Nearly There!

Sometimes there is sorrow

And sometimes there is pain

Often there is grief

And no one to blame.

The land of limbo

Is coming to an end

Yet the journey hardens

With every step.

Let it go

And let it be

The mantra continues

Find my qi and peace will follow.

Number 9 done today. 3 more weeks and no more Chemo. God this has been one hell of a journey, a rollercoaster of emotions at both extremes. I have felt both sorrow and love like never before and those are good things because at least I can feel these emotions, so I tell myself. Hey I have to make myself feel better!

So, my acupuncture and the needles going in to the port really hurt last week, to the point that my eyes welled up and the nurse commented on it being the first time she had seen me cry. That’s how painful it was! When the acupuncture needles went in, oh boy 2 of them really hurt and then this morning. It was an extreme f…ing moment where the needle reverberated one of my nerves and the therapist had to take the needle out. This means the anxiety kicks in because now you expect one of the next needles, she inserts, to set off another nerve. I wait in anticipation as the anxiety begins to build. Now then, I say to myself, where is that rational side, rational, pational, I say just deal with the emotions, she is telling you that it is unlikely to happen so trust the professional. In the meantime my son is trying to distract me by playing the trailer to the latest season of dare devil. It’s a marvel series on Netflix and yes I am sad but it keeps me entertained. In fact I have learned more about the marvel universe this year than anything else, thanks son!

Yesterday when I went in for my bloods. The nurse, who has now taken my bloods for the last 3 weeks and has been great. Alison, cleans the inside of my elbow, places the rubber band around my arm as I make a fist, sitting in a blue chair, in a clinical room with a desk on the right. We talk about giving up smoking, she’s been vaping. I tell I have one and will get it out. She inserts the needle into my arm, just after she tells there is going to be a sharp scratch. No blood comes, oh not again, I think, please don’t let that happen again. She jiggles the needle a little bit but nothing happens. Then she pushes on the needle and all of a sudden I hear a pop, sorry guys if that is too much detail, but something popped and blood came rushing out.

I could tell she wasn’t comfortable doing that and later said she felt the vain was pushing against the needle and albeit not experienced this with me, she had experienced it with other patients undergoing Chemo. She informed me that one of the side effects of Chemo can be the veins become thicker and that would also explain why I had felt in a lot more pain last week also.

Who knows! Was it because of the Chemo or was it because I had a particularly stressful week and the hot flushes had returned to normal and were coming thick and fast night, so I had been sleep deprived. The acupuncturist believed my nerves were extra sensitive because of the additional stress in life.

So I decided to look in to what happens when your body is under considerable stress, like mine. Well our brain releases a chemical called cortisol and by the way this is only own interpretation of the chemical reactions that go on in the body, and even that derived itself from google. Sometimes I think our younger generations will be clones of google. Anyhow the body goes into a fight or flight response when the brain perceives danger, during this time the brain releases a chemical called cortisol and one of the side effects of having huge amounts of cortisol in your body is that your body starts to fight itself and you develop auto immune responses. So I developed these little lumps over my fingers which became quite inflamed last week. Another thing I learned was that cortisol can have deleterious effects on the immune system and thus delays the body healing itself. All of this is interesting and it sort of explains why we as humans develop individual responses to coping with stress.

That is in no way to say that I’m not feeling sorry for myself, I feel incredibly let down by some people, yet others have extended warmth during this particularly difficult period. One of my friends described it as being a mole burrowing in a dark tunnel and not being able to see any light but eventually the burrowing becomes tiresome and you just want to give up. Even returning to work is extremely appealing at this moment despite it being extremely stressful. So what does that say about me! Well I know it tells me that this journey was really long and there is nothing I want more than to return to my normal life. I have now seen the Oncologist for the last time, unless I develop any unusual  symptoms in the last 3 weeks of Chemo and that is definitely something worth celebrating!

The last 3 weeks and weekend have been like this, despite trying to get clarification on things and trying to resolve issues, I realised that I can’t do this alone and if people are not willing to meet me half way, then what am I doing, just banging my head against a brick wall. So the definition of insanity comes to mind, ‘doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome’. This had to stop, I no longer want to do the same thing over and over so I took some control. There are some situations in life which you cannot change because others are unwilling to compromise and without compromise no 2 people can build a relationship of any sort. future.

One of the first steps of the 12 step program is admitting that we are powerless over alcohol and out lives had become unmanageable. I realised whilst attending Al Anon that you could apply this step to any situation in life and that is exactly what I did with the cancer and any other situation that has occurred since. The acceptance of being powerless allowed me to accept that I have no control over what is happening and therefore I am powerless. Being powerless, to me, meant that I am not in control of what is happening to me but what I can control is how I deal with the situation because I am in control of what I eat, what help I access and how I manage my own emotions and I am learning everyday about myself and who I have become during this journey.

Some of the things I have learned about myself through this journey is that I am actually important. As an Asian woman of my generation I was brought up to focus on everybody else except myself, to put my fathers and mothers needs first, to put my brothers needs first, to put the family first, to put my husband’s needs first and then as a mother to put my children’s needs before my own. Now I am putting my own needs first, not by being selfish but being assertive and looking after myself. So on that note I highly recommend acupuncture to anyone who is going through the menopause. I have now  had 3 sessions where needles are inserted into pressure points on m y feet and legs and albeit I am still having hot flushes they are much calmer than they were originally and less frequent. The other therapy I would highly recommend is reflexology, not only is it extremely relaxing but it’s also extremely therapeutic. If you live in London or the surrounding counties and you have breast cancer you can access these therapies at the Breast Cancer Haven. The clinic is a charitable organisation and an excellent resource for anyone suffering with this condition and you can find more information about the clinic in the following article that was written by my friend who attended the induction with me and on their website. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/breast-cancer-haven-all-helen-moss-black?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_inshare%3BRNjOHqJkR%2Fip6jt%2BS1sVyQ%3D%3D