Thread 12 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 11).

The days are gradually growing longer, but the worst of the winter weather is not yet behind us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. 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…

Thank you all for your loveliness. Today was a bit better in terms of how I'm feeling although still a bit of nausea and a bit of actual vomitting which leaves me a bit dizzy which makes travelling harder. I got myself a cab to the station when the station is literally a three minute walk for a normal person. I just couldn't face it. I intended to get a cab from Brighton station to the hospital but they don't have cabs queuing up outside the station anymore which is mental. A bus was waiting so I got that, bothered a papillion dog and listened to Soft Cell. I stopped and started up the hill to the cancer unit - why oh why oh bloody why would you put it on a hill you idiots! Then again most of Brighton is just a hill. A wait to have my chemo pump changed, a wait to have radiotherapy and then three goes before it was "right". I have lost weight so that changes the way that the radiation goes in via my tattoos. Or something. It all ended with me getting home at 20:40!!! Radiotheraphy should have been at 1700, so as you can tell things really did run over. David Bowie accompanied me home and I bothered no dogs but I did make faces at a baby who loved it like a slag.

Currently drinking lobster bisque from a very big mug because that seemed to be the easiest thing to eat. Tomorrow should be better and I'm really hoping that there are no radiotheraphy delays because it's getting a bit tedious now. At least the pump change is done so the rest of the week is just radiotheraphy and a blood test on Friday. Oh and my radiology consultant. Friday is all around noon though so I feel as though I have more of the day and so the beginning of the weekend back. I'm now just over a quarter of the way through radiotheraphy. 28% done!

I love papillon dogs. Excellent ears. Well.done on getting past the quarter mark.

I know, those ears are just adorable! Bless her she was very wet and seemed disinterested in everything and everyone but she allowed me to cutch her around the ears. I stopped because I thought she wasn't into it but she then turned and looked at me as if to say "Did I tell you to stop!" moved a tiny bit closer and so the cutch continued. I liked her. She had very few fucks to give and that's always a good thing in a dog. Or a human.

Oh god, what a long day @MouseMinge. I’m only just catching up. If you’re stuck for a lift again, let me know and if I’m home that day I’ll happily help!

Thank you so much, @VictorianBigot !

Today was a walk in the park as far as these things go. Snoop was back from the Peak District and gave me a lift. I walked in, the waiting room was almost empty and I got called in before she'd even entered the building. No having to realign me. First go was a good un'. Home by 18:15 and that was only because the traffic was rush hour stop and start. I feel so much better just for that, also better in terms of coming out the other side of big chemo comedown although I do have a new entry to the canon of side effects. This one is probably to do with radiotherapy. Twice in Snoop's car I had pain up and down my oesophagus. That's something that started in about the last week. So far, so double over for a moment. Today I gagged and then just "vomitted" saliva. Continuously for about thirty seconds. Thankfully there was enough tissue and napkins to take it in and not have saliva all over me and the car seat. Not nice for anyone to witness though. I did it on the way and on the way back. Ah well. The good thing is it happened with someone in a situation where I could sort it out. I now now to bring plenty of paper napkins with me wherever I go while this remains an issue.

If that had happened yesterday it would have been yet another thing that fucked up my day. Today it was unpleasant but I dealt with it and I have a plan for it.

Today it was unpleasant but I dealt with it and I have a plan for it.

Obviously it's unpleasant for you, but I'm glad to hear that you're coping with it and not letting it get you down. Good for you!

When I was walking the dog today, an old lady was coming down a narrow path, pushing a pram. I held the dog to one side and the lady made a fuss of her, I saw that the pram was empty and joked, "Have you forgotten someone?"

She said, "No, I use it as a walking aid, I'm too proud to have a proper one!"

There's a cat-shaped hole in her pram.

Kasper LOVES being pushed around on my office chair, or pulled along in the laundry basket, but I can't quite bring myself to be that woman who pushes him around in a pram. Yet.

@SinnerBoy - ha that sounds like my 81 year old DH. He has three ruptured discs in his lower back and a bulging one in his neck (next to where he had a disc removed 40 years ago after an accident. He's fine pottering around the house and even fine doing a lot of fixit type work but needs to stop and rest frequently if walking any distance more than a couple of hundred yards and particularly bad if stressed or hurried. Round the supermarket he's absolutely fine pushing the trolley but will he use any kind of walking aid elsewhere? Will he heck as like.

Oh dear!

In my childhood we had a preternaturally placid boy cat, who like nothing better than to be swung off the banisters in my mum's wicker basket. He used to go to sleep, swinging.

Oh Kasper would love that. Now I just need to start earning enough to buy a place with stairs

I think I'd be more embarrassed to be an elderly woman pushing an empty pram than using a walking aid. I'd rather people saw me as a bit physically vulnerable than someone who'd gone a bit mentalist. That sounds harsher than I intended. Fair play to her for coping in a way that suits her better.

The week has ended way better than it started. Fridays are becoming a day when I metaphorically sit down and take a nice deep breath before letting it out and relaxing. A whole two days with no radiotherapy! The not vomitting because it's saliva thing is a side effect for a lot of patients which somehow made me feel better about it. It was a beautiful day, sunny enough that I got to wear my varifocal sunglasses. I found out that if I get receipts for my train tickets I can get them paid for which is bloody great financially! Oh and I picked up two jars of my lovely lobster bisque.

Yesterday wasn't bad either because I got to sneakily cuddle a dog. I was getting off the train and saw a woman with a border terrior who was going to get on the train. Brighton is a terminus so a lot of us getting off, a lot getting on. Anyway, I realised I couldn't bother the dog, but then ...! The dog was refusing to get on the train so I stopped and asked if she needed help getting him on. She said yes please so I picked him up, carried him onto the train and maybe kissed his head a little which he seemed to enjoy. I am very thankful that the dog was being so bold because it was really lovely to hold him. I'm sure that it wasn't completely necessary to carry him or even be the one to carry him but it was too good an opportunity to miss! I love border terriors with the wirey coat and serious little faces. There near the top of my list of "Dogs I would get it I were to get a dog."

Anyway, that's me. Still having side effects, counting down the days until the treatment is done, hopefully for good, but dealing with it all a lot better than I was at the beginning of the week. I take all the little wins I can get.

Aw, lovely dog-cuddling story @MouseMinge and a good way to end the week!

Mine hasn't ended quite so well. Vast amount of work frustration which will live rent-free in my head all weekend.

But more annoying, I went to bed last night thinking "My left eye feels a bit tired" and woke up this morning thinking "Shit I can't open my left eye!" - so yay for conjunctivitis.

Sympathy for conjunctivitis woes Kuc.

I had a nice day yesterday. A friend and I had lunch at a Japanese restaurant we like and then went for a lovely two mile walk by a river as it was a gloriously sunny day with temperatures in the low 50s Fahrenheit (I have lost touch with Celsius since coming over here but I think that's about 11C so very pleasant for walking).

I made the mistake of having a large cup of caffeinated tea mid-afternoon and am paying for it with sleep disturbances tonight so it's currently 3:53am as I write.

Mouse, I am in awe of how well you’re coping with your treatment but glad you have random dog cuddles to help along the way.

Hope the conjunctivitis is short lived, Kuc!

And that sounds like a lovely day, Brit, hope you got off to sleep eventually though!

It’s a lovely sunny afternoon here and I really should be out in the garden. Instead I’m lounging on the sofa but still enjoying the sunshine.

We had the sun earlier, it was mild enough today, 12C, so the grey skies were okay. Well, they weren't but it is the beginning of March so we have to accept it with good grace. Or bad grace. Or no grace at all.

Today I come to recommend M&S battered cod and crushed pea fishcakes. They are delicious. the peas are petit poi and not all of them are completely crushed so when you bite into one you get a lovely kick of sweetness. The batter is so good!

That sounds delicious Mouse - haven't seen anything like that on sale over here. I don't think they'd be hard to make, but I don't do deep frying so the batter would be out (unless anybody knows that raw batter does OK in the air fryer).

So how do we all feel about the Irish referenda results? I didn't even know they were happening.

I feel very relieved about them.

@DeanElderberry I only just learned about them and comments I've seen seem to split whether the No vote won because either a) the Irish are deeply conservative or b) it wasn't progressive enough. I haven't seen a thread on it here.

As I understand it, the questions were poorly worded and confusing, so people were turned off by it, but the turnout was 45%.

There are loads of threads but there are the main ones I think:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/craicnet/5003994-referendum

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/craicnet/5024447-referendum-pt-2

Badly worded, lack of consultation (or not properly taking account of it), concerns about effect on carers ('strive to support' is so wishy-washy it allows for complete removal of support). I think most people aren't necessarily against reform, but they're not falling for the Brexit trap of voting yes to something that isn't clearly defined.

There is a thread somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Watched Anatomy Of A Fall with Mrs Pike yesterday. Like Oppenheimer it's mostly dialogue but totally gripping from start to finish. Everyone in it is amazing, including and I'm not even joking, the dog. If there were dog Oscars, the dog from. this film would win, paws down.