Saturday 26 April 2014

Day 2

I made the mistake last night of looking online at some pages on Kidney Cancer, I have avoided it until now, leaving it to my sister to do all the research bless her! I found an article from an American Doctor, he said that once the Cancer has spread to the Lungs, his prognosis would be 2 to 3 years, a bit grim but if I am honest with myself that is about what I had thought. If the Tumour in the Kidney that was removed had been growing for 4 or 5 years before it erupted, then the Tumour in my remaining Kidney may have been growing already for a couple of years, so another 2 or 3 years before it also erupts inside me, obviously the big question mark is how quickly will the Mets in my Lungs grow, but that isn't something I want to think about.
I have to go to Clatterbridge on The Wirral every 3 months for a scan and once the Cancer takes a hold I will be on Pazopanib daily, to try and slow it down, my last scan only showed a small increase in the size of the Mets, since my first CT scan last November, so we shall see.
I do get stabbing pains in my stomach and in my hip, but after months of daily pain, very often excruciating, I don't really pay it a lot of intention, I have started getting Dizzy spells which is a little more worrying.
I have just returned form a walk into town, I try to have a walk everyday.  I recently bought am 80gb iPod, which means I can have all my music on it, something like 4000 tunes and it still isn't half full, I love my music and walking around town listening to tunes is great, I find I can do some people watching and do some shopping, just walking around in my own little bubble gives me time to think and to observe what is going on, without having to actually participate in anything.
Today I am going to sort through some photographs to upload on here, I want to put some shots of friends and family that have influenced me over the years

Tomorrow I am off to catch up with some friends daan saaf,  back to Crowborough in Sussex, where I went to school, to see some friends for a week and then a week in South London with a mate, so busy times but should be great fun.
Sun is out here now so bit of a blustery cycle in a bit.

Friday 25 April 2014

And in the beginning.

Welcome to my blog Living with Cancer.
It is now two and a half months since I left Hospital, and for the first time this week I went back to Ward A5 in Warrington, I took some Chocolates, (it was Easter after all,) and a card. I went on Easter Monday and it was very quiet, there was only about 6 or 7 Nurses that I recognised, fortunately Ali was there, I remember her from day 1, and she became a firm favourite, tall, blonde and quite loud, just like someone else I know.  I had very mixed emotions going back, watching a poor guy hobbling along the corridor in his pyjamas on the way out for a fag., it seemed so strange to think of myself walking the corridors in my dressing gown with my drip in tow, (suitably decorated with Tinsel over Christmas,) oblivious to my surroundings and rather standing out against all the normal people going about their business.
I want to  write here my thoughts on my daily life, my expectations, my fears and my travels, upload some of the photographs I take along the way, it really will be a diary of hopefully the next 2 or 3 years, who knows I may be lucky and it may go on longer, by which time you all will be fed up with my ramblings.


Ok. So a little bit about myself, I am 52 years old and was born in Wandsworth Common in south London, I have mostly lived in the South East and latterly in the New Forest in Hampshire, then being not so young free and single I moved to Warrington in September 2013, the idea was to help   an elderly friend who I have known since 1980 and is now struggling to look after himself, but of course it didn't quite work out as I intended. I have worked in various trades over the years including photography and then in the last decade or so I have worked as a Support Worker with young people with learning difficulties, which was where I met Sarah (Tall ,blond and quite loud) and to be honest the only work I have enjoyed is working with the youngsters.

 My mate Sarah


I am a very keen photographer and have literally thousands of photographs and have a website www.crjennings.com which will illustrate rather easily the sort of photographs I like taking. I am a very keen cyclist and am very proud of myself that I am now back cycling and try to do 10 miles or so most days, a year ago in May I rode the Thames Bridges ride for the Stroke Association, which was 65 miles across London, I completed it without too much trouble, but I actually feel fitter today than I did then, unbeknown to me a year ago, my bad Kidney was starting to impact on my fitness, and by last summer I was getting tired very easily without knowing the reason.

My first ride in over 3 months

I don't want to talk too much about the last 5 months, as to be honest most of it has been an absolute nightmare, I have never been ill to any extent in my life and never been in Hospital so it has been a very steep learning curve to say the least, the one thing I will say about being in Hospital, is how an earth is anyone supposed to sleep, the noise and disruption over night was awful, anyway lets move rapidly on.
I am away visiting friends in the south over the next two weeks so I think there could be a bit of alcohol related shenanigans happening, watch this space.