Thread 11 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Whoops, missed the filling up of the previous thread! (thread 10).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

@Winterborne74 a lot of the better stuff is sweet and I am a bit over it. I usually love ice cream but now it's just a bit of fuel rather than something I really enjoy. That said the last couple of days I've had some really decent soups. Monday was a Baxter's lobster bisque which was bloody lovely and last night was posh Cross and Blackwell broccoli and stilton. Both those and the scrambled eggs have made a difference to my state of mind, especially the eggs. I do love eggs.

Yes, a hell of a lot for you to have to deal with @MouseMinge but I’m glad things are moving forwards and you’re discovering things you can eat. When I don’t feel well with endo stuff, I often find all I can stomach is something sweet or something very salty/MSG-laden. Funny how that works. Today I’ve mostly been on the bourbon creams.

Your menu this week sounds delicious @MouseMinge! And I shall keep my fingers crossed for your continued medical progress.

In Cat Burglar news (she's still visiting daily despite us resolutely never feeding her), this evening she rushed in under DH's feet as he got in from work... straight into the living room, whereupon she promptly regurgitated a possible half-digested mouse corpse onto the carpet. And then immediately slunk back outside. I've never been so glad to be the one on dinner-cooking duty tonight, so that DH had to boakingly clean up the mess on his own.

We had scrambled eggs for supper last night - food of the gods. I leave out the salt but chuck in some finely grated Pecorino Romano, which dissolves very nicely and gets the saliva flowing. Parmesan also does the job!

Hope it all goes well at Guildford tomorrow.

Whack on the calories Mouse and gain as much weight as you can because you're likely to lose it all after the op while you recover. My DDIL's grandma has just had surgery to insert a mesh in her diaphragm to sort out a hiatus hernia, and three weeks after the op she can still only take 2-4 oz of yogurt or clear liquid at a time. She is somewhat older than you though - 85.

Scrambled eggs are somehow that bit more delicious than they have a right to be.

Also, a big late but hello new thread! (I kept forgetting to come and find you.)

Scrambled eggs are an excellent pre-surgery build up food. And often exactly what I fancy when I feel under the weather.

I shouldn't laugh (did though). https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4949638-to-not-replace-car-seat-after-hitting-a-pheasant-at-38-mph?

I did laugh. Not even guilty about it!

Did she retrieve the pheasant and hang it up ready to be eaten at a later date? If not then I fear for her mortal soul.

In less laughy news. I saw my consultant yesterday and it seems that the testing doctor I saw the day before had information that I didn't have, re my malignant tumour. It is fully malignant, but thankfully that hasn't spread outside of my oesophagus. Surgery is now delayed until I've been through a couple of goes at chemo followed by five days a week, weekends off for good behaviour, radiotherapy, 23 zaps in all. I'm now waiting to hear from Worthing/Brighton about when that will start. I'm hoping very soon indeed. Once that's done I'll have a six to eight-week break, they'll see how I'm doing healthwise, and then on to the surgery. I'm not surprised but I am gutted. I was hoping to have a bit of Christmas dinner and now I'm on liquids and feeding tube for a few months at least and, of course, cancer. They finally got the answer with the last biopsies when they were inserting the feeding tube. I could have decided to go surgery first and then chemo and radiotherapy but my best chances of survival are the other way round and no pie or egg, chips and beans is worth messing with my survival chances.

Oh Mouse I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish you all the best for your treatment and please come in here and let us hand-hold you through it.

((((Mouse)))) That's an awful lot for you to have to take in. I'm so sorry. Do you have someone to be with you tonight? x

Jeez, Mouse, life ain't fair, is it?

Life is really fucking unfair and I've allowed myself to wander around the house saying "It's not fair!" to the point that I laughed at myself. Of course it isn't but then instead of "Why me?" it's "Why not me?" so many people get cancer, it's not fair on any of us but you deal with it or you don't. My motivation is eating solid food again, so I'll give it my best go and allow myself to the grumpiest bitch in Christendom whenever I feel like it.

I will come here and moan but not all the time because oh my days, how tedious would that be?! Not just for you lot but for me. @VictorianBigot not tonight. I'm sort of "happy" just getting my own head round it for now, although the people closest to me know and would be here in a shot if I wanted them to be. I'm seeing Snoop tomorrow after her table tennis and that will be good. I'm going to get her to help me change my duvet and sheets because I've realised I can't do that with the whole feeding tube going on. Well, I probably could but I worry about damaging it.

You're all lovely, thanks for your kindness of late. I have close friends, further away friends and a whole bunch of people who hardly know me but care enough to be kind. I'm very lucky not to be alone in all of this. So, again, thank you so much.

Oh bollocks, Mouse! I'm pleased, though, that they explained it well and gave you all the info you needed to make a decision.

Fingers crossed that they can get the chemo organised very soon.

That is a shitter, Mouse, and no mistake. I hope you sail through the treatment. Make sure you have head coverings - I had chemo in the summer and my head was still very chilly.

Thankfully I'm having very little chemo so any ill-effects should be small and short-lived. I will cover my bonce up thobut.

Oh @MouseMinge I’m so sorry, that is shit news indeed. It seems unreasonably unfair that you have so much to deal with.

My hair departed pretty promptly about 10 days after my 2nd session. If there's a Maggie's Centre you can get to, I do recommend them.

(((Mouse)))

Oh arse, mouse. I guess the danger with a bit of a tumour is it turns out not to be such a bit after all. Still, they have a plan, and things sound promising - within the general field of crapness. Fingers crossed very tightly

I have a ridiculous wig, @SqueakyDinosaur . If I lose hair I'll wear that and buy other silly ones too.

Exactly HOW ridiculous?? Green afro? Purple Morticia??

Excellent plan! My dad's hair - very thick, very straight, very dark but greying - fell out during extended chemo and at the time (mid-70s) there was some charitable organisation attached to the Marsden that specialised in providing wigs, whether you wanted them or not. He very much didn't, and said so, but came home with an absurd jet-black thing that made him look like a badly-dyed Beatle. He put it on once, back to front, for our amusement. His hair grew back as it had been before.