Radiotherapy is coming for me!

01/03/19

So after the relief of the result on Wednesday (lump was a cyst, drained and disappeared!), and a half day at work on Day 9 (remember Day 9 I should be hibernating and this was the agreement with the man cub – I am stretching it now as I haven’t had any issues, but I can’t push it too far) I booted the man cub and cub out the door for school and went back to bed until 1pm. Eeeek, how bloody lazy!! I mean, I have then done the dishes, hoovered and wiped the bathroom (can’t help myself) but done nothing else and still feel really flat. There is no emotion – just middle ground, no high, no low.

The postman had a lovely job today delivering my Radiotherapy invite to kickstart that process. Seventeen pages of information and five pages of side effects. I haven’t read that. It feels like Google and I have had a bit of flick but nothing too in depth. I mean, I am going to live this – I don’t need to read it do I?! I have lived this whole journey slightly blind, trusting in the NHS and the professionals who I put all my belief in to do their job well. I haven’t felt the need to start searching for information, solutions, changes to my life. Today is no different. The paperwork is filed away with the rest of my letters which are getting to a nice pile for the recycling one day.

03/03/19

Lazy like Sunday mornings – the cub has asked for a PJ day! Who am I to argue about that. I love it, and we chill out, laze around, watch some cubs TV and play a lot of games. Today was also a gift in the form of another mama. She offered to take the cub next weekend for a play date (without me!) – if I drop the cub off, she’ll drop her back here. Full afternoon of freedom (and its pre chemo and rugby weekend so will be feeling better than usual and cheering on the Scots! We may be a little bit squiffy next weekend!).  It is the nicest offer in the world though.

While a lot of people have said that they would take the cub for a play date I always feel insanely awkward approaching the subject directly. How do I even go about that – ‘will you please babysit my cub so I can have a few hours break’? All of that sentence jars with me – I’m turfing my cub out of her own house so I can selfishly have a break from her, bearing in mind I see so little of her anyway working full time/dealing with hospital appointments and then I want to see even less of her. The guilt of all of this eats me away sometimes.

Then tonight I have randomly broke. Huge sobbing tears as I walked past a picture from our holiday last August of the three of us. A holiday at the time I said was marred by cancer. Little did I know that it was the least of my worries at that point and at the time it wasn’t by any stretch the worst part of this journey. I wonder if I will ever get to the point where I can identify  which part is the worst. Thinking back to that holiday now in a different headspace, it seems silly that I was so hung up on the cancer that was in me, that it was small, that it was operable and could be removed.

I never anticipated in that smiling family photo the future – I was too busy dwelling on my own self pity – I didn’t realise how badly I would be scarred by this. In more ways than two surgeries, five chemos, two broken veins, baldness, sore skin, poorly eyes, tired muscles and random breakdowns!! Also the fact that my cub now thinks a Sunday PJ day is a norm rather than a treat. God love her. What has tipped me over the edge even more after looking at the family photo, I’ve got no memory photos lining up my phone history. Because we’ve done all the PJ days (and I have an adverse reaction to any camera as my baldness is so unattractive to me) we haven’t done as much in our off days, even whether that be doing a park run up the lane, a walk round the woods or something more exciting. Every time my timehop reminds me what we were doing a year ago or more, I get upset all over again. But I can’t change it so need to decide what to do about it. I know that we don’t have to ‘do’ things to make memories, but I still feel guilty that I have been more than useless with this and that my gorgeous baby girl is getting less of me than she deserves.

04/03/19

I have another bad night tonight, closely following last night feels like it all ties in and I haven’t dealt with last nights wallowing before I career into tonight. I HATE having no hair. I am so sad I have no hair. I can’t look in the mirror (I avoid mirrors at all cost). I don’t put on makeup anymore at all (I mean what is the point if I don’t have eyelashes?). I haven’t taken a single photo with the cub without my woolly hat on (and even then there still aren’t many).

There are positives, I don’t have to make an effort about straightening (used to add a good half hour to my morning routine), blow drying (twice a week – the advantages of crazy thick hair), tweezering stray eyebrow hairs, waxing and shaving (saved a fortune on these products). But I have also never felt so unattractive. I was no supermodel, but I could live with that. Now I feel less somehow, its strange because internally all I hear is my own voice and that hasn’t changed. But then the cub will stroke my head and I remember I’m bald. Christ, bald. I HATE it. I have no idea how the man cub is dealing with looking at me every day. Ugh. This day has also ended on an absolute low.

But I am going to get through this. I am sure I will. I’ve got this. It’s just getting harder to have all of this.

Advertisement