Latest Update

As I haven't been doing so well recently I haven't finished some of the updates, like Centre Parcs and Christmas, and January to February yet, but thought I do the latest update now:

Last week an infection started on my right calf and I was put on antibiotics again, after a couples of days it spread further and got more painful so was put on different antibiotics. But by Sunday it had spread further again and the skin had gone bubbly. 

So I was admitted to the hospital, where they took some tests and put me on different antibiotics again. My sugar levels were really high so they diagnosed me with diabetes as well and gave me insulin. 

They wanted to keep me in hospital for a few days, but as it was Mothers Day and most of the family were at home and I wanted to see everyone, so they let me go home, but I would have to go to the hospital each day to get the antibiotics. 

As my energy levels are so low it is a struggle for me to do anything, so by the time I got home and trying trying to get into the house I couldn't lift my legs high enough and actually fell over at the front door steps! 

Luckily Jared and Papa were behind me and caught me to help me back in, but it made us clear that I wouldn't be able to leave the house each day to go and get my antibiotics at the hospital.  

I did manage to get back into bed in my new lovely room at home and have lunch and fun with all the family 😊

On Monday morning Mama called my palliative nurse, Sharon, who, to cut it a little short, arranged for me to go to the Hospice to be looked after. 

So since Monday I have been at Forest Holme Hospice, where the staff are amazing and so are all the facilities. I've also had lots of visitors, which is lovely too. 

And since being here and them checking everything wrong with me, my meds have been changed again and they are trying to sort out all the problems - so I'm hoping within a couple of days I'll be feeling better than I have for the past couple of weeks and get to go home 😊

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Update #3

October 2016: I had an appointment with Mr Grundy, one of the best Neurosurgeons in the country, he explained everything about the brain surgery and asked if I wanted to go ahead with it, so I signed the paper work and then had the surgery done on Friday the 14th October in the afternoon, and I was home by Saturday evening! I couldn't believe how quick and well it went! I had to walk down the corridor and up and down some stairs before they released me home, but I managed to do it 😊
Then 5 days later I went to the nurse at my GP Surgery and she removed the 25 staples I had. I do have 3 bits of titanium holding the circular skull they cut to remove the tumour. But I have one small scar on the side of my head that no one can see as they only removed a little bit of hair and the rest of my hair is long enough to hide it ☺️

Since being diagnosed I have felt at peace with it, it's nice to know I'm not going crazy, as I hadn't felt well for months!  And my eternal perspective kicked in even more than usual. I'm so grateful for being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormon) and have the knowledge of the plan of happiness and that this is just the next stage of my life, and that I now get to prepare even better for it.

When I was first admitted to hospital in September I was put on steroids to stop the swelling in my brain and they did help with the pain that I was having in my head and eye so that was good for a while, but then the symptoms started kicking in and I wasn't so happy - I got a rash, my legs and hands were swollen, wobbly and shaky, my neck and face got really swollen and I couldn't wait to be weened off them, but when I was the pain in my head would come back so my steroids would go up again.
I had another appointment with my Oncologist, it was meant to be to talk about chemotherapy and when I wanted to start it, but I was admitted back to hospital again for a blood test and to check my steroid levels, because I was very wobbly and shaky. I was there for another 3 days, but once I walked the corridor and stairs again with the Occupational Therapist and increased the steroids again with a plan to ween off them again but for a longer period, they let me home again.

November & December 2016:  Centre Parcs and Christmas were my goals, as long as I could be ok for those 2 events with the family I wasn't worried about anything else.
So I had to take 4 steroids a day for 10 days, then 3 for 10 days, etc. until I was weened off them - so the last date was going to be the 3rd of December and I was really looking forward to it, as it was the week before Centre Parcs and I thought it would then give me a week for the swelling from the steroids to go down and then I'd be ready or feeling better for Centre Parcs and Christmas.
In the week I was off the steroids, I had a number of days where I was shaking and wobbly, some where I was dizzy and not feeling quite with it, I was sick on another day, and by Saturday my head was in so much pain again I was crying.
So 111 was called again and a Dr was sent out who said I should be admitted back into hospital again - I cried again and told him we were going on holiday on Monday, so I didn't want to be admitted to hospital. He said that if I was admitted that night and they could put me back on steroids I might be able to be ready to go on holiday, so I went with it.
When I first got to the ward I had a nurse trying to put in my cannula in my hand, but it was so painful, luckily Mama told her to stop! As I'm so swollen it is difficult to find any of my veins, they had tried about 6 times, but still couldn't find any, so the pain medication and steroids I took by tablets, and the cannula was put in the next morning after they found a vein through ultra sound.
Once I was back on the steroids and painkillers I was feeling better already, I couldn't believe it, though I knew that people at my church had been praying and fasting for me to be well enough for Centre Parcs and Christmas and could feel the blessings from that.
The Dr saw me Sunday morning and said that if by the afternoon I was feeling ok I could go home, and go on holiday - as it was only an hour away not going abroad anywhere. So Sunday afternoon I was home again and really looking forward to the annual family holiday 😄

Update #2

August 2016: After being at home for a few months and Temping I was still getting migraines, mainly at night, where I was in so much pain I couldn't really sleep and cried a lot of nights. I also had a lot of swelling in my legs and started having a few stomach problems.
I had been to my GP a few times, at first being told I need to loose weight and I would be ok. Then when I kept going back they were just trying to figure out what all the symptoms might be. I had a blood test at one point, only to be told by the GP Receptionist when I called that it came back clear and there was nothing wrong with me. Though by this time my head was hurting more and my left eye had started weeping.
Then at the end of August I was at work when I got really ill, I had come back from lunch feeling ok and my team leader was telling me what I needed to do, I remember writing it down on my note pad and then going back to my desk and going through the different systems that I'd been doing for months, but not knowing which I needed to do! I went to ask my team leader again, but couldn't finish my sentence, but she told me again and I read the notes I wrote and could see I had written it down right, but still couldn't understand it. I then started feeling fun and went to the bathroom where I was then sick 3 times.  I then went back to my desk where my team leader could obviously see something was wrong and sent me home.
I then called my GP again and explained everything that happened, while at the same time still not being able to speak or think properly. I was then told that they would contact the neurologist, but they could only do it via writing and it could be 2 weeks before we hear back from them.
By this time I thought I was going crazy, as there was no answer to what was going on  and I presumed that my family and friends just though I was being anti-social or lazy, because I would just spend a lot of time in room on my own.

September 2016: The pain in my head and eye got worse again and I still couldn't think or speak properly, so my sister Natalie said that I should call 111 (The NHS Medical number) which I did and they advised me to go to Bournemouth Hospital (it was 8pm by then) so my Mama took me. After explaining everything that had happened and what was going on the Dr told me to go to my GP the next morning and put a note on my medical records for my GP to refer me to Poole hospital the next day. Which I did, and my Mama took me to Poole hospital. I had an MRI Scan (which I cried through because I'm so costrihphobic) we were there for a number of hours and I was kind of out of it - I hadn't taken any medication because I hadn't eaten and there wasn't really anywhere to get food. I remember being in the waiting room and hearing people speak but thinking they were all speaking foreign because I couldn't understand anything. But also saying to my Mama, if the MRI scan comes back clear I must be crazy.
Then when I was called in for them to explain my MRI Scan I don't remember it at all - I remember them starting to give me some medication and saying they were going to admit me to hospital and me feeling relieved that I wasn't crazy, but not know what was going on. I also remember looking at my Mama and her looking sad with a few tears in her eyes, but again I wasn't sure what was going on.

I was in hospital for 5 days and still really didn't understand anything, it was good that Natalie, Mama and Papa were there most of the time so that they could understand what was going on. I had a CT Scan the next day and then I needed an colonoscopy before they released me home.

By which time, I think I knew I had a brain tumour and I would be having brain surgery at Southampton hospital within 2 weeks. And would be contacted by the Neurologist there.

Then a week later I had an appointment with my oncologist who gave us the results of the CT Scan and the colonoscopy which was that I was diagnosed with bowel cancer which then spread to my brain where I had the tumour, but the bowel cancer was the primary cancer and it was incurable.
The CT Scan also showed up things on my lungs and liver so I had to have a PET scan as well - which did show that the cancer is on my lungs and liver too, but very small tumours.

Time for an update on my life

It has been years since I last did my blog, I really only did it when I was living in Sweden so family and friends could see what I was up to. Then when I moved back to England I guess I felt there wasn't much going on and that I was closer to all my family and friends so didn't need to write about anything.

But now there seems to be a reason and a request from some people for an update of what it going on now and what has happened in my life more recently.

As there are a few things that have happened over the past 12-6 months some of my first blog updates will be back dated and then I will probably do one every week,  just to try and keep more of an update for those that want to it.

So here is the first update:

March 2016: After being head hunted for Lieca Biosystems in Milton Keynes for being a Swedish speaking Customer Service Specialist to look after all of Sweden and thinking it would be an amazing job I moved there and worked there for 16 months. I loved meeting new people there and made some good friends, but unfortunately the management was not so good and after loosing staff in Sweden, some leaving and some being made redundant, I had no-one to help me or our customers. By this time I had started getting migraines and put it down to the stress of the job. I was referred to a Neurologist in December 2015 , but the appointment was 3 months away in March 2016.
The only thing I got from my manager was to work on the UK Sales Team, but I'm not into sales and if I was only going to do UK work I could do that by moving back to Poole so I could be closer to my family and the beach and that is what I did in March 2016, moved back home to live with my parents and Felicity.
But I did go to my Neurologist appointment the day before I left, where I was told that people with migraines are people of habit so I needed to try and create habits to stop the migraines.