Wednesday 24 October 2012

The long and the short of it.

To answer Sandy's comment, no Mike is not still standing on the podium, I really am that short. Actually there isn't that much difference in our heights, only eleven and a half inches, not even a foot! I have suggested several times that we swap legs to even things out a bit.

On Monday Mike had his appointment at the hospital, gosh the three months have flown by. We were called in by the HCA only to be greeted by a registrar. Panic! The last time we were seen by a registrar rather than SB it was because the news was bad, very bad and I instantly thought "great, it's on its way back and SB won't tell us." I needn't have worried, Mike's pp is still less than two and everything is fine.

Which is more than I can say about my sinuses, five weeks later and after a week of TWO anti-biotics I am still suffering from the jaw pain that causes my teeth to hurt when I eat or drink or simply lie still. Back to the doctor's later.

Sunday 21 October 2012

All's Well That Ends Well

I thought I would update you all on yesterday's MyelomaUK infoday at Birmingham. As I mentioned previously, Mike had been asked to do the Patient and Carer perspective presentation, but more on that later.

As usual the talks by the experts on current treatments, managing side-effects, future strategies and clinical trials were really useful, but the real joy came from meeting other people who's lives have been touched by Myeloma. There was Winston who has just relapsed after a nine year remission and his lovely wife. We finally met up with Sharon another young sufferer who we first made contact with on the Under 50s site and now have as a friend on Facebook. Sharon is lucky to be alive as she had pneumonia and then an infection that attacked her heart just after her SCT. There was a lady called Karen who came to speak to us after Mike's speech who was looking forward to her holiday now she was the other side of treatment and her SCT.


The pair of us with Sharon
Talking of Mike's speech I better let you all know how it went. Mike decided that the best option was to be as positive as possible, just in case there were newly diagnosed patients in the audience. You don't want them too scared by horror stories of infections and near death experiences, do you? The speech was very well accepted with plenty of laughter in the right places and as Dr SB was one of the speakers, audience participation too, especially as he felt he needed to answer Mike's remark that people shouldn't introduce him to students as "the man who likes to dress up as a woman" , just because he impersonated Tina Turner. 

Once again I was amazed at how positive a lot of people are, despite their diagnosis. I really needed yesterday, it cheered me up no end, despite the fact I've had a sinus infection for over a month and I'm now on 2 high strength antibiotics!

Friday 5 October 2012

Keep calm and keep typing

Don't panic!!!!!
Yes there is only a week to go until we have to email the speech to Myeloma UK so they can super check Mike isn't saying anything too radical.
Have we started it? Yes. 
Have we finished it? No.
Will it be less than 20 minutes in length? Not a hope with Mike's trick of removing equine legs.
Keep calm Lorna it will be fine. All you've got to do is click the mouse for the next slide in the PowerPoint presentation oh and finish the presentation when Mike has finished his speech.

Other news. Today I found a new blog. It is written by an incredibly witty young lady called Emma. She is only 28 and was diagnosed with Myeloma on 20th August. I thought I would share her with you all.