Keep on blaaaaahing and mind dumping! How lucky you are to have the ocean nearby to plunge into even when the weather isn't conducive. It's one of the things that I must give myself time for these holidays. The ocean is certainly therepeutic. While my sons are older than yours (my youngest was 13 at diagnosis), they are certainly the reason for not giving up. It's great to hear the positivity in your blogs but remember that you are only human and there may be some down days. When that happens - blog away!! Samex ... View more

G'day there One of the things I don't ask is why? I worked for many years as a research chemist - if you do that it is not a matter of what were you exposed to , but rather what were you not exposed to. I worked in old buildings where asbestos was constantly flaking off the ceiling - but I don't have mesothelioma. I worked with some very nasty materials whose toxicity was known and so precautions could be taken. I also worked with, or shared laboratories with people working with, compounds of unknown toxicity. I moved out of one lab which I shared with some very sloppy operators, when the mice which infested the building started dying horribly. Why don't I follow these things up? Two reasons. The first is that it is my observation that it is too easy to get obsessed by these things and they end up making you bitter and twisted. The second is - what is so special about me? By age 75 one in three men and one in three women will have had a diagnosis of cancer. Why should I be any different? We now know that some cancers are preventable and are connected to lifestyle choices - diet, smoking, etc. Do we get angry and sue our parents because they overcooked the vegetable and didn't give us enough green/yellow leafy vegetable. Or because they fed us lots of good red meat, cooked in beef dripping. Do we sue them because they took us down each year to the holiday shack by the sea that was clad in asbestos sheeting and sent us down to stay on the beach for hours with little more than coconut oil to protect our skin so that we would get a healthy tan. As J P Hartley said in his novel The go Between "The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there". We cannot undo the past and we cannot get back - to use an ancient phrase - the years that the locusts have eaten. We can however, make the best of what we have been dealt with. We can learn how to sail in good and bad weather and when the bad weather comes we can shorten sail and manage the situation. Cheers Sailor They that go down to the sea in ships: And occupy their business in great waters; These men see the works of the Lord: And his wonders in the deep. Psalm 107:23 ... View more

The new me looks different. Myleft eye always looks sore and sometimes is. My nose is a bit misshapen and strange inside .But people usually notice one eye smaller and different to the other. There are eye drops and eye gels,nasal spray and nasal irrigation. There is my addiction to websites like this one and I think about my cancer everyday. The surgeon says forget about it , I do get on with life for the most part but unless I am engrossed in an activity it always creeps into my thoughts. I haven't slept proper hours for 13 months , but occasionally get 8 hours .I am trying to get back to normal sleeping. I take medication for nerve pain and sometimes something to help me sleep. Yet I do have a pretty good life ,much like before in many ways . There are many worse off than Iam . I am happy most of the time,most days. ... View more

OOoh, I did the raw food diet when I was very first diagnosed with cancer 22 years ago. didn't last terribly long with it though as I was breast feeding at the time and felt like i was going to pass out. It has taken a very long time for my hair to grow back. First up I had chemo which made it drop out and then the next lot of chemo I had made it not grow back. Tis a year now and I have had about 3 haircuts and my hair is back to growing at a rate of knots, as it did bc. Julie ... View more

'can't stop blogging' is an OK thing, not a problem, keep it up. ... View more

A word about telosmeres. In a study of healthy thriving 80+ year olds, the optimum length was not too long or too short. ... View more

As soon as my cancer was surgically removed I felt like a survivor. Despite what my surgeon and oncologist thought ,I knew it would not get me.Nearly 15 years later and it still hasn't. Yes Swim72 you are a survivor,hugs Ron. ... View more