h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Feeling sick now. Comes and goes. Had the first chemo yesterday. Got to the hospital at 8.30am, ready for poisoning to commence at 9am... only they'd neglected to get a vital document signed by the consultant and so had to chase about for the next couple of hours trying to find and get the consultant to sign the form. So the first drip went up at about 11am and the treatment finished correspondingly late, at 5.30pm. I was the last to leave by a considerable distance. Other than that, it was okay. Lots of people in for treatment. Must have been a couple of dozen, plus a lot of companions.

Hair's predicted to fall out in about 3 weeks, so the wig lady is going to shave it all off and give me a wig. That'll be weird. Chosen the shortest and nearest to my own hair colour, which is sort of light sandy brown shot through with grey. It'll fool no-one. I looked an absolute fright in most of the wigs. Three weren't too bad, of which one actually fitted me. Surprisingly, they don't do the various wigs in different sizes, so I couldn't say I'll have a larger size in this one that's too small for me, for example.

Got in a pickle with the 2 days of oral chemo they gave me to bring home with me. Mixed the timing of the chemotherapy drug up with the steroid. No time written on the chemo dose, so an accident waiting to happen. Beyond that, they packed me off with a wagon-load of drugs for more or less every eventuality. Also, I have every incarnation of ginger, given to me by a friend, because, apparently, ginger is good for stopping you feeling sick or throwing up.

Had a bit of good news on chemo assessment day (Tuesday). They tracked down my missing PET/CT scans. This showed that the cancer hadn't spread up, as they expected, but had only spread out sideways. I don't think this changes the original prognosis. It just doesn't make it any worse. There's still a metastatic wanderer on one of my lymph nodes and all the rest.

I've told the folks at work that, once I've got Pam prepared to take over from me, I'm retiring. I'm planning to spend my final days playing with the dog and making booze.

with the wig, I am sure it can be 'adapted', perhaps a hairdresser could help?

Ginger is a very good, age old remedy for nausea. Make sure you rest after all that upheaval.

That sounds like a bit of good news about it not spreading upwards as thought.

Take care and keep in touch when you feel up to it.

Websailor

The wig lady is going to plat my hair and then chop off the plat for me to take away. I think it's all going to seem quite surreal to me for a while.

Just thinking about trying the ginger tea - possibly with one of the ginger biscuits... might be overdoing the ginger. The lady who sat beside me in the afternoon chemo session said she'd overdosed on ginger to the extent that she'd gone right off it. Perhaps I'll just try the tea to start with.

Yes, I was very cheerful when they said that it was still limited to the abdominal area. The chemo might actually have a chance of working well. I might even last long enough to make some more cider this year. Last autumn's cider is going down a treat and I'd been looking forward to making it again

Hi Tibley,

I've grown my hair a number of times, and one of the first things you will notice is how 'light' your head will feel on your neck and shoulders. You just don't realise how heavy hair can be once it passes your shoulders!

Hubby's cousin treated herself to a couple of wigs and even went ash blonde. Considering she was originally almost black haired in colour, this look quite suited her

If you are going to start eating ginger biscuits make certain you keep up your dental appointments!


lil x