Well, I'm 4 years in with Stage 4 lung cancer. And we all know there is no stage 5.
I have been tempted a number of times to start a blog but it always seemed too hard. Plus I wondered whether I had anything useful to say. But this site seems to make it easy, and I guess after 4 years, heading into my 5th, I must have something useful to say surely!
But what are my motivations I wonder? I guess like all of us I have a story to tell. And the need to reach out to others who understand that this new 'normal' can be a very strange place.
So I guess I will start my story (I hate the use of the word journey - its more like a circus act without a safety net) and see what happens.
But, so I dont bore anyone I will tell the story in chapters, trying to keep you interested in what happened next! Not that my story is different to anyone else's, other than it happened to me.
Chapter One begins........
54 years old. Regular runner, having just completed my first 15 k run (with my daughter). In the midst of changing jobs, but with a niggley pain in shoulder and on coughing. Helpful psychiatric nurse husband suggests liver cancer.... Gee, thanks. On an extremely rare visit to doctor mention that as one possibility, the other being hypochondria! She suggests there may be a few alternatives and sends me off for a chest X-ray. Followed by an ultrasound, followed by a CT scan. Mention none of this to husband. Change jobs in the middle of all this. Have over 30 new staff, all desperately needing a new manager and some direction and structure.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2.
