Category: Cancer

  • The first cycle

    The first cycle

    Munro with cancer #175

    14:30 – Meall Chuaich (M214), 3120ft, 951m

    Chemotherapy is a bit of a rollercoaster. (more…)

  • Chemotherapy, messenger awesomeness and the night

    Chemotherapy, messenger awesomeness and the night

    As I described in a previous post, the regular pain killing and cancer suppressing medication turns the night into a serious challenge. Nobody will be terribly surprised to learn that with the addition of chemotherapy medication, nighttimes have become extraordinarily difficult. (more…)

  • Snake oil, medicine and the exclusion of nature

    Snake oil, medicine and the exclusion of nature

    Chemotherapy begins today.

    More of that as this post proceeds.

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  • The wee small hours

    The wee small hours

    One of the last duties my father felt necessary to perform in this life was to ensure I knew the tragic circumstances my mother had endured as a girl, before she and my father knew each other and while she was still living at home as a student.

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  • Merry Midwinter

    Merry Midwinter

    It was bound to happen one day. (more…)

  • A false alarm

    A false alarm

    Ever since the diagnosis, it has been impossible not to make sense of every twinge, minor pain or anomalous experience as possibly related to the disease. It is a continuous struggle; try as I might, until there is evidence supplied to the contrary, in the worst recesses of my imagination everything is always related to the cancer.

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  • Letting go

    Letting go

    He used to visit when my mother was alive but she shooed him away, not because she did not like cats, but because she was scared she might trip over him. After she died, every time I came to the house he would visit. By the time I moved in, he seemed to have already decided that this was where he wanted to be. I reopened the old cat flap so he could come and go as he pleased. Every time I came home from one of my adventures or from working in the city, he would be close by, waiting for my return with long stories and much purring. (more…)

  • Always living with(out) cancer

    Always living with(out) cancer

    According to the eponymous tradition of Scottish philosophy, common sense refers to an ability to perceive the properties or qualities of objects using separate sensory modalities. The classic example used to demonstrate the principle is the fact of the cubeness of a cube being both a visual and a tactile experience – we can both see and feel that it is a cube. The common sense is that which makes it thus possible for vision to confirm touch and vice versa. It is the basis of learning directly to perceive higher orders of abstraction than raw sensory experience, and of using these to navigate about complex environments. (more…)

  • The first symptoms

    The first symptoms

    One of the first symptoms of prostate cancer is lower back pain, which is of course a symptom of so much else besides that prostate cancer is the last that will come to mind if suddenly it flares up.

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