Monthly Archives: September 2019

I’ve now completed one third of my treatment. That’s 11 of the 33 doses of radiation in total. I had a really good weekend at the garden show with my collector friends. The weather could have been better but that didn’t stop us from having a lot of fun amongst ourselves and with the event’s visitors. The side effects – minor diarrhea – weren’t really a problem. I had one… Read Article →

Today was the final treatment of the week and I am looking forward to the weekend. So far it has been going well, in so far as there have been no complications and very few side effects. That said, I have begun to experience some minor diarrhea. Nothing that has caused any issues yet and nothing to stop me getting on with the daily routine of treatments, travel and life… Read Article →

After my treatment today I met with the centre’s resident nutritionist. We discussed my diet and some of the things I could do improve it and help alleviate potential side effects later on. I like to think I eat fairly healthily. I’ve been a vegetarian of sorts for 35 years, since I was a student. I eat fish and generally avoid most junk foods and adding sugar or salt to… Read Article →

I needed to see my accountant this week to discuss some changes to the business. I’d suggested mid to late morning any day but he couldn’t do that, so we agreed I’d come into his office at 08:30. It’s on the way to the treatment centre so not really an issue, except for the early start. Generally, I try to avoid driving into MK first thing in the morning because… Read Article →

Back to the usual 10:00 treatment slot today. I left the house at 09:15, allowing the usual 45 minutes. It was raining fairly heavily and half way there it was clear that the roads were busier than usual. I considered turning off to use one of the back roads through the villages. But the traffic kept moving so I stayed on the main road. The dual carriageway into the middle… Read Article →

The second week has started with another routine day. Most of my treatments are around 10:00 but today was at 10:45 so there wasn’t any rush to get up and get ready. That said, I’ve been waking fairly early recently so I was up and about just after seven. At this time of year it’s barely light by then. With one week down, it gave a chance to reflect on… Read Article →

Today was routine. The drive down was trouble-free and the treatment was on time. I’d overdone the water a bit again but nothing like on Wednesday so it didn’t cause any problems. So that’s one week down and just another five and a bit to go… Day Five Tiredness: 0/10 Side Effects: None

My wife came with me to the treatment centre for the first time today. She lives overseas but we spend as much time together as possible. She was able to come through to the treatment area although she had to wait outside while I was receiving the radiotherapy. After the treatment we had a meeting with a counsellor from the Penny Brohn charity who explained some of the holistic and… Read Article →

It’s 17 miles to the facility from my house and for the time being I am driving myself to the daily treatments. This is all part of my plan to normalise the treatment as far as possible. I leave 45 minutes for the journey. I live in a rural setting between Northampton and Milton Keynes and the journey should take about 30 minutes when there are no hold-ups. If there… Read Article →

Yesterday was a novelty but today it’s time to get into the routine. I’d been told that from today onwards I could, if I wished, change into comfortable clothes for the treatment. I’ve decided to do this because it means I can make the treatment different to the rest of the day. By changing clothes when I arrive at the facility I can, I think, in some ways leave the… Read Article →