Arthur's Seat

-

 It's been a while since I've written. In itself it is a good sign. The CT scans look good every time so far and my thyroid levels are good too. The physical fatigue is still there and in the last conversation with the pulmonologist he indicated that this occurs often and that some deal with this for the rest of their lives.

For the first time since my diagnosis I managed to go on holiday to Scotland again. We have been looking forward to it and the weather was wonderful! One of the goals I had was standing on top of Arthur's Seat. I've written about it before. Shortly after I was diagnosed, a friend suggested that what was growing in me should be named Arthur. That helped me so much to put it into perspective and give it a place. Arthur's Seat was already a wish, but after that it had an even greater meaning.

When I tested positive for Corona at the end of the first week of our holiday in Scotland, I was disappointed. Surely this wouldn't ruin my challenge? I've been sick for a few days and haven't regained my sense of smell yet. But It worked! Arthur's Seat with all three children, the youngest in the back carrier part of the time but oh how proud I am that I made it!

A special moment for me was the photo with Stitch. I got it from the friend I spoke of above and because she is also going through a bad time at the moment, my "victory" was also for her!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 weeks later

-
Image
It is now 6 weeks after the surgery. The past few weeks have been dominated by recovery. I have had telephone contact with the pulmonologist several times. In one of those conversations, he said that the pathologist has determined that the tumor has been removed completely. The margins of clean tissue are minimal, max. 2 mm, which is why they want to give me radiation as a precaution. Before the radiation process can start, it must first be checked whether the seam in my trachea has healed properly. Monday May 11 Today the pulmonologist will look into my trachea trough a bronchoscopy. Because it was not nice for me last time, this time I will get a sedation. The thing they can't do while I'm asleep is to give the anesthetic, that "fine" banana flavor again. When I wake up, I hear that everything went well and that the seam looks neat. So, a green light for the radiation process.
Read more

33 sessions done!

-
Image
33 radiation treatments, 33 times traveling to Delft, but it's done. Well the radiations, the side effects will increase in the coming week or two. But then finally healing time. The past weeks have passed quickly. 33 working days, almost 7 weeks seemed like a long time when I started the radiation treatments. It were busy weeks and sometimes crazy weeks even. For example the week of July 13, Monday morning, making my breakfast when W. comes to me. Mom, she says, today is a bad day. I couldn't figure out why, it was July 13th but not Friday. Soon she said, well today is the 13th time radiation. And also July 13, I said. With that in mind I drive to Delft. When I am on the table ready for the radiation, they come back to me. We have an interruption, we are going to reset the machine, just wait for two minutes. They leave the room to continue, but I soon notice that there is no movement in the machine. And indeed a short while later they come back in to detach the mask. This is a...
Read more

How are you?

-
Image
A question that I am asked regularly and of which I do not know how to answer. As for the cancer, things are going well. The tumor is completely removed during the surgery and everything looked good at the scan in November. And yet there is the but…. Because I still feel far from good. After the last radiation treatment, the side effects have become even worse. Even with paracetamol, swallowing is painful. I'm on morphine-like painkillers. Initially a short-acting one that I can take an hour before a meal, but this does not work. Then switch to patches that work for a long time. It takes a while for them to start working, but it helps. Fortunately, after a week it is going a bit better and I can get off with paracetamol alone. About 7 weeks after the last radiation session I can eat almost everything again, but it remains sensitive. Even now, 20 weeks after the last radiation treatment, there is still a spot in my esophagus that is sensitive when swallowing. Especially with larger ...
Read more