We are not medics and this is simply an account of our experience. We have learned that everyone really is different. Diseases affect people differently and so do treatments. This is frustrating at times but it’s also really liberating – just because it happened to someone else doesn’t mean it will happen to you.
This is not a techy blog but I’ve tried to include some of the significant symptoms and blood numbers because I’ve come to understand how important these things are. If you’ve just been diagnosed with an indolent lymphoma and you’re anaemic it may help to hear someone else’s experience of the ‘watch and wait’ approach. It may also help to know how he felt when it was really low – way too low (7.2 was his personal best – or rather worst).
If you’re thinking about pre-colonoscopy bowel prep you will want to know (really want to know!) how fast Picolax might work.
This blog is written from the sidelines – I don’t have cancer – but I live with it. This blog is also very much for those whose lives have been invaded, who sit anxiously alongside the one who has cancer. I hope that whether your concern is anaemia, you’re awaiting your first colonoscopy or you’re simply reading every cancer blog you can find to try to help a friend, you’ll find something of use.
This is primarily a blog about cancer but as Andy Burrows notes, being told you have a disease that could kill you (I was told I probably had cancer but I don’t, sadly my husband does) really does make you think about your beliefs ‘when the rubber hits the road’. Well the rubber has well and truly hit the road for us in the last few years. I am Christian, my husband is not and this inevitably shapes our experience but as far as his cancer is concerned we have the same goals.
Cancer has taken up residence in our home but it hasn’t taken over and at times we’re even able to forget it’s there. And that’s good.