Time to catch up.

Absolutely freezing cold day but it was worth it as I found my next property : )
Dungiven Castle.
Kerri and Rich looking very cold.

Kieran and I enjoyed a belated Birthday night out with Rich and Kerri as it was her birthday on Wednesday.
My gorgeous boy with his beautiful lady, Kerri.
My two wonderful boys.

A real Irish Guinness, At last!!!!

Kieran and I arrived home late last night. Our plane was supposed to leave at 6:30pm but was delayed for an hour. How glad was I that I had booked a transport car and what great service they provided.

We got home around 11pm after a smooth journey from Belfast to Plymouth.

It was so lovely seeing Rich again, we all love him so much and miss him even more. I was so pleased to see that he had a little family of his own, his lady, Kerri, is a sweet girl, so attentive and nothing was too much trouble. She is a beautiful person inside and out.

Her girls are charming, they made us smile every day. I left Belfast happy that my boy was happy and settled.

Kerri's Sister, Evelyn, has also been wonderful, She picked Kierana nd I up from the airport and took us back there when we were leaving, such lovely girls who I know will welcome my son into their family with open arms.

I was so pleased to see Siobhan, David and the cats. Stork have pestered her so much while we were away, as soon as I got in the door, he stuck beside me, not leaving me at all. He had his usual cuddles this morning, I have missed that.

Amber, on the other hand, only loves me for treats, other times she whines and moans about having a cuddle.

It is good to be home, how I wish Rich only lived up the road so I could see him anytime. I am sure there will be more trips to Ireland in the future.

Kieran was brilliant at getting to school this morning even after having a late night, Well done Bean.

Now back to normality, CT scan on the 8th February, See Dr D on the 15th and discuss chemo and what to do next and this week, off to see Dr TOF and having a dilatation on Thursday.

READ MORE - Time to catch up.

Michael Callaghan

Michael Passed away on 26th January after a brave battle with mesothelioma. Another wonderful warrior taken away from his family. I and many others will continue our fight with mesothelioma in memory of Michael and people like him.

Lisa, Michael's daughter put a wonderful poem on facebook in his memory.

My Beautiful Dad .... Dad Pitt x

A light is from our household gone,

A voice we loved is stilled,

A place is vacant in our home,

Which never can be filled.

We have to mourn the loss of one,

We did our best to save

Loved on earth and always will

Remembering all you gave.

'Twas hard to part with one so dear

We little thought the time was near,

You never complained,

You never gave in,

You fought a battle,

You could not win,

You were so brave. x

Love and condolences to the family from all mesothelioma warriors and their families.

May your angel watch over you every day x x x

READ MORE - Michael Callaghan

Seeing Richard.

Reading the pony magazines Siobhan sent over.



Kieran and I left Plymouth just beofre 8am and made our way to Bristol airport. We got there about 10:15am. We went through security and then onto the gat we would leave at. We are both so very excited about seeing Richard and meeting Kerri and the girls.

Our flight was very good, we landed and went to the baggage claim, as the sliding doors opened, we spotted Rich, Kerri and her sisiter, Evelyn. Kieran was so excited, I told hom to go ahead, I would get the bags.

I picked up our suit cases and went to meet Rich, well....I ran to him and gave him the biggest hug while I cried the tears of a very happy mum.

Kerri is a lovely girl she has made us feel so welcome, her sister, Evelyn, drove us back to Dungiven.

The girls are wonderful, so happy and full of life.

I was shocked when I heard how Rich was with keeping the house tidy, why couldn't he be like that at home... : )

We haven't done much today, sat and watched Judge Judy, one of my favourite ladies too.

I haven't done anything at all, I am not allowed.

It is Kerri's birthday tomorrow so I hope I can return the favour and treat her, if she will let me : )

READ MORE - Seeing Richard.

Ireland tomorrow!!!

My lovely boys x x

I am so excited, Kieran and I are going to Ireland tomorrow to see my son Richard. He left our house last year to start a new life with his girlfriend and her 2 children. They seem very happy but how I wish he only lived down the road.

We have an early start tomorrow as our flight leaves from Bristol and it will take us a couple of hours to get there.

I want to see Richard before I start chemo. We speak to him every day but seeing him will be even better.

We are staying until Sunday so a good few days to get to know his little family in Ireland.

I am also looking forward to experiencing my first proper Guinness, a real Irish one.

I will add pictures and a blog as I will be taking my laptop.

READ MORE - Ireland tomorrow!!!

My curly hair......

..... And here it is... I am trying to get used to it.

It is typical of my hair not to do what I want it to do and this lot is no exception.

My hair has always been very thick with a kink at the end of it. Never have i had so many curls, I have heard from other cancer patients that it could be to do with the chemo I had.

I am debating obout going topless, I would like to leave the wigs at home when I go to Ireland, we shall see.

READ MORE - My curly hair......

Lovely lunch, well nearly : )

Lovely red sky this morning.

The wonderful tree dedicated to mesothelioma sufferers past and present.
The first snowdrops of 2012.

I woke to a beautiful red sky this morning. the saying goes,

Red sky in the morning,

Sailors warning,

Red sky at night,

shepherds delight.

Hopefully there won't be a storm coming!!

Before I went to lunch with my friend Mandy today, I popped over to Kieran's school as he forgot his lunch box this morning. I filled in a holiday form for next week, I am so excited about Ireland and seeing Rich and his family. On the way back I went to Saltram to see how the snowdrops were doing around the meso tree. It was good to see they had put their delicate, white heads out of the soil. they are so very young at the moment but such a pleasure to see.

It is a crisp, beautiful day today. I got home and got ready to meet my very brave and wonderful friend, Mandy.

We went to a garden centre in Cornwall for lunch. Lunch wasn't very good but the company more than made up for it.

I bought some plants to put in the garden, as reccomended by Mandy, she is more of a gardener than I am.

I went back to Mandy's for a quick cuppa before going home to meet Kieran.

I dropped him off at his dad's for a couple of hours and went off to do the weekly shop.

READ MORE - Lovely lunch, well nearly : )

All good in Taunton.

I had a good trip to Taunton and got to the hospital in plenty of time. It was good to see Dr TOF again. He looked at the CT images and found the obstruction. It looked like the clip he had put in last time but we both agreed that he should take a look anyway while he does a dilatation (Stretch the oesophagus).

He is so very enthusiastic about the whole thing and I am so glad he is, we are on the same wave length. I was thinking that as he was doing the dilatation, he would check out the TOF too, he said exactly what I was thinking. I will be going in to have it done when I come back from Ireland, yes... next week...I am seeing my lovely boy, Richard. I have missed him so much.

Theo has been wonderful and not playing up much, I get the odd nudge to let me know he is still around but so far, so good.

Tomorrow I am out to lunch with my friend Mandy, the rest of the week I will be packing our bags : )

READ MORE - All good in Taunton.

Dr TOF today.

I am off to Taunton today, not had a good start to the morning. Kieran kicked off again so am feeling a little low.

I am seeing Dr TOF about my tracheo oesophagela fistula (TOF). This is a tube which connects my eosophagus and windpipe. I have been trying to get it severed but I don't think it has worked.

This was a trial to see if it could be done, it has been done once in the world but it doesn't look like it has happened for me. Saying that, after having a life of chest infections and pneumonia, this has to be the first winter that I seem to have got away with just a cold/flu experience.

The report from Dr D, My mesothelioma Dr, says that there is something dangling from the TOF site, This is probably the clip that was put on. I am hoping that scar tissue has helped by closing the hole up a little more although there is still leakage.

I will find out more today, I don't intened to have anymore operations on it as all is good at the moment.

So a trip to Taunton today, It will be good to see Dr TOF as he has been so supportive with the TOF and believed in me when others had given up and told me that pneumonia would get me in the end. It may well do, but not yet!!!

READ MORE - Dr TOF today.

Love to my friend.

Mavis and I with Steve, another meso mate x x

I am sending love and support to my wonderful and brave warrior friend, Mavis, who has been having chemotherapy for her mesothelioma.

She is having a blip at the moment, not feeling very well.

Mavis, get well soon honey and hope to see you back up and writing your blog very soon x x x

READ MORE - Love to my friend.

Siobhan's card.

Siobhan has been designing cards for Valentine's day.

This is her latest peice of work. She is seeling them on her ETSY page.

Copy and paste the link below for more information.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/90380903/drawn-to-you-cute-valentine-greetings?utm_source=OpenGraph&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

READ MORE - Siobhan's card.

Beautiful day today.

Pickled egg and chips for lunch.
A queue of kitties waiting for their lunch : )
The hair clippings, the dark hair is Kieran's, Mine is the small amount of red and Siobhan's is the green.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous today, the sun was shining brightly as I went to get a bit of shopping and some elastic for Kieran's pyjamas. I bought him some new ones but as he has such a tiny waist, all the pyjamas for his size are too big. I thread elastic through to tighten them up for him.

While getting his elastic and picking up some flowers for my friend, I smelt a wonderful aroma..... Chips, this wet my appetite which has been so good lately. I decided I would get chips and a pickled egg for lunch. I tried ringing Siobhan, no answer, I decided to get her some anyway.

I had my lunch and then made my way out to see my friend who hasn't been well the last few weeks. It was lovely to see her and have a chat about Christmas, new year and what has been happening.

I left my friends and arrived home in time for Kieran's return from school.

My hair dresser friend, Jacqui came around to cut our hair, well mine is a mess, I am growing my own afro!!! It is so curly, something I have never had before so should be interesting when it starts to get longer.

Kieran had his cut as did Siobhan, it is always great to see the diffrent colours of hair that land on the floor after the hair cuts. Usually it is red, brown, blonde, pink but this time we have green. Siobhan has coloured her hair a beautiful jade green colour, such lovely clippings : )

I am looking forward to my hair growing so I can colour mine again.

READ MORE - Beautiful day today.

RIP Joe.

Condolences to Vickie in Australia and to Joe who fell asleep yesterday after an illness of Mesothelioma.

Love and support is sent to Vickie and to Joe's family at this devistating time.

READ MORE - RIP Joe.

Mesothelioma, the silent stalker.

When will it end? Mesothelioma, like most cancers, is a terrible disease, it is incurable.

Treatments are available as palliative which means it is not a cure, it may give extra time.

It can depending on the type of mesothelioma the patient has.

There are 3 different types of mesothelioma. Some people get a little muddled when asked if they know which type. It isn't to do with where the disease is, it is to do with what type of disease it is.

Sarcomatoid : The most aggressive form of mesothelioma, this one is the Mr Nasty of them all. It spreads very fast.

This one is harder to treat because of its aggressive nature. Anyone asking about Profs treatment (chemoembolisation) I would always tell them that if they have this form, his treatment may not be successful. It is heart breaking to hear that someone hasn't had the success I have had, I wish everyone could have extra time.

Biophasic : This is a mix of the aggressive and the slow growing mesothelioma. Depending on the percentage of each type is dependant also on how aggressive it is.

Epithelioid : This type is the slow growing mesothelioma. Although they are all hard to treat, this one is the best of a bad bunch. Everyone responds differently.

I feel so lucky to have got this type. So far I have outlived my prognosis. I wish it could be the same for everyone.

My heart goes out to all those who have lost someone or have recently been diagnosed, those fighting and those who are losing their loved ones. Mesothelioma can change someone so much.

It not only changes the patient but the family as well. The desperation of caring for or losing someone you love is so very painful.

I have changed so much since I was diagnosed, it must be the same for all cancer patients, no longer do I look forward a year or 2. I look forward to the next 3 months. Bit by bit I have been getting a little more of my future back. Why can't it be the same for everyone?

I bought a wish yesterday and my wish would be that mesothelioma was knocked off its perch and someone, somewhere in the world has found a cure. There are so many people trying so hard to tackle this disease.

I am not sure if it will be in my lifetime but hope that one day there will be something that will work for everyone.

READ MORE - Mesothelioma, the silent stalker.

Amber to the vets.

Amber isn't happy about travelling to the vets.
I bought a WISH at Next. I hope it comes true : )

Little Amber had to go to the vets today as we felt she was a little unwell. The lady vet checked out a shivering little kitty as she stood on the table in the vets room. Poor Amber, all that creating to go to the vets and not a murmer on the way home, infact she couldn't wait to get back in her cat box after the vet had seen her. The vet gave her a worming tablet and said she was healthy and had a lovely soft coat.

When we got back home, Siobhan said Stork was very worried because Amber wasn't around. Whe we got back he stuck by Amber and seemed to be comforting her, They slept in the same chair together which they haven't done for a while, so sweet.

I had lunch with one of my many gorgeous friends, Tina. she has been a great support to me since I was diagnosed and I am so blessed to have many gorgeous friends around me that I can call anytime if I need help. Tina asked if I minded if we went to a couple of shops before lunch, of course, I refused.... well not for long. We had a look around NEXT and Homebase. I did pick up a couple of things. One of the things I saw was when I got to NEXT, I saw a WISH. It was there, all on its own, in the sale section, no price on it but I had to have it. We all need a WISH don't we and I know what mine is.

After the shopping event, in which Tina only bought a bed side lamp, I had bought a door mat, picture frame, alarm clock for Kieran and a WISH, we went on to have lunch at the Harvester in Plympton. No veggie burgers on the menu, well they were but they weren't available so it was a jacket potato for me and a lovely apple tart for afters....yummy!!

Tomorrow I am out to lunch with my friend Mandy.

READ MORE - Amber to the vets.

Lazy weekend

My new wig.

I have been a real lazy bum, not getting dressed till late, up at around 8:30 to feed the cats.

Yesterday I took Kieran to his dads and then met my friends in town for a coffee. I wore my new wig, its a short one and really comfortable. I have started to wear the head sock as well and it feels much more comfortable.

Kieran needed welly boots as he is starting work experience, his first project ...... car valeting ...... I have told him he can practice on my car, you can guess the answer to that one : )

Taking Amber to the vets on Monday just to get her checked out, if she could talk people language I know what she would say.

Tuesday I am meeting my friend, Mandy for lunch. Next week (16th) I am off to see Dr TOF in Taunton. I need to discuss what to do about the clip as it is dangling according to my CT scan. I am choking on a few things again so it could be that I need a dilatation again.

The week after that Kieran and I are off to Ireland to see Rich!!! I was going to book the train to get to the airport but as I was getting all OCD'd up about the journey on the train, I found it was cheaper and more convenient to have a direct journey so have booked a car to pick us up and bring us back home. the return journey on the train would be 3 trains, we wouldn't get home until midnight and our plane gets in at 19:40. This way we will be home by 10pm.

My OCD issues are already in place with the passports, keep checking to make sure the date hasn't changed.... how sad am I : )

READ MORE - Lazy weekend

Off to work today.

I am going back to see my boss today to talk about going back to work. I am off until the end off February. I will probably be having chemo so need to tailor everything around that.

I had a lovely lunch with siobhan and her boyfriend, David yesterday. We went to Saltram as is it quiet and beautiful there. such a lovely place.

I have at last sent off the application form to companies house to start a charity. I am so excited about this, I hope it will be successful. It will give something back to those affected by asbestos. At the moment it will only be in Plymouth. If this works well it can be rolled out to other places. I am working with the national asbestos helpline.

READ MORE - Off to work today.

Lovely day yesterday.

My little sister, Wendy, and I, Was a good catch up. Hoping to have many more.
Wendy with her yummy chocolate cake.
My apple pie with custard.

My little Bean, well not so little now, Kieran, went back to school yesterday. He very good and got himself sorted out before his bus got here.

I went to B&Q to get an electrical wire detector. While there I looked around for a catalogue for summer houses as we are going to get Siobhan and work shop in the garden for her business venture.

On my way out I heard someone ask how I was, I turned around and there were my dads very good friends. I was so overwhelmed at seeing them. They are such lovely people.

We had a little natter before parting, I felt my dad there too.

I then went to pick up my sister, we were going for lunch. It has been such a long time since we got together, family commitments and time just running through our fingers. We had a lovely meal in a pub called the Golden Hinde. We had to have a dessert as well, of course!!

I got home in time to meet Kieran from his bus.

I am so excited, I booked a flight to Ireland for Kieran and I. We are going to see Richard and his family. We haven't met Kerri or the girls yet so it will be lovely. I want to see him before I start chemo as I don't know how things will go. We all missed him this Christmas and new year. We are going on 23rd January. Siobhan is going later in the year.

The chemo journey will start next month, Mavis and Tess, 2 wonderful warriors, are starting theirs too so we will be on the journet together. I was so pleased to here that Tess's meso is stable, I hope it continues x

READ MORE - Lovely day yesterday.

Shopping and slippers.

My new hat I had for Christmas from Chrissie x

My slippers and socks from Tina x



Lovely jubbly slippers, so comfortable, how happy am I!!!
Siobhan's new hat x

I had another lazy day today, tomorrow it all ends, Kieran is back to school so up at 7:30 am again.

I went in town with Siobhan and David, her boyfriend, today. They wanted to get a book case and I wanted to take my slippers back to the shop my friend, Tina, had bought them in as they still had a security tag on them.

I got to the shop, the security system went off as I entered, no one was around so I went to a cash desk and was met by 2 barbie dolls who told me I needed the second floor, went up there and met some more mature ladies who said I should go down stairs.... Confused . com!!!!

One of the ladies said she would take me to the department that sell the slippers, there I was met by a very nice lady who removed the tag right away. She told me there are usually tags on both slippers but the assistant who served my friend must have missed the second one.

Armed with my lovely memory foam slippers that I have been waiting to wear since Christmas day, I met Siobhan and David , we went around a few shops, one of them was blue banana, an alternative shop. They sell nose studs (got some of them for myself) tongue studs (I will get a new one of them later) and clothes. What did I spot on a hanger.... a hat that I could see would suit my baby girl, it was pink, fluffy and very cute. It would suit her personality. So she had another gift today : )

It has been a lovely day, we left Kieran home, he is 15 now and wants to be treated like a grown up so he had his mobile at hand and was left playing on his xbox, well he won't move an inch from there : )

READ MORE - Shopping and slippers.