Today, we went to see the Oncology nurse to talk about the operation, side effects, the date of the op and for Ady to learn about pelvic floor exercises.
I've got lots to say, so bare (or is it bear...I never know) with me...
They have decided to keep the operation date as 14th Sept, so that is next Wednesday !
The surgeon who does the laproscopic surgery is going to do it. He says that he will try and do it laprascopically (keyhole) and if it all goes wrong, then he will open him up and chop it out that way.
She explained that the reason patients who have had previous surgery can't usually have keyhole is because they need to pump air into the pelvis and abdomen so they can see what they are doing and move everything out of the way. If you have had surgery before, your organs tend to stick together and don't move so easily and they cant get enough air in to see what they are doing, and frankly, with the way this whole saga is going, we dont want them chopping out the wrong bit !!
Our onco nurse thinks that there is a high chance he will have to open him up in the end, but we wont know until after surgery.
Here are a load of 'ifs'..
If it is keyhole surgery and that all goes to plan, then Ady is out of hospital possibly the next day, recovery is quick and he will be back to work in a couple of months.
If it is open surgery, then Ady will be in for about 5 or 6 days and recovery will be for months. He will have staples sealing the wound and he has to be extra careful of hernias because of the weakened scar tissue from the previous surgery.
If the cancer is contained, then all is brilliant and he is deemed to be cured. There is a 30-40% chance of this happening.
If the cancer has spread, Ady will be offered some hormone therapy to start with, possibly, depends on the oncologist, but definitely radiation therapy. This will be for 5 days a week for 7 weeks. That is 20 miles to the hospital and 20 miles back every day ....I work that out to be about 1400 miles?, plus the time I will have to take off work to ferry him around...I will probably have to give up some of my work actually. The implications of radiation therapy happening are pretty grim. The nurse said that it will leave him very tired and feeling quite poorly...great !
There is a 60-70% chance of this happening.
We have to wait two weeks for the histology results on the prostate. If the outer edge of the prostate has cancer cells, then spread is likely, if there are none,then spread is unlikely.
We have to wait for 6 weeks to do a PSA test, which should come back under 1...anything over that, means they have left some cancer behind.
When they take the prostate out, they also cut part of the wee wee tube...what's it called......oh yes, the urethra, and then pull the rest of it up and attach it to the bladder. By the time they have hacked about with his prostate and bladder, they then put a catheter in for a couple of weeks to let it all heal, and when that is removed, he will be incontinent. 5% of patients will be incontinent, or have problems for ever, but with Ady being young, he should regain his, but in the mean time, I suppose I will have to put up with him pissing everywhere as long as it isn't on my new sofa of course.
The hospital will supply us with incontinence pads, but only about 28 of them. I have to phone the district nurses for the rest, and they have to assess him to see what pads he needs. They cant do the assessment for six weeks after I phone, so I need to plead and beg for them to dip in to the emergency supply while we wait. The nurse and I agreed that it shouldn't be this way, but that's the way it is so I think I will add Tena for men to my weekly shopping list.
The other side effect from this operation is impotence. I have chortled to myself at other peoples responses to this problem.
Most of the women that I talk to about it, respond with things like 'ooohh, you lucky thing' and ' wow, that must be a relief' and ' cor, what a bonus, every cloud' and 'I bet your headaches improve' !!
Most of the men, however, respond with things like ' Bloody hell, the poor bloke' and 'can they give him viagra?' and 'I bet the wife's cheered up' !
I wont make a comment on my response... Ady doesn't care as long as they take the cancer away.
There is a few risks involved with the op. There are the usual ones like infection, bleeding, clots, death and so on, and with this one, there is a risk of perforating the colon wall, so I hope the surgeon doesn't trip over something as he is going in with the knife !....Can you imagine it? "Bugger, I've got him straight in the arse"...Poor Ady and his back passage !!
Then we got to talking about pelvic floors, and our nurse was trying to say to Ady in a polite way about lifting his muscles up inside him to strengthen them and holding for a count of five. He had to do this without rising off the seat in a buttock clench.
She asked him to have a try, and he was saying nah, nope, cant feel a thing...so I told him to imagine sucking a poo back up his bum.....he completely understood that and did them perfectly. I told the nurse that it is better to talk in a basic way to him while she was wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. She says she has never met anyone like us before...cant imagine why miself...
So, the day of the operation, we need to be at Maidstone for 7am. We are not sure if I should take him there and we get someone else to take the girls to school, or we get someone else to take him and I take the girls to school, bearing in mind that Ady will leave at 6.15 and the girls leave at 7.30. Or the other option is to see if the bed is free the night before, and take Ady in then.
I think we are going to hope the bed is free and go in the evening before and have friends on standby to take him in the morning.
He will be out and recovering by 3pm, just in time for me to pick the girls up from school and visit about 3.45.
We need to talk to the girls and have a family meeting to see what is best for everyone.I will just go with the flow, as I usually do.
So, old mans disease?...One of the better cancers to get?....nah, I don't think so.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Normal Life
There are no updates on the cancer front, because no one has called us to give us any more ridiculous dates or surgeons, or hospital venues. Ady is finding the lack of date quite difficult to deal with, he would much prefer a date to plan and work towards. I am trying to go with the flow and think that we will get a date when we get one. Not a moment before or a moment after, but, I am not the patient and I don't have to go through the surgery. I do think that in the grand scheme of things, Ady is coping extremely well with it all. There is no way that I could cope, knowing that I had cancer growing inside me for weeks and months, and no idea when they are going to take it away...could you?
The girls have been busy preparing for their return to school. Charlotte is going into year 8 and Steph is starting secondary school year 7.
Charlotte has been really looking forward to moving up a year. She has lots of friends, knows the teachers and the ropes. She has settled really well.
When she started last year, she wasn't bothered that her skirt was considered a bit long (just above the knees is long these days) and her jumper was too big along with her shirt. She just isn't that type. She would much rather wear what is comfortable and float around in her own world with her camera taking pictures of pretty things and enjoying nature.
About a month into school, she did decided that she had better be 'in' and wear some foundation and mascara. I am the last person to ask about this sort of thing, so I took her to Superdrug and found some young girl who seemed to know what she was doing with make up as she had plenty of it on, and asked her advice, what colour (or do you call it 'tone'?) and how on earth you apply it !
About £20. later, we came home with the gumption and each morning, she would put it on....well, this lasted all of about two weeks until she decided it was far too much faffing about and so she ditched the lot.I have to remind her to brush her hair in the mornings and straighten up her clothes. She is happy in her own skin, that one, and believes that if people don't like her for who she is, then they are shallow and not who she wants to be with. I get the impression that she is considered quite 'cool' at school and is well liked, so all is good.
Young Steph, however, is a different matter.
She has spent the weekend trying on all her clothes, making sure they fit perfectly and that the skirt isn't too long, and the jumper too big. I did win one battle with her and made her wear the new skirt I had bought her which was longer than one of Charlotte's old skirts. That only lasted the first day and she came home telling me that EVERYONE had said 'blimey, your skirt is a bit long'....I don't believe this for a second and Charlotte assures me that lots of year 7 girls will be turning up to school with skirts that are too long for them. Anyway, I can't be bothered with the battle, so she is now wearing the shorter skirt *sigh*.
Steph has always been very bothered about her appearance and always does her best to make sure she looks nice and 'cool'. This whole thing of making sure you look smart, with hair and make up is a completely alien concept to me, but I do realise that some people are like that and feel the need to trot out into the world as if it is some kind of fashion contest, so, to a point, I let Steph get on with it.
She hasn't got to the wearing make up to school part yet, but I will be keeping a strict eye on it.(she loves putting make up on and does it very well too).
Its funny, she is allergic to loads of stuff...nuts, apples, pears, cherries, plums, horses...she even has an epi pen she carries around with her...shame she isn't allergic to make up...that would solve a lot of my future woes I think !
Steph is a lovely girl and has made lots of friends already. She seems to be becoming part of a group of some nice girls. So far, all is good.
My two girls are so different. One loves all thing nature and has a nice natural way with animals, loves art and watches lots of documentaries and reads books, whereas the other one loves hair,make up, loud music, partying, singing, dancing and acting.
Ady and I are loving watching them grow up and seeing them walk their paths of life. I believe that secondary school starts to shape who you really are and I think this chapter in their life is going to be a big one, one I hope both me and Ady will be able to watch together.
Tomorrow, we are off to see the onco nurse, to learn the gorys of the operation and its side effects, teach Ady how to do his pelvic floors as incontinence is one of them and hopefully....get a date for the operation...we will see !
The girls have been busy preparing for their return to school. Charlotte is going into year 8 and Steph is starting secondary school year 7.
Charlotte has been really looking forward to moving up a year. She has lots of friends, knows the teachers and the ropes. She has settled really well.
When she started last year, she wasn't bothered that her skirt was considered a bit long (just above the knees is long these days) and her jumper was too big along with her shirt. She just isn't that type. She would much rather wear what is comfortable and float around in her own world with her camera taking pictures of pretty things and enjoying nature.
About a month into school, she did decided that she had better be 'in' and wear some foundation and mascara. I am the last person to ask about this sort of thing, so I took her to Superdrug and found some young girl who seemed to know what she was doing with make up as she had plenty of it on, and asked her advice, what colour (or do you call it 'tone'?) and how on earth you apply it !
About £20. later, we came home with the gumption and each morning, she would put it on....well, this lasted all of about two weeks until she decided it was far too much faffing about and so she ditched the lot.I have to remind her to brush her hair in the mornings and straighten up her clothes. She is happy in her own skin, that one, and believes that if people don't like her for who she is, then they are shallow and not who she wants to be with. I get the impression that she is considered quite 'cool' at school and is well liked, so all is good.
Young Steph, however, is a different matter.
She has spent the weekend trying on all her clothes, making sure they fit perfectly and that the skirt isn't too long, and the jumper too big. I did win one battle with her and made her wear the new skirt I had bought her which was longer than one of Charlotte's old skirts. That only lasted the first day and she came home telling me that EVERYONE had said 'blimey, your skirt is a bit long'....I don't believe this for a second and Charlotte assures me that lots of year 7 girls will be turning up to school with skirts that are too long for them. Anyway, I can't be bothered with the battle, so she is now wearing the shorter skirt *sigh*.
Steph has always been very bothered about her appearance and always does her best to make sure she looks nice and 'cool'. This whole thing of making sure you look smart, with hair and make up is a completely alien concept to me, but I do realise that some people are like that and feel the need to trot out into the world as if it is some kind of fashion contest, so, to a point, I let Steph get on with it.
She hasn't got to the wearing make up to school part yet, but I will be keeping a strict eye on it.(she loves putting make up on and does it very well too).
Its funny, she is allergic to loads of stuff...nuts, apples, pears, cherries, plums, horses...she even has an epi pen she carries around with her...shame she isn't allergic to make up...that would solve a lot of my future woes I think !
Steph is a lovely girl and has made lots of friends already. She seems to be becoming part of a group of some nice girls. So far, all is good.
My two girls are so different. One loves all thing nature and has a nice natural way with animals, loves art and watches lots of documentaries and reads books, whereas the other one loves hair,make up, loud music, partying, singing, dancing and acting.
Ady and I are loving watching them grow up and seeing them walk their paths of life. I believe that secondary school starts to shape who you really are and I think this chapter in their life is going to be a big one, one I hope both me and Ady will be able to watch together.
Tomorrow, we are off to see the onco nurse, to learn the gorys of the operation and its side effects, teach Ady how to do his pelvic floors as incontinence is one of them and hopefully....get a date for the operation...we will see !
Friday, 2 September 2011
Hello Limbo Land Again !
I woke up this morning quite a happy bunny. Yay, I thought to myself, we have a date for surgery, and we have the venue we wanted, and what's more, we have a new sofa arriving today. The old one was so uncomfortable, I decided to do a DFS 4 year interest free deal and get something comfy for Ady to sit on while he is recovering. It also has a bed in it which is pretty handy for people coming to stay.
DFS told me the sofa would be arriving late morning/early lunch, so that was enough time to clear the sitting room and mop the floor so it is all sparkly and clean.....of course there are now new house rules of no eating in the sitting room, which the girls just laugh and say yeah, you will forget in a few days, so I MUST make sure I dont this time !!!
The postman arrived with the usual junk mail, and within it was a letter from the hospital. Goodness me, I thought to myself, they are efficient, I only spoke to them yesterday arranging and confirming the surgery dates!
Within the envelope was 3 pieces of paper. One saying that the pre op assessment has been arranged for Thursday 8th Sept at 1pm and one was a Pre admission health questionnaire (that will take a while I think) and the final one is the date for the op. Ding bloody dong, they have booked it for 7th Sept....the day before the pre op assesment and a week before they told me only yesterday that it was 14th !!.Shall I laugh or cry, or panic?
The doorbell then rang and there stood a lovely DFS man with scatter cushions in his hand and a smile on his face. Smiles are such contagious things aren't they :)
My measuring was very nearly accurate, and with a bit of shunting and pushing, and taking the arms off the sofas, they made it into the sitting room where they will be staying for the next 40 years, with the arms reassembled !
I made Steph a toastie, which she had been asking for for about 4 hours. Charlotte had gone to meet friends in town and Ady was at his friends, gossiping probably, so I rolled me some fags, made a coffee and sat down at the dining room table, (cos there is no smoking, eating or drinking in the sitting room now), with the letters in front of me, and phoned the 0845 number (cheeky bastards) to speak to the planned care office.
We blow me bloody well down, they were busy and I was put through to an answer phone....and yes, I jolly well did leave a message !
I then left a message with the Pembury oncology nurse (ours is at Maidstone, but she is on holiday at the mo so the Pembury one is dealing with us until she gets back) and bless her, she rang back to say that she rang the planned care office herself before speaking to me and that it was a mistake and surgery will be happening on 14th.
We then started talking about the surgery and the change of surgeon and wotnot.
I had said to the lady at planned care yesterday, that they do realise Ady has to have open surgery and that he cant have robotic surgery because of the scar tissue from his previous surgery, dont they.....Oh yes she said, I am not medical, but it is fine....hmm, I thought..I hope so...
The Pembury Onco nurse and I were chatting on the phone ( she doesn't have our notes as we are not 'her' patients) and it transpires that the surgeon we have been allocated, only does robotic surgery and Ady had been booked in for that !! Oh dear God help me !!!!
So, we are back now to keeping the pre op assessment appointment, and the pelvic floor lessons appointment but the surgery appointment will change because they have to move us back onto the surgeons list we were originally on because he is the one who does the open surgery *and breathe*...he is on holiday until 5th Sept. They cant just slot us in because he controls his lists.
The onco nurse did tell me that we are not the only ones going to Maidstone and not Medway which made me feel a bit better.
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie and we live at
24.5 Prostate Cancer Avenue,
WhatABloodyCockUp,
Gleason 7
Limbo Land Again
DFS told me the sofa would be arriving late morning/early lunch, so that was enough time to clear the sitting room and mop the floor so it is all sparkly and clean.....of course there are now new house rules of no eating in the sitting room, which the girls just laugh and say yeah, you will forget in a few days, so I MUST make sure I dont this time !!!
The postman arrived with the usual junk mail, and within it was a letter from the hospital. Goodness me, I thought to myself, they are efficient, I only spoke to them yesterday arranging and confirming the surgery dates!
Within the envelope was 3 pieces of paper. One saying that the pre op assessment has been arranged for Thursday 8th Sept at 1pm and one was a Pre admission health questionnaire (that will take a while I think) and the final one is the date for the op. Ding bloody dong, they have booked it for 7th Sept....the day before the pre op assesment and a week before they told me only yesterday that it was 14th !!.Shall I laugh or cry, or panic?
The doorbell then rang and there stood a lovely DFS man with scatter cushions in his hand and a smile on his face. Smiles are such contagious things aren't they :)
My measuring was very nearly accurate, and with a bit of shunting and pushing, and taking the arms off the sofas, they made it into the sitting room where they will be staying for the next 40 years, with the arms reassembled !
I made Steph a toastie, which she had been asking for for about 4 hours. Charlotte had gone to meet friends in town and Ady was at his friends, gossiping probably, so I rolled me some fags, made a coffee and sat down at the dining room table, (cos there is no smoking, eating or drinking in the sitting room now), with the letters in front of me, and phoned the 0845 number (cheeky bastards) to speak to the planned care office.
We blow me bloody well down, they were busy and I was put through to an answer phone....and yes, I jolly well did leave a message !
I then left a message with the Pembury oncology nurse (ours is at Maidstone, but she is on holiday at the mo so the Pembury one is dealing with us until she gets back) and bless her, she rang back to say that she rang the planned care office herself before speaking to me and that it was a mistake and surgery will be happening on 14th.
We then started talking about the surgery and the change of surgeon and wotnot.
I had said to the lady at planned care yesterday, that they do realise Ady has to have open surgery and that he cant have robotic surgery because of the scar tissue from his previous surgery, dont they.....Oh yes she said, I am not medical, but it is fine....hmm, I thought..I hope so...
The Pembury Onco nurse and I were chatting on the phone ( she doesn't have our notes as we are not 'her' patients) and it transpires that the surgeon we have been allocated, only does robotic surgery and Ady had been booked in for that !! Oh dear God help me !!!!
So, we are back now to keeping the pre op assessment appointment, and the pelvic floor lessons appointment but the surgery appointment will change because they have to move us back onto the surgeons list we were originally on because he is the one who does the open surgery *and breathe*...he is on holiday until 5th Sept. They cant just slot us in because he controls his lists.
The onco nurse did tell me that we are not the only ones going to Maidstone and not Medway which made me feel a bit better.
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie and we live at
24.5 Prostate Cancer Avenue,
WhatABloodyCockUp,
Gleason 7
Limbo Land Again
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Goodbye Limbo Land.
I have lost track of how long we have been waiting for any sort of news on the venue for surgery, is it about a month? I think it is. It's a bit bloody much really. You get told you have cancer, you need surgery, they dont want you to wait too long for surgery, so sooner rather than later, but they don't have a date yet, you're going to Maidstone, then no, you're going to Medway, either one, they dont have a date. We say no, we want Maidstone, they say you have to have Medway as its all change from 1st September, then someone else says no, its 1st October, they say its the PCT's fault, the PCT say its the cancer commission's fault (who ARE these people?). The cancer commisioners, well, I can't get hold of them, I cant work out quite who they are or what they do except piss off cancer patients and their families. I have emailed our MP, spoken to PALS at Medway, spoken to PALS at Maidstone, spoken to our GP (lovely man) spoken to onco nurses, secretaries, chief executives and assistant chief executives, then the surgeon is on holiday, and so is the onco nurse, and so are we...bloody hell, if I wasn't mad,I would have lost the plot by now !
And so today, somebody I hadn't spoken to before, was a lady from the planned care office, who rang to tell us that surgery had been booked for 14th September at.....wait for it............Maidstone...yes thats right, bloody Maidstone !!!!
You know that feeling you get when you realise that you hadn't lost your wallet after all....well that was the feeling we had today...pure elation !!!
The surgery wont be done by the surgeon we have been seeing and have built a rapport with, it will be done by a different surgeon within the team who we haven't met. But as our GP said today, its no biggie, Ady will meet him on the morning of surgery and all the surgeon needs is a body on the table and his notes......it's not as if they will be having a chat during the operation....well, I hope not, anyway !
Our onco nurse is going to see if she can arrange a 'hello' before the big day, perhaps when we are there for the pre op or something...that'll be good.
The next two weeks is going to be busy, well, three actually. We have Steph starting secondary school, Charlotte going back to school, the pre op assessment, Adys usual blood test at the doctors, meet with the new surgeon, hopefully, appointment with the nurse so he can be taught pelvic floors and told the gorys about the op, and we need to pack for the hospital. 13 days to go. Then we have the whole hospital visiting thing, picking kids up, sorting the animals, organising visitors, letting people know how he is doing and so on....we will get there in the end.
I have sussed a pattern forming. Last year, the colon cancer surgery was on 13th October, this year the prostate surgery is on 14th September, so next year, we will be ready and prepared for 15th August!!!!
Bring it on !!!
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie, and we live at
24.5 Prostate Avenue,
Hopeithasn'tspread,
HaveToWait&See
Reality.
And so today, somebody I hadn't spoken to before, was a lady from the planned care office, who rang to tell us that surgery had been booked for 14th September at.....wait for it............Maidstone...yes thats right, bloody Maidstone !!!!
You know that feeling you get when you realise that you hadn't lost your wallet after all....well that was the feeling we had today...pure elation !!!
The surgery wont be done by the surgeon we have been seeing and have built a rapport with, it will be done by a different surgeon within the team who we haven't met. But as our GP said today, its no biggie, Ady will meet him on the morning of surgery and all the surgeon needs is a body on the table and his notes......it's not as if they will be having a chat during the operation....well, I hope not, anyway !
Our onco nurse is going to see if she can arrange a 'hello' before the big day, perhaps when we are there for the pre op or something...that'll be good.
The next two weeks is going to be busy, well, three actually. We have Steph starting secondary school, Charlotte going back to school, the pre op assessment, Adys usual blood test at the doctors, meet with the new surgeon, hopefully, appointment with the nurse so he can be taught pelvic floors and told the gorys about the op, and we need to pack for the hospital. 13 days to go. Then we have the whole hospital visiting thing, picking kids up, sorting the animals, organising visitors, letting people know how he is doing and so on....we will get there in the end.
I have sussed a pattern forming. Last year, the colon cancer surgery was on 13th October, this year the prostate surgery is on 14th September, so next year, we will be ready and prepared for 15th August!!!!
Bring it on !!!
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie, and we live at
24.5 Prostate Avenue,
Hopeithasn'tspread,
HaveToWait&See
Reality.
A Cancer Free Week.
So, after last years colon shinannigans, I decided that what we all really need this year is a nice little holiday....a camping one no less...and people, if you haven't camped, then you haven't lived !
So before the whole prostate saga rose its ugly head, I booked a week on Herm Island.
It is a very beautiful little island just off Guernsey which is about a mile and a half long and 1/2 mile wide, so if you trip up in the wrong direction, you land in the sea !
There is no traffic and only one shop, really lovely beaches and the whole place is just very peaceful and calming. The girls absolutely love it there, as do me and Ady...it is totally un spoilt and non commercial...a little paradise island with its own micro climate.
We decided that we would just take a week away from cancer...it wasn't coming on holiday with us and if we had a text about the hospitals, then great, and if we didn't then we didn't, there is nothing we can do so we will jolly well enjoy our little holiday !
We have an agreement with our neighbour Kate that we run them to the airport and they do the same for us, so with that all organised, the chickens and hamsters settled in at our friends Kathy and Roys and the cats and fish sorted with our other neighbours feeding them and generally looking after the house, we set off for the airport.
Amazingly for us, everything went smoothly. The flight was on time, there was a taxi waiting at the airport, the Trident to Herm was sailing, and the sun was shining. The tractor man was waiting to take our luggage to the campsite, so all we had to do was wander around eating ice cream. Bliss !
Steph wanted to spend all day in the sea and Charlotte wanted to wander around with her camera taking pictures of her Schliech horses in realistic places (dont ask...she loves it and apparently, there is a whole schliech world out there!). Ady spent lots of time wandering with Charlotte and rock pooling with her as well as sitting on the beach and pottering in the sea, and I spent lots of time sitting on my arse, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, smoking fags looking at everyone else and wondering if they are fatter than me and how many stones I have to lose to look as slim as them *sigh*
The first couple of nights , it rained. I love listening to the pitter patter of rain drops on a tent when you are snuggled up on the blow up bed in your sleeping bag. I hate it when you need a wee though...Luckily, for me and the girls, we very rarely get up in the night for a wee. Unluckily for Ady, he is up 2 or 3 times in the night for one. I did suggest to him just to stand at the tent door and aim, to save himself from getting wet, but him being a decent chap, walked up to the loos...buggered if I would have done that miself !!
I did go into the sea on holiday and Jesus Christ, it is bloody freezing when you first go in !!
When the water first hits your feet, it sends shock waves through your body, and you have to wait there while your feet get used to it. Each time you take another step in, you have to wait a few more minutes to get used to the chill factor..and then before you know it, a fecking great wave has come along and hit you right in the 'down below' bits....Christ, that's cold !! Just when you are preparing to get the 'upper bits' wet, some little shite of a kid comes along and splashes you, so you just have to go for it and start swimming.
This whole thing usually takes me about 45 minutes, and then the sea is nice and warm, the sun is shining and everything is lovely.
The girls get very bored of waiting for me to get in the sea, and very frustrated of not being allowed to come near me until I am fully submerged, cos they cant resist not splashing me and making everything as splashy as they can, so I tell them I will get out if they do....they love it when I get splashed by another child though !
It was Steph's 11th Birthday on the Monday, and I promised that I would do a 'Baywatch' with them and just run in....I did scream a bit and I think I possibly swore too, but I cant be sure because my entire body went into shock. We did manage to spend most of the day in the sea, mucking about with those little surf board thingys and those big rubber rings with handles on. Those tennis balls that bounce across the water are great fun !!
We ended her day with a lovely meal cooked on hot rock and a night walk along the beach. I tried to teach them about constellations, but I could only remember the saucepan...Ady just took the piss !
We really enjoyed our holiday just buggering about doing nothing very much. The kids free to do as they please, just enjoying the beauty and relaxing nature of the island. No newspapers (unless you ordered one), no telly, no news......just us, the sun, the sea, and Herm.
Kate sent her husband to pick us up from the airport....why she sent him to the north terminal, I will never know, but he was driving round the pick up bit at north, while we were waiting for him at south. And no, we didn't have his mobile number, kate was at some book club thing with her phone on silent, Dave was stressed, we were stressed, the girls wanted to eat the chocolate I had bought in duty free, like you do, and Ady needed a wee...again.
Dave eventually found us as we decided the best thing to do was to stay put at the agreed place, and we all trundled off on the shuttle to the north terminal where he had parked at vast expense....3 hours late, we arrived safely home...back to reality. Oh, and no text...
So before the whole prostate saga rose its ugly head, I booked a week on Herm Island.
It is a very beautiful little island just off Guernsey which is about a mile and a half long and 1/2 mile wide, so if you trip up in the wrong direction, you land in the sea !
There is no traffic and only one shop, really lovely beaches and the whole place is just very peaceful and calming. The girls absolutely love it there, as do me and Ady...it is totally un spoilt and non commercial...a little paradise island with its own micro climate.
We decided that we would just take a week away from cancer...it wasn't coming on holiday with us and if we had a text about the hospitals, then great, and if we didn't then we didn't, there is nothing we can do so we will jolly well enjoy our little holiday !
We have an agreement with our neighbour Kate that we run them to the airport and they do the same for us, so with that all organised, the chickens and hamsters settled in at our friends Kathy and Roys and the cats and fish sorted with our other neighbours feeding them and generally looking after the house, we set off for the airport.
Amazingly for us, everything went smoothly. The flight was on time, there was a taxi waiting at the airport, the Trident to Herm was sailing, and the sun was shining. The tractor man was waiting to take our luggage to the campsite, so all we had to do was wander around eating ice cream. Bliss !
Steph wanted to spend all day in the sea and Charlotte wanted to wander around with her camera taking pictures of her Schliech horses in realistic places (dont ask...she loves it and apparently, there is a whole schliech world out there!). Ady spent lots of time wandering with Charlotte and rock pooling with her as well as sitting on the beach and pottering in the sea, and I spent lots of time sitting on my arse, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, smoking fags looking at everyone else and wondering if they are fatter than me and how many stones I have to lose to look as slim as them *sigh*
The first couple of nights , it rained. I love listening to the pitter patter of rain drops on a tent when you are snuggled up on the blow up bed in your sleeping bag. I hate it when you need a wee though...Luckily, for me and the girls, we very rarely get up in the night for a wee. Unluckily for Ady, he is up 2 or 3 times in the night for one. I did suggest to him just to stand at the tent door and aim, to save himself from getting wet, but him being a decent chap, walked up to the loos...buggered if I would have done that miself !!
I did go into the sea on holiday and Jesus Christ, it is bloody freezing when you first go in !!
When the water first hits your feet, it sends shock waves through your body, and you have to wait there while your feet get used to it. Each time you take another step in, you have to wait a few more minutes to get used to the chill factor..and then before you know it, a fecking great wave has come along and hit you right in the 'down below' bits....Christ, that's cold !! Just when you are preparing to get the 'upper bits' wet, some little shite of a kid comes along and splashes you, so you just have to go for it and start swimming.
This whole thing usually takes me about 45 minutes, and then the sea is nice and warm, the sun is shining and everything is lovely.
The girls get very bored of waiting for me to get in the sea, and very frustrated of not being allowed to come near me until I am fully submerged, cos they cant resist not splashing me and making everything as splashy as they can, so I tell them I will get out if they do....they love it when I get splashed by another child though !
It was Steph's 11th Birthday on the Monday, and I promised that I would do a 'Baywatch' with them and just run in....I did scream a bit and I think I possibly swore too, but I cant be sure because my entire body went into shock. We did manage to spend most of the day in the sea, mucking about with those little surf board thingys and those big rubber rings with handles on. Those tennis balls that bounce across the water are great fun !!
We ended her day with a lovely meal cooked on hot rock and a night walk along the beach. I tried to teach them about constellations, but I could only remember the saucepan...Ady just took the piss !
Kate sent her husband to pick us up from the airport....why she sent him to the north terminal, I will never know, but he was driving round the pick up bit at north, while we were waiting for him at south. And no, we didn't have his mobile number, kate was at some book club thing with her phone on silent, Dave was stressed, we were stressed, the girls wanted to eat the chocolate I had bought in duty free, like you do, and Ady needed a wee...again.
Dave eventually found us as we decided the best thing to do was to stay put at the agreed place, and we all trundled off on the shuttle to the north terminal where he had parked at vast expense....3 hours late, we arrived safely home...back to reality. Oh, and no text...
Monday....Phone call day..
Monday came and went.....no call...
Tuesday came and still no call, so I called her to say she didn't call on Monday when she said she would call. She said she was working on it and would text in the week and to have a nice holiday.......going on holiday on Wednesday.......
She did text in the week....to say she was still working on it....with her boss....*sigh*
Are you frustrated yet?
We were, so we went on holiday.....
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie and we live at
24.5, Prostate Avenue,
Gleason 7.
Limbo Land.
Tuesday came and still no call, so I called her to say she didn't call on Monday when she said she would call. She said she was working on it and would text in the week and to have a nice holiday.......going on holiday on Wednesday.......
She did text in the week....to say she was still working on it....with her boss....*sigh*
Are you frustrated yet?
We were, so we went on holiday.....
We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie and we live at
24.5, Prostate Avenue,
Gleason 7.
Limbo Land.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Nearly Monday...phone call day.
I am a bit stuck with what to write for my first sentence. Ady is in the sitting room watching some 'lets all murder everyone' war film, that he has probably watched a thousand times before, Charlotte is in the shower...again, Steph is singing Adele songs in her room trying to perfect the right sounds, the hamster is rolling around in its ball, getting itself stuck in different places and Ollie the rescue cat is wanting some food..so all normal here,
We have had a lovely weekend, and were invited out to dinner on Saturday evening by our friends. They did invite us for lunch last week, but Ady felt so ill, we couldn't go.
Ady does their gardening for them (so actually they are people he works for but have become our friends) and they are bloody nice people..... They treat Ady really well and we often take the piss out of them about how they are Londeners with far too much money and no clue as to how to live in the countryside.
Over dinner, they were talking about buying a tent so their children could camp in it for a few nights over the weekend in the garden/field by the pool. We told them that we had a tent we would very happily lend them...it wont be as posh as the one they would probably buy, but if they are camping, then they should slum it a bit and get with the real world!.
They took us up on our offer ( which was really nice that we could give THEM something for a change) and so we turned up with the tent.
I opened the bag, and we all placed the tent where they wanted it put up, and then I started putting it up. I put the whole thing up by myself, because they have never put a tent up before and didn't know where to start and every time I asked Ady to help, he stood there saying "I've got cancer ya know, I can't do anything", to which I replied " You're not dead yet, so grab that bloody pole!"..he soon started helping !
Other than that, my sister Camilla popped round this morning for a coffee and chat which was nice, Steph has been swimming with her cousins, and Charlotte has been to Hobby Craft to get more making sticking and glueing things for her horse collection, I have bought and delivered Betty's shopping (my elderly lady I look after) so she is sorted for when I am on holiday next week and Ady has generally pottered with his chickens and compared ailments with the neighbours.
In the car on the way out on Saturday evening, Ady said to the girls "Girls, careful what you say, cos your mother's gonna blog it"....it's been a really peaceful weekend !
OOh, we have the chief exec from the PCT or wherever phoning tomorrow (I have her number)....hmmm, wonder if it will be Medway or Maidstone......
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