emission Tomography – Computed Tomography (PET/CT) Scanning?
Positron emission tomography, also called PET imaging or a PET scan, is a type of nuclear medicine imaging.
Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose and determine the severity of or treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers, heart disease, gastrointestinal, endocrine, neurological disorders and other abnormalities within the body. Because nuclear medicine procedures are able to pinpoint molecular activity within the body, they offer the potential to identify disease in its earliest stages as well as a patient’s immediate response to therapeutic interventions.
Nuclear medicine imaging procedures are noninvasive and, with the exception of intravenous injections, are usually painless medical tests that help physicians diagnose and evaluate medical conditions. These imaging scans use radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals or radiotracers.
Depending on the type of nuclear medicine exam, the radiotracer is either injected into the body, swallowed or inhaled as a gas and eventually accumulates in the organ or area of the body being examined. Radioactive emissions from the radiotracer are detected by a special camera or imaging device that produces pictures and provides molecular information.
In many centers, nuclear medicine images can be superimposed with computed tomography (CT) ormagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce special views, a practice known as image fusion or co-registration. These views allow the information from two different exams to be correlated and interpreted on one image, leading to more precise information and accurate diagnoses.
A PET scan measures important body functions, such as blood flow, oxygen use, and sugar (glucose)metabolism, to help doctors evaluate how well organs and tissues are functioning.
Thought you might be interested in a little background info on the scan, just what i need a bit of radioactivity..... Never mind Superman, I'll be "Supergirl!"It's funny isn't it, when you sit there feeling a bit sorry for yourself, thinking about life and how its not fair, and why me, as well as a whole other host of questions, and then I read this article in the paper, and it totally brings me up short.
It was written by a lady called kate Gross http://kateelizabethgross.wordpress.com/, she is 35 and is married with twin boys, and she has terminal colon cancer... I will try and find a link to her article as there are quite a few paragraphs that she has touched upon that I can relate to, although my heart goes out to her, and I can only be encouraged by her approach to life.
My current problem is how to answer well meaning folk when they ask how I am, tricky, do I say as Daniel suggested replying "not too bad" often met with a quizzical look. Do I say aftter a big inhale of breath, 'well......actually" or do I just fib a bit and say 'fine' because thats really what people want to hear, and then I dont need to go into lengthy discussions about forthcoming treatments.
Kate Gross has a spiral plate, made up by a close friend I think it is pretty good, she explains it in detail, but I'll just show it here...
Finally, the very long day yesterday in London, out on the 7:35am flight and back in at 8:45pm, Jack and Becky and I flew to London City, I highly recommend it as an airport, very convenient, although the return flight had a lot of turbulence, can't be helped in a small plane.
We did see the consultant at the hospital for about 20minutes, and it does mean that we are now in the system, but need to go back to Southampton and get more genetics done... hey ho.
The thing I lost?
No, not Dan,(he just wanted in) it was my 'brave face'............ ;-)
nighty night xxxx
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