Saturday 29 March 2014

Speedy Week

This week has gone by in a blur.  On Monday I was in work as usual and I knew that the story would be in the paper again with my first column.  I was so excited.  On my lunch I popped out to buy a copy and there it was, page 19 of the Lancashire Evening Post, but with my name spelt wrong! I got some stick for that one and promptly emailed my contact to ask them to have it changed for the Thursday column, which I also sent in to them, along with some photos. 

In the evenings we have been catching up on some TV, not doing much but I have been quite tired.  I have thought about the upcoming surgery, my biggest fear is the immediate time after the surgey, as I won't be able to eat initially and I will probably lose some weight, which would be bad news as there isn't much of me now.  I intend to bulk up as much as possible.  When I went for the initial surgery in early Feb I saw a dietician who said I should aim for 57 kilos (I work in stone so this means nothing to me) but last time I was weighed at the hospital I had surpased this target.  This can only be a good thing, and I have plenty of postive comments about how good I look, my skin colour has improved, no more pale grey.  They say you blossom in pregnancy, but I seem to blossoming in chemo!

Tuesday and Wednesday went by in a blur, but after work on Wednesday I went to pick up some bricks to start to build what is fast becoming nicknamed "The Reclaimed BBQ".  I like this idea, and it should work out ok.  On Wednesday evening, the MD of the company I used to work for, contacted me and offered an unused and free BBQ base, its all coming together.

Thursday was my last day in work this week as it is the delayed chemo from last week tomorrow.  Chemo number two, lets hope I get it administered tomorrow as I don't want to be hanging around weeks inbetween.  I have been getting on with quite a few bits of work, but it's getting more difficult as the team is small and with sickness and holidays, my work is mounting up, but I do enjoy it and I think that it will all get done at somepoint, my peers and colleagues have been great, not putting any pressure on, but at the same time I don't want it to be an excuse, so the customers still are demanding as always.

My second column for the LEP is due in today so again I popped out and bought a copy.  This time I featured on page 18, but still with my name spelt wrong.  It's getting annoying now, and as anyone who knows me, spelling my name wrong is one of my pet hates, how hard can it be to spell RIC CLARK?  Everyone who reads the article says it is a good read, honestly written.  David, who is Karyn's boss at work always brings me back down to earth with a bump, it's not meant to be hurtful, but some of his comments are funny and true. Like the fact my column featured inbetween two stories, one about dog poo and the other about the bad smells coming from a chicken factory, nice.  Mondays article was above another story with the word mortality in the title.  In the paper that day there was another story about a women being treated at Rosemere and she was 27, reading other stories like this is inspirational to me, and it's good to know that I'm  not alone.

When I got home, me and Leonie always have a catch up about our days, I don't think she understands what I do, in fact amongst all my friends and family, everyone calls me Chandler from Friends as no-one knows what I do, so I am a "transponder".  In my job we use loads of acronyms and abbreviations, I said somethig about BI, and Leonie asked what it meant, so I asked her to guess what it meant.  She came up with a few ideas; information, insurance, in-head, in-brain etc etc.  Oscar, our 5 year old, walked into the kitchen and stopped to say "it means Intelligence, mummy" before turning to walk out and go and play on the games console.  We called him back and I asked him how he knew, his answer was that it was on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but he didn't know what it meant, he does now!!

When I left work, I made sure I had everyone's money and entry forms for the Rosemere Walk in the Dark.  It will be on the 26th April and its a 10 mile walk from Chorley to Preston, you can join in by going to www.rosemere.org.uk, you will find loads of info and events on the website.  You can also sponsor us as a group (so far about 20 people have signed up with us to do it), donate by going to
www.justgiving.com/HRServices-Rosemere.

Tomorrow is chemo session two, so an early night ready for the long day tomorrow.  I am all prepared and ready to go.

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