10. The Last Week of Radiotherapy
The last week of radiotherapy, for now – I hope it’s a long time until I see a radiotherapy machine again! Not so much because the experience has been bad (it hasn’t), but because I hope these past 6 weeks have done a good job at killing that fucker named ‘Ted’!
Day 36 – Tuesday (19th November 2019)
Tuesday, a normal day – though also a progressive one. Over the last week I’ve been re-reviewing my status of being “temporarily-kinda retired”, and I have started chatting to clients and breaking ground on new projects for my commercial software business.
Being employed and “being on the sick” during a time-consuming treatment schedule would be a simple case of receiving sick pay, however, I’ve not had that luxury.
Running a business that relies on me being active on a day-to-day basis, this isn’t the best situation to be in. Therefore, during uncertain times of “am I going to feel like total shit next week?”, it’s best to down-scale. Now that I’m certain of my ability to work these next few weeks, what’s the harm in doing some work?
Day 37 – Wednesday (20th November 2019)
Today my mum had a pretty bad cold, and it was agreed that sitting in a tin can (a Daft as a Brush minibus) with her germs was probably not a great idea. Chemo can/does weaken your immune system, so even the common cold can cause complications. Two things I’d advise:
Stay away from sick people.
Make sure you wash your hands people!
The rest of today was spent working, fun fun fun! I did make some good progress though, and it was great to get stuck into work. As you may have gathered from my first article, my work is something I enjoy doing, so it was good to get back to it.
Day 38 – Thursday (21st November 2019)
I decided to be organised today, and I set up two main tasks for the day – A call with a charity and meeting my friend from Chester who I’ve not seen in a while. Something that I really hoped wouldn’t happen, my transport was delayed by 2 hours – these times are going to be tight!
Thankfully, I was called about these delays. As long as you let the hospital know, my radiotherapy session was held and I didn’t miss out on today’s treatment. Don’t worry if you’re ever delayed, as long as you reassure the radiotherapy department know that you’re still planning to attend, they’ll be ok with it.
I just managed to get back on time for my call – This was with the Teenage Cancer Trust to discuss working with them on resources for others who are diagnosed with incurable cancers. Hopefully, we can help a few people as there aren’t many resources for this from a patient’s perspective.
A little more work, then meeting a close friend (Let’s call him “J”) who had travelled more than 3 hours to see me! With J living so far away, I don’t get to see him nearly enough, but even with all that’s going on, it’s like I saw him yesterday. Time to catch up and get away from work!
Day 39 – Friday (22nd November 2019)
J drove me to the hospital today, so a much faster and time-efficient trip. Having a friend involved in this process is great, it makes the whole situation feel a lot less alienating. Clearly I’m very open about my experience, but many are not – and that’s totally fine. But just know that a good friend will be there for you through anything, so it’s ok to share.
As with any Friday, it was the routine blood taking for my blood tests! Though this week my nurse wasn’t able to draw much blood from me. Don’t be afraid to tell them to stop if it begins to hurt! I’ll sort my bloods on Monday…
Day 40/41 – Saturday/Sunday (23rd & 24th November 2019)
This weekend was a weekend to relax, thanks for my amazing grandparents. At a local spa hotel, my girlfriend and I had a chance to relax. Steam rooms, fancy food, and really really good mock-tails (No alcohol during chemo, roll on the month off!) – overall a fantastic weekend!
My Mocktail – Very nice!
Day 42 – Monday (25th November 2019)
The final day of radiotherapy! Well, I got my money’s worth – My machine broke down twice! This time I had to move from my machine to another, luckily one was available so I wasn’t too delayed. As explained on Thursday of week four, these machines work extremely hard, so sometimes they break down. The staff are awesome, so they can solve these problems pretty quickly.
Better luck with my bloods today, so those results should come back next week.
On my way in today, I was accompanied by my mum and a lady who was on her first day of radiotherapy. It was quite a coincidence having me, on my last day, and the lady on her first day. She had a lot of the same worries as I had before I started, so I made sure to share some of my experience with her. Let’s hope her experience of radiotherapy is the same as mine!
“Ringing the bell” is something that is tied to passing the milestone of either finishing treatment or a key chunk of treatment. Today I didn’t ring the bell. I don’t feel as though I’ve achieved much because I’ve thankfully not been challenged by this. I’m just me, minus a little bit of hair. Will I ring it in June once chemo is done? I don’t know.
The bell.
Now I have a month away from treatment, so time to enjoy myself by spending time with loved ones! Charity events, a cruise, Christmas, so much to be done! I’ll probably post an update in a few weeks (depending on if there’s anything to report).
Let’s all just spend a month appreciating those who stick by us, I think that’s what I’m going to do.
