First, a big thank you - you wonderful people!
In response to my last post, we have been inundated with comforting messages of support; enjoyed reading your good news and looking at your photos; received a lovely bunch of fresh freesias from my work colleagues in Guernsey, an offer of a wheelchair from a meso friend on Facebook and other offers of help; had a visit from an old school friend and arranged more visits in the near future, with family and friends coming here at various times over the next three weeks or so.
Both of our grown up children are now visiting more often and staying over for longer, which is great from our point of view.
We definitely do not feel alone and are touched that so many of you are sharing our journey. A heartfelt thank you to you all x
Steve is now down to taking one steroid tablet a day and his appetite is holding up most of the time. Although his weight has dropped to just under 52 kilos, its remained stable over the last week, which is a small relief. However, he often feels full up before he has finished his meal, eating the last few mouthfuls is often a real effort and stomach cramps are not unusual.
After a long talk on the phone with the hospice nurse, he has arranged to see the hospital dietician when he goes to his radiotherapy follow-up appointment next week. He's already on a high calorie diet with protein supplements, so it will be interesting to see if they can suggest anything else.
What else on the meso front? Well, the cough goes on (and on and on...) and after particularly long bouts, it causes a stitch-like discomfort in his abdomen. And the lumps on his chest where the cancer has grown through the chest wall are still expanding slowly. I'm tempted to say better out than in, but we both wish they weren't there at all...
It's now approaching a year since Steve was told his life expectancy was a "small number of months" and nearly six and a half years since he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, so we still consider ourselves very lucky in very unfortunate circumstances.
Since diagnosis, we have come into contact with many others on the same journey, including fellow bloggers. Sadly, many of our meso blogging friends have written their last posts. However, there are others who have taken on the role. I have added more links on the right hand side under the heading "We are not alone" to mesothelioma blogs by Heather, Claire, Linda (Lakin), Lorraine and Dave who are all at different stages of their journey.
The bottom line is that we don't really know where Steve is on his meso journey. He's been told before that the end is nigh, and then bounced back to everyone's surprise. Whether he will do a repeat performance this time, we'll just have to wait and see. However, one way or another, we've had a long time to prepare for the inevitable (and are still working on getting our affairs in order - there's always something more pleasurable to do....). How different to those poor people in Paris who went out to enjoy themselves on Friday night and will never go home. We join with others around the world to tell the people of France that they are not alone.
In response to my last post, we have been inundated with comforting messages of support; enjoyed reading your good news and looking at your photos; received a lovely bunch of fresh freesias from my work colleagues in Guernsey, an offer of a wheelchair from a meso friend on Facebook and other offers of help; had a visit from an old school friend and arranged more visits in the near future, with family and friends coming here at various times over the next three weeks or so.
Both of our grown up children are now visiting more often and staying over for longer, which is great from our point of view.
We definitely do not feel alone and are touched that so many of you are sharing our journey. A heartfelt thank you to you all x
Steve is now down to taking one steroid tablet a day and his appetite is holding up most of the time. Although his weight has dropped to just under 52 kilos, its remained stable over the last week, which is a small relief. However, he often feels full up before he has finished his meal, eating the last few mouthfuls is often a real effort and stomach cramps are not unusual.
After a long talk on the phone with the hospice nurse, he has arranged to see the hospital dietician when he goes to his radiotherapy follow-up appointment next week. He's already on a high calorie diet with protein supplements, so it will be interesting to see if they can suggest anything else.
What else on the meso front? Well, the cough goes on (and on and on...) and after particularly long bouts, it causes a stitch-like discomfort in his abdomen. And the lumps on his chest where the cancer has grown through the chest wall are still expanding slowly. I'm tempted to say better out than in, but we both wish they weren't there at all...
It's now approaching a year since Steve was told his life expectancy was a "small number of months" and nearly six and a half years since he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, so we still consider ourselves very lucky in very unfortunate circumstances.
Since diagnosis, we have come into contact with many others on the same journey, including fellow bloggers. Sadly, many of our meso blogging friends have written their last posts. However, there are others who have taken on the role. I have added more links on the right hand side under the heading "We are not alone" to mesothelioma blogs by Heather, Claire, Linda (Lakin), Lorraine and Dave who are all at different stages of their journey.
The bottom line is that we don't really know where Steve is on his meso journey. He's been told before that the end is nigh, and then bounced back to everyone's surprise. Whether he will do a repeat performance this time, we'll just have to wait and see. However, one way or another, we've had a long time to prepare for the inevitable (and are still working on getting our affairs in order - there's always something more pleasurable to do....). How different to those poor people in Paris who went out to enjoy themselves on Friday night and will never go home. We join with others around the world to tell the people of France that they are not alone.
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