Cancer: Post Radiotherapy and Side Effects

30 April 2024. Two weeks ago today was my last radiotherapy treatment. Today I got a letter from Christies inviting me to go for a talk with my consultant on 30 May. First I have to go to the phlebotomy department. I think this is to give blood samples for testing rather than to have my bumps felt - though you never know your luck... (No, you pillock! That's phrenology!)

14 May 2024. I have spent most of the past 2 weeks coughing so much my ribs ache and each time it takes a minute or two for my stomach muscles to unclench. If I don't come out of this with a restored six pack I'm going to be very disappointed... Also the 20 or so pills I take daily do not mix with the cough so well and I've developed a new skill in upchucking them out again. Am now managing to stay awake through almost 9 to 10 hours a day which leaves up to 14 hours where needing the bathroom is inconvenient. Managed to watch all the way up to the end of the UK Eurovision entry last weekend in what should surely be renamed next year to the Eurovision S\&M Homo-eroticism Contest... Dire... just dire.

30 May 2024. Today was another trip to Christies to give blood samples and see my oncologist. Reassuring to know that with all the grotty side effects, including the passing of poo in Smartie-sized pips until the final bit has to be ejected with such strained force that it can leave you bleeding (sorry folks but this series of articles is meant to help fellow sufferers at the start of their journey understand what they might have to deal with), she seemed to think they were all in keeping with what I've had done.

I had been warned that the cancer would take moisture out of the gut but that phrase doesn't seem to go as far as the possible symptoms somehow... An MRI won't be taken until sometime in July - it apparently has to be 3 months after the radiotherapy has finished.

3 June 2024. Diabetic review today after having donated yet more red corpuscles the other week. Sugar has leapt upwards but thankfully it is due to both the recent radiotherapy and associated stress so should come down again. However for the moment it has increased my daily pill intake again...

13 July 2024. After two years of Covid lockdowns and a year of feeling a whole range of grot from just feeling off, to feeling exhausted and unwell and then having cameras shoved in everywhere, then CT and MRI scans, it was two years ago today that I learned I had cancer on the liver. Since then I've been passed from Blackpool Victoria Hospital to Leeds St James then Christies hospitals, two procedures, one that worked and one that didn't, an intense course of radiotherapy that I'm still recovering from the after effects of.

I'm hoping that the next MRI a week on Tuesday will tell me that the radiotherapy worked. Throughout, the support of people that I have known from all sorts of periods and places has been amazing and I thank you all. Special mention has to go to school chum Janet Astley and hubby Graham for giving up time and more, ferrying me to and from Leeds and Manchester, my bestie David Lancaster and Miss Jeannie for their incessant support and love through times during which he and I have both been going through "stuff".

Lastly of course my own family, especially the wonderful Miss Franny who has watched over, encouraged and cared for me throughout and Gillian Statham our daughter and son-in-law Edward for all their support and help with running about and doing stuff when I've not been able to. And I mustn't forget our wonderful granddaughter Grace, who cheers me up and fills me with love and who comes to rub my arm or back if ever I show any sign of a cough or discomfort. Two years is enough - Christies: I want that next MRI to show nothing but what should be there!

22 July 2024. Just got back from another fabulous weekend with Talking Pictures TV at their Monmouth Festival of Film. Many thanks to Noel and Sarah Cronin for putting on such wonderful weekends, to Caroline Munro, Jayne Crimin and Madeline Smith for being as lovely as they always are and to comedian, Mel Byron, for naming me from the stage leaving everybody wondering who the heck I was.

Some other great guests including Tony Christie, Maureen Lipman, the indefatigable Jimmy Cricket who had the audience in stitches throughout his spot and no TPTV weekend would be complete without the glamourous Lola Lamour. There were many more of course including The Footage Detectives with Noel and Mike Read and some great film snippets and features.

23 July 2024. Just back at 8.54pm from Christies hospital where I had bloods taken and then MRI scan. Bloods were taken at around 2.30pm so a long afternoon. In the waiting room for the MRI I was sitting next to a guy who had been diagnosed with cancer across his shoulders. He was asking me about my experiences as he was only recently diagnosed. Although I was honest, I was making light of my own experiences, yet he was staring at me like I was some sort of hero and saying "Oh my God!" at almost everything I said. I'm no blooming hero, but what can you say when you are asked "Were you put under when you had your operation?"

I had to say, "No, because I had to hold my breath at certain points, so it was just a local anaesthetic..."
"Oh my God! So you were awake all through it? How long did it take?"
"About three quarters of an hour..."
"Oh my God!!!"

8 August 2024. Got the results of my first scan after the radiotherapy today. The cancer hasn't grown and hasn't shrunk or disappeared. "It's what we would hope to see, we wouldn't have expected it to have shrunk yet, it takes longer than that after radiotherapy." Well, if they had told me that in April it would have saved me from what feels like a disappointment today then wouldn't it...? Ah well - another MRI in 3 months. Same old.

What follows next is our cruise with Tomas and Maris on the Norwegian Pearl in the Adriatic Sea. This has already featured on the blog but I'll just repeat this little snippet from the entry on 1 September 2024 in which I am describing a day in Rijeka on 21 August 2024.

A couple of weeks ago I took a step short coming downstairs at home and scraped the back of my leg on the step, leaving a carpet burn that blistered. I'd been putting antiseptic cream on but Miss Franny had only packed the small tube we were halfway through so needed to buy some more. I know it sounds trivial but at age 70 and with diabetes, these things do not heal quickly and can be very painful."

In fact the damage to the liver had given me a developing leg ulcer. Any pain I might have had from the cancer would shrink in my mind due to what I would suffer from this and more similar spread of wounds on both legs. I went through the cancer on just paracetamol. With the ulcers I progressed to nerve pain killers and codeine then morphine and still had such pain that I could have wept. (At times I did!)

Currently on 8 December 2025 my legs are still bandaged though the wounds are disappearing. 15 months of suffering, 2 months spent in hospital May to the beginning of July this year, unable to stand and having to watch a pool of blood forming on the floor around my feet when I tried... It has been a long struggle that still continues.

Family Memories: Personal Index