Hi NickL,
I too wrote about my journey in emails (I called them "Communiques", 17 in all over 9 months) and set them to my family and friends. I did this for 2 reasons. First and foremost was for self-therapy. Secondly was to avoid having to repeat myself 50+ times to each person. Three reasons, there are three good reasonsfor recording your journey through cancer diagnosis and treatment, 1. self-therapy, 2. avoid repetition 3. so that I could remember what happened, 4. to achieve something while the time passes. "Amongst our reasons..., Cardinal Biggles...?" (reference is to Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition).
I havn't made my Communiques more widly available because I didn't hold back on my criticism of medical practitioners involved in my treatment. For example the surgeon seemed to flip-flop between recommending partial and total gastrectomy - in the end I told him that he was the specialist and should do what was in my long-term best interests. And then there was the time while I was in hospital following my total gastrectomy, a trainee doctor took 2 attempts to fit me with a replacement cannula in my left arm, then took out my pain management line from my right arm before trying twice more to fit the new cannula in my right arm, before finally being successful fittning it to my left arm.
If you haven't tried it already, start writing now. Write about everything related to your emotions, treatments, physical condition. It will be fascenating for you, and even for society, in the future to look back at what we had to endure in our battles with conditions that will, eventually, be regarded as simpler to treat than the common cold.
Best wishes to all,
Rick
