I am writing this on behalf of my husband Tim, who passed away at 4:30 this afternoon, 13 March 2012. The cancer was far more advanced and aggressive than either of us realised and he just couldn't do it anymore. Thank you to all those people who offered him support and words of advice, courage and wisdom. He appreciated it. Good bye Helen ... View more

Hi everyone, I just felt that I needed to post this as it has made me feel proud of myself. I have been going back to work since I started this new treatment (Folfox) and while I have been managing to complete full days, I haven't really strung any together yet due to medical interruptions. Money and Tuesday , however, I did. i have ended up tired, probably because of other appointments that I needed to attend. The se meant that I didn't get home until 5.00pm. I have one more full day tomorrow. I know I'm tired and have put things in place as a just a case in case thing, but it does excite me. The thought that I should be able to do three days in a row makes me feel good. The other thing I need to add, is that I finished the script for the musical I have been writing ( the music is just classical heavy rock songs from the 80's and 90's). Just need to add the stage directions and then we start the audition process. All goes feel it will go in stage in July. Best thing about this is that it's beats the start of the timeline I was given and I AM going to see this show on stage. take care all Tim ... View more

Well this week was my second round of treatment on Folfox. I seem to (so far and touch wood) avoided a number of the side effects that are listed and felt really good today and not so bad yesterday. My main day for getting plugged in is Wednesday, so today (Fri) felt good when they unplugged the portapump. It really is a nuisance. Today was in at work for a spell this morning. I have now been back several days, each time managing to last a little longer and have now even successfully completed two full days. I am proud of myself, but know that there will those days when I just flat and not able to do anything much. Probably the best bit of news today, other than everyone telling me that I was looking much better and that the colour was returning to my face, was that I managed to put on weight. I somehow have gained 0.5kg in two days. Not complaining about it though, I needed to. Now I just have to keep it up. The appetite is the major problem. Sometimes I just don't feel like eating, sometimes I do. The banana smoothie has become a really good friend of mine, especially when the energy supplements are mixed in. Easy to drink and fills a spot quite quickly. Hoping to keep building my strength over the weekend so am ready for Monday. Take care all Tim ... View more

Hi, Had my first folfox treatment last week. It seemed to be going well up until today.The side effects that I had experienced (so far) had been not overly great. Today though, I woke and felt like that every ounce of energy had been suck out out of my body. I was not a pleasant experience I can tell you. I slept all night (first time in a while) and have had about 6 hours more sleep during during the day. But am still exhausted. Everytime I get up to do something, I need to sit down and rest. Guessing, this chemo is going to knock me about more than what I had hoped. Just hope that it doesn't last for too many days and that my energy returns at least a little. cheers Tim ... View more

This week has not been overly good. It turned out my anxiety levels had been rising since Saturday. Things got gradually work on the Sunday and then calumniated with a major anxiety attack on Monday night. I hadn't been that scared for a ver, very, very long time. Thankfully my wife was around and she called that ambulance service who turned up very quickly.They quickly plugged my up to all the machines to monitor vitals and while they were there things began to retune to normal. When the finally left everything was back to normal. So they offered a choice go to out patience and pick up and infection or stay home and not get an infection. I stayed but informed them that if it occurred again, I would go direct to hospital. It turned out to be a major anxiety attack brought on by everything that was happening this week and knowing very little about what was going to happen. Tuesday I had my port fitted.The theatre nurse was very good and my anxiety faded while she was explaining things to me , that is the procedure and the actual device. She was most helpful. Wednesday the Folfox started. Here too the nurse was very useful. She noticed I was anxious and gave me something to calm me. Once I was calmer, she took me over and then began the process, each time explaining what she was doing. The day finished well and I was sent on my way with the third nipple and various medications including some anti anxiety tablets. I was feeling al little overwhelmed in a good way (if you know what I mean( The trip home was lovely. The volunteer driver was a lovely lady to chat to. Pulling in the drive was great, waved good bye and turned around and saw that we hadn't put the rubbish bin out. That then started another attack. Getting inside, I realised I couldn't find my back support no matter where I looked. Things just got worse from here and another major attack was starting to develop. Once again, my wife came to my rescue, the chemo unit had called her to say that they had included the anti anxiety tablet in my medication and could she collect them. She did. I was so happy to see her when she came inside. This morning wasn't good. Party due to not having had enough sleep, partly due to anxiety. I went to plug in an extension chord and I couldn't do it. It just didn't want to go in. After 5 minutes, I ended up crying my eyes out. Thankfully, this afternoon I have now finally got an appointment with a clinical psych and, to the best of me knowledge am not going to be called in for other chemo/cancer tests. I've already had to dance; three other appointments. It's been really hard doing it without having a professional to talk to. I also need to ask about medication to control these none more and more constant anxiety attacks. THis has become a two part in one post. I'm now back from the shrink and can't say that this was a particularly useful visit . She spent a lot of time talking about how anxiety and fear are different, before then given my self methods on how the control the anxiety once it had started. Most if the these I was already doing. Every the subject of how to reduce the number of attacks was mentioned, it was dismiss fairly quickly. To be honest, I am giving here one more season for her to improve and start talking things like who can I/what can i take? / what should i do. If it doesn't happen, I guess I will be moving on to in another one. On positive note, even considered i will have the one drug being pumped through at the moment. I haven't experienced any of the early onset of the other ones. So am keeping guy fingers crossed and touching wood take care all TIm ... View more