If you’ve managed to survive all the radiotherapy, chemo, surgery and the CT or MRI scanning that goes with treating bowel cancer, well done! But don’t think you are completely out of the woods… For there is one ordeal that goes with the territory and that’s the need to check that all is well down […]
Read the rest of this entry »Helping cancer patients through the dark patches
More and more people are surviving cancer, but as I mentioned in my last blog ‘You are not alone: life after cancer’ that can just mean another chapter opening – and in this ‘Cancer-Talk’ I want to shine the spotlight on my local Holistic Centre and how it has helped get me through some dark […]
Read the rest of this entry »You are not alone: life after cancer
Coping with life after cancer can be tougher than you’d think. But you no longer have to face it alone. For the medical world now realises that many people often struggle to cope with the emotional fallout of cancer, whether months or years after treatment has ended. It used to be assumed that the end […]
Read the rest of this entry »Handling the end of cancer treatment!
I never believed anyone might actually miss the routine that takes over your life during a year of cancer treatment. But strange as it might seem, there is something reassuring about the pattern of regular hospital visits, radiotherapy and daily doses of tablets and potions while you are preparing for your operation, and then, chemotherapy. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Handling your cancer operation and the after effects!
This has proved the hardest blog to write in my ‘Cancer-talk’ series because many of the things I thought would happen with my bowel cancer operation didn’t and I’m still in a twirl from the after effects a month later, which have just taken a sudden turn (see STOP PRESS towards the end of this […]
Read the rest of this entry »Getting prepared in mind & body for your cancer op!
When I left you last time, I was preparing to go into James Cook University Hospital for my bowel cancer operation following radiotherapy and chemo treatment. Now, I am out the other side – having been allowed home after only three nights for good behaviour! Quite a feat as I ended up having open surgery, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Why April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month
When you’ve just found out you’ve got bowel cancer, I’m not sure you really want to be told that it is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer and that someone dies from it every half an hour. But that’s the startling fact and why April has been designated Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. Talking about any […]
Read the rest of this entry »Beating bowel cancer – introducing ‘Cancer-talk’
You are never quite prepared for being told you have cancer. There is still, what shall we call it, a stigma surrounding cancer that makes it difficult to talk about. Even some medical people struggle when talking about it to their patients. That’s at least until they are pretty sure you are not going to […]
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