Moving on....

So, a bit more about what is actually going on in London.

Every day I head towards the hospital for radiotherapy, it's only 5-10minutes away so no problem. The times vary each day, I prefer the morning as there's less chance of delays, it also gives me the day to spend as I wish ( not shopping obviously....) .

I had a fabulous time with AB, and as a bonus she left me loads of homemade flapjacks I'm munching my way through. We had a super visit to Kew Gardens, so much to see and learn about.
Wednesday was my 31st wedding anniversary , AB left and husband arrived , just in time for the clinic appointment with my lovely consultant DR Taylor. She seems very pleased with progress so far and my bloods are all good ( amazingly considering my history ) , so that's all positive.

Hubby and I had an excellent day on Thursday , after treatment we went off to visit the Shard, Borough Market, walk along the Thames, The National Portrait gallery ( Picasso exhibition worth seeing) all in that order.
Picked up cheap tickets for The Kinks ( very good show, great music) and had an early supper. Phew.

Friday was just as hectic but for different reasons ...
A trip on a bus, a bit of shopping and then we made our way to the airport. Arriving at Victoria I went through the barrier toward the Gatwick express, hubby's ticket would not work, upon checking with the very busy , hassled assistant he found that he had inadvertently bought a southern trains ticket instead.. I'm on one side of the barrier looking at the express with 3 minutes before departure and he's grumpily looking at me from the other side , I shouted to get the Southern instead and I'd see him at security .
Turning on his heel he stomped off, I rushed into a very busy train full of shrieking teenagers going on holiday to Magaluf - oh Joy.

Texts sent backwards and forwards, he finally found platform 19, and a southern train , jumped aboard and set off, becoming slightly concerned when no mention of Gatwick appeared on any announcement or screen !
Fortunately it was the correct train that stopped at Gatwick, and unbeknown to him I waited for him, only to find out he'd come in and was already on the shuttle!!
We did eventually meet up again at the security gate, where we both saw the funny side, but we weren't laughing when the flight already delayed, meant us swopping planes to then sit on the plane on the runway for two hours waiting for ground staff to load the bags and 'push us off'.
Instead of arriving in Jersey at 6:20pm, we finally landed at 9:20pm, really not funny when after a week in London I just wanted to get HOME!!
All this said, I discovered there were two girls aboard that were surprising their mum for her 60th birthday party, guess they were upset it was so late.

On a different note two weeks ago Jack, Steph and I went to Guys hospital to further my request for genetic testing. Lots of family questions, bloods taken, and more talking. I should have the results by the middle of December .
I think ( it was very complicated !!) that they are testing for BRCA 1 BRCA2 MMR and another gene that can be linked to bowel cancer.
Hopefully I don't have any of them, but if I do, it's useful to have that information for my siblings as well as my children.


A BRCA mutation is a mutation in either of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are tumor suppressor genes. Hundreds of different types of mutations in these genes have been identified, some of which have been determined to be harmful, while others have no proven impact. Harmful mutations in these genes may produce a hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome in affected persons. Only 5-10% of breast cancer cases in women are attributed to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations (with BRCA1 mutations being slightly more common than BRCA2 mutations), but the impact on women with the gene mutation is more profound.[1] Women with harmful mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 have a risk of breast cancer that is about five times the normal risk, and a risk of ovarian cancer that is about ten to thirty times normal.[2] The risk of breast and ovarian cancer is higher for women with a high-risk BRCA1 mutation than with a BRCA2 mutation. Having a high-risk mutation does not guarantee that the woman will develop any type of cancer, or imply that any cancer that appears was actually caused by the mutation, rather than some other factor.

High-risk mutations, which disable an important error-free DNA repair process (homology directed repair), significantly increase the person's risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer and certain other cancers. Why BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations lead preferentially to cancers of the breast and ovary is not known, but lack of BRCA1 function seems to lead to non-functional X-chromosome inactivation. Not all mutations are high-risk; some appear to be harmless variations. The cancer risk associated with any given mutation varies significantly and depends on the exact type and location of the mutation and possibly other individual factors.

Mutations can be inherited from either parent and may be passed on to both sons and daughters. Each child of a genetic carrier, regardless of sex, has a 50% chance of inheriting the mutated gene from the parent who carries the mutation. As a result, half of the people with BRCA gene mutations are male, who would then pass the mutation on to 50% of their offspring, male or female. The risk of BRCA-related breast cancers for men with the mutation is higher than for other men, but still low.[3] However, BRCA mutations can increase the risk of other cancers, such as colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer.

In humans, seven DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins (MLH1, MLH3, MSH2, MSH3, MSH6, PMS1 and PMS2) work coordinately in sequential steps to initiate repair of DNA mismatches.[22] In addition, there are Exo1-dependent and Exo1-independent MMR subpathways.


Deficient expression of multiple DNA repair genes is often found in cancers,[8] and may contribute to the thousands of mutations usually found in cancers (see Mutation frequencies in cancers).

If you're still out there reading this, well done, as it's very confusing , and these are only bits I've found on the Internet , but I'm not worrying about it too much, it is what it is.

This week I've got SW with me, so far she's proved very useful, washing up dishes, tidying up , and making sure I'm on time for my appointments ( a rarity ) . She said I'm the only person to go into radiotherapy running, and then shrieking with laughter when I'm there as I find out some of my radiology team were on the TV, and some were hiding from the cameras, and the fact they were ' treating ' a piece of metal on the bed, not a real person !!! Ha, all for the cameras!!!

Last night big bro took us out for supper ( very nice too ) and today we have visited The Chelsea Pensioners Hospital , such a lovely place, and chatted to some of them. ( bought Christmas presents from the shop ) . Met up with JR and MR, as they are over seeng family and enjoying a few days break. Also managed to squeeze into the Natural History museum ( half term, full of small children !) and look at the dinosaur exhibition ... Shame I can't post photos !!

Finally eight more sessions to go... Yippee







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London Life.

Noise.
Piles of rubbish in the street.
Beautiful buildings.
Ugly buildings.
Homeless.
Snippets of peoples conversation.
Green spaces.
Sad dogs.
Not acknowledging drivers stopping for you on Zebra crossings.. ( I did at the beginning).
Never dark.
Dirty pavements.
Warm, rank air in tube stations.
Grey squirrels.
Brilliant theatre shows.
Cheerful nurses.
Expensive shops.
Traffic.

Oh, and small children whizzing to school on scooters!!

Once again I had a fabulous jam packed weekend. I got let off dog walking duty on Saturday morning so I could play racquetball - and I had SUCH a good session ( thanks ST) . Just what I needed!
Followed that with a trip around Waitrose, but not entirely successful as I can't keep tabs on what's been eaten and what we need, anyway enough food etc bought for the weekend.
Dragged Steve to Acorn Nursery to buy some bedding plants, I can't keep walking up the driveway and seeing the sad, shrivelled leaves left in the summer flowering pots.
After lunch I made him help me clear out the old containers and pot up the new plants ( like he didn't have 100 other things he'd rather be doing! )

I did have tennis planned for the afternoon, but it started to rain really heavily, so we had to cancel. Not wanting to be idle I peeled some apples and made two Eve's puddings, a batch of flapjacks and a a batch of brownies.

We then took the girls ( dogs obviously , we are not running a Boot camp) on a 'training ' session/walk down through the woods.
Papa was home when we got back as we had invited him to help us eat the sole and plaice that Jack and his friend had caught the day before, they were delicious !

Sunday morning was cliff path walk, aerobics with the girls ( love those nutty twins) and then three sets of tennis..... All brilliant fun, and when I got back in the door at 1:45pm Bex had done the ironing! Bonus !

Gun dog training at 3:30pm for an hour, and so when finally back home by 4:45pm I was feeling a little tired, still managed to get a roast chicken in the oven and supper for 7 people. Thank goodness I have daughters and 'daughters-in-law to help, and of course all those MEN in my life!

Finally , good news, no, not the fact that I have my crazy aunt over here ( more of that later) - but I have been told that I do not have to do the last three days of radiotherapy . They have adjusted my dose and are giving me the final concentrated session on the 4th November - yippee .

Only 8% of battery left, so the latest embarrassing antics of the Aunt will have to wait.... One snippet though...

Sat on the tube returning from Kew Gardens, I give her the newspaper crossword to finish so she doesn't keep fretting about the stations and if we are going the right way. (I have had many experiences on how to keep a small child quiet- although not usually with the cryptic crossword in the telegraph ) . Anyway the train stops, she looks up , I ask "What". She replies "I was just seeing if an elderly person needed a seat". We both looked around the carriage, I replied sagely " You , ( pause ) ARE the elderly person" ......







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Location:Two days with Mad Aunt....

Happy Tuesday....

I thought I would just have to write a post this morning ( Wednesday 12th) as so much happened yesterday and I need to tell someone what a good day I had!!

Not wanting to waste the morning, I headed off to the gym. I managed to get onto a yoga class but as that didn't start until 10:30am I had plenty of time for a long swim.

The yoga class was interesting to say the least, only being a ' beginner' with little room for any improvement I was a tad apprehensive . A mixture of abilities and people in the class, but the instructor was lovely. I did feel the man with only one leg was amazing and STILL better than me !

Met Jack and Steph from the tube station and then raced to hospital for my radiotherapy , they have two machines, one broke last week and is only half mended (!) I don't like to dwell on that too much .. So my appointment tomorrow has been put back to 6:40pm. It's a good job I chose to live close by the hospital I would hate having to travel in every day, especially at early evening time in rush hour.

I also needed blood tests to see how my body is responding to the treatment. Luckily there wasn't too long a wait, and I get results today at the clinic this afternoon.

It was a little disconcerting to be sat in the same room as an 'inmate' and her two guards from the local prison - especially as she was attached by a very long, noisy dangling set of handcuffs.

We all decided that a nice walk across Hyde park and then maybe some shopping in Oxford street was the order of the day. Fortunately for us the sun was shining and it was beautiful. Oxford street was as usual very busy, but Jack did mange to buy some new trainers he needed and as the ones he was wearing were a bit small he changed into them straight away.

Let's not mention that I also bought a new pair of boots ( a girl can never have too many boots- more of that later!!)

Walking and talking it was decided we would see if there were any cheap (er) tickets for a show that we could see that evening, so we made our way towards Leicester square .

Walking down Regent road, you couldn't help but see the barefoot, homeless man crouched over, in a shop doorway, hugging his knees. Jack turned to us and said, I could give him my shoes ( his too small trainers he'd only worn a few times) that he was still carrying.

The mans feet were blistered and sore, and he had no other possessions around him, it was him looking up at Jack and saying "Thank you, thank you so much" that will stay with me for ever.

We got three tickets in the dress circle for Kinky Boots, and as we had time went to eat at a Mexican restaurant .

The meal was lovely, and the musical was very, very good, funny too, I highly recommend it if you get the chance.

Walking along to the embankment tube, we were passed by two police vans and a car, although it wasn't immediately obvious to where they were all racing too, we saw as we entered the station them standing around looking up.
As we also looked up we saw there was a man standing on the edge of the building , looking like he might have wanted to jump onto the train track. Very sad that some people feel so desperate to end their lives.

Must say it was a lovely surprise to be greeted by a huge box full of a lovely bouquet of flowers that was delivered to the flat just now! Thank you Grainville Tennis club!!!! Beautiful 😄 X

All in all a very busy, but really good day in London, and after today's treatment I should be one third of my way through radiotherapy ( according to Mr Statistic Steve Luce) :-)








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Friday night ....

Sat at Gatwick airport in the departure lounge at the gate, and have just heard over the tannoy that the flight is delayed ..... You just don't want to hear that! Guess it could be worse, the flight could have been cancelled , and judging by the amount of people crammed in here, that would have been disastrous .

My fantastic blog post that I wrote in the week, got 'lost', and that too was annoying, especially after the title managed to get posted. So as I now have at least another 40 minutes wait, I thought I'd use this time to do a catch up, even if I can't post until I'm back on the rock.

I'm pleased that this first week has gone ok, I've managed to remember to take my anti - sickness on four out of the five days pre treatment , and now taking another tablet to form a lining in my stomach. As I have been feeling a little queasy at various points throughout the day, this is not a bad idea.

I did say to the radiologist on Wednesday that I felt a little tired, to which he nodded sagely and said " I'm afraid that's part of the side effects of the treatment" I didn't like to say I think that actually it's the thirty lengths swim and Pilates class I did this morning!

I turned up at the sports centre yesterday just before 9:30am with the sole idea to maybe have a gentle swim and then go and find the instructor at the gym so he can show me how some of the equipment works. But, the receptionist at the centre who is a lovely lady but of Chinese ethnicity and therefore sometimes a little difficult to understand gabbled at me and before I knew where I was I had signed up for a 'step' class.

I haven't done Step since the 1980's when sweatbands and leg warmers were compulsory . This however, turned out to be a class like no other.
A very toned fit instructor barked out orders over the microphone, doing set pieces, turning around , up, down, and then we had to lie down on the said Step and lift weights above our heads. Tummy tucks, leg raises, then up again , more routines. Suddenly the smoke alarm goes off, a false alarm but it gave us ( me?) a five minute reprieve.

This morning I can certainly feel the effects of the class, and whilst waiting to meet my big bro for a cup of tea ( just before his conference ) I was surreptitiously doing a few calf stretches in the station !

It helped that I had my friend Agi with me on the flight back ( she had decided to come home this weekend as her radiotherapy machine had broken so she couldn't have her treatment, annoying as that day gets tagged onto the end of her six week stint. )

It was so lovely to be greeted by husband and daughter, with the added bonus of supper cooked by them. It's nice to be home ......



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Five fractions later....

Sunday night catch up....

Just checking in with a quick post before i actually get a chance to SIT down this weekend ( wouldn't have it any other way)

Disappointed I am still having issues with the photo upload, but there you go, something to work on.

Very successful two days in London last week and all went relatively smoothly, flight a bit delayed on the way back thats all.

It was great having Bex to sort out my WIFI in the flat and get my UK phone connected, plus food shopping etc.

Off again tomorrow morning at 10am, so enough time to walk the girls and possibly get another cheeky sea swim in.. thought id possibly had my last one today, but forecast looks good, so fingers crossed.

 In response to the comment on the last post, Guernsey tennis was great fun, but ultimately we got hammered , particularly the men, they were very strong. I was pleased to win one of my ladies games,  could have had the second, except my partner had a neck injury and struggled.

Ive had a marvellous weekend, yesterday morning walked the girls, took a small child ( and Dan, a somewhat larger child) to the Merton, swimming and eating the morning away. Dropped her back to St Ouen and then onto AH's house where we  had two very close sets of tennis with very good friends.

Back home to a meeting with Jersey Cancer Relief ( a fantastic local charity that help out many, many people in the island).

Time to sort out yet more washing before going to pick up fish and chips and take to our lovely friends in Grouville. Considering she has spent the last two weeks in Southampton, she is looking very bright eyed, so that is good to see.

Today hubby came with me for first walk, and i had a lovely swim ( sea warmer than on land) and then whizzed off to aerobics with the 'girls', have missed their crazy ways, not to mention the exercise.

Followed that up by three sets of very good tennis at A deF's house, just time for a snack and then gun dog training... yes, you did read that correctly.

Beanie, not Jessie... if the main objective is to run off for 25 minutes to an hour chasing pheasants, not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything going on around you, then Beanie will be an A student!

A real treat this evening, supper cooked by Tom, (and washed up), think that i shall be surplus to requirements by the end of my stint in London (yay) ;-)

Bex has had yet another try at the photos..

 My lovely radiologists... day one!!

London .... I'm here!

Thursday the 29th September, the day of reckoning (!) We fairly flew through the departures in Jersey, and left early. This looks promising I thought, but lo, despite the early start we were TOO early to land and circled for about 25 minutes - bah. Anyway, negotiating the airport, shuttles and trains with two large packed suitcase we arrived at the taxi rank to find , no taxis ! Waited diligently in the line, talked to a lady who said roadworks are stopping them come in... Waited another 5 minutes and then decided that it would have to be the underground after all...I trundled off ( with a very disgruntled daughter in tow) . However on the way to the underground we discovered another taxi rank......with taxis !! Hurrah, especially as it was raining quite hard by then. A very warm welcome greeted us at Chelsea Cloisters, Sloane Avenue ( room no 133) , the very nice lady I had spoken to earlier in the month has put me in the back of the building (quiet) in a one bed roomed  flat with a curved sitting room, allowing  plenty of light in. It's tiny, ( cosy? Bijou?) but it's the place I shall make home for the next 6 weeks. Fact finding mission to make sure I have a UK SIM card in an old phone, and a 'pocket hotspot(!) ' for wifi in the flat. Food shopping . Finally at the hospital at 3pm- have to be early for first appointment, and we all know my trend for arriving early for anything! So was quite smug that I was bang on time, but, forgot my tablets. Bah again! The best thing was seeing my lovely friend waiting for us to arrive ( she had an operation similar to mine,  followed by chemotherapy and now is in her second week of radiotherapy , and was delighted to see familiar faces. Usual preliminarily chats, and lots of drinking water, plus a trip to pharmacy for another batch of tablets ( anti-sickness) needed before the 'treatment'. I'm actually loathe to call radiotherapy "treatment", as its that word I associate with having a lovely relaxing spa massage, NOT lying on a very hard bed, absolutely still in an uncomfortable position for ten minutes!! Did I tell you last time I was in London for two days, two people stopped and asked me for directions, I obviously blend in like a local already. Thank you for all the lovely messages of support, very humbling .. So, one down only 29 to go!! Bring it on... Attempting to post some photos from  our French trip.