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Cancer During A Pandemic
Strange Times
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An MRI Story
One To Forget
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One Year On
Has it been over a year?
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Anniversaries
Milestones Of Breast Cancer
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Summer Sun
Cor what a Scorcha!
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Peas In A Pod
Peas - small, green, innocuous vegetables.
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I Can't Get No Sleep
In 1995 Faithless sang to us about Insomnia.
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Ooph! Surgery!
More surgery and a Funeral
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Hello 2018
Please be kind...
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Goodbye 2017
At the end of 2017, I had time to reflect on what had happened during the year.
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Strictly Fab-u-lous
A month or so ago, I had a phone call from Grandma Julie asking me what I was doing on Saturday 30th of September.
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Versions of Me
In June this year, when we received the news that the cancer had spread into my shoulder and hips, Imy was upset that...
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Chemo Catch-up, etc.
Since the last post I've finished chemo, the kids have had their school holidays, we've been on our highly anticipate...
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Shovel List
In Marian Keyes' book, The Mystery of Mercy Close, we meet the main character, Helen Walsh.
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Last still counts.
On Sunday 9th June, accompanied by a group of friends, I managed to complete the Race For Life.
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Holidays, Birthdays & Bad News
As a family, the past month has been great!
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Headaches & Flashbacks
For the third time in 10 months I've been trying to come off Morphine.
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Singing, SATs and Flying Solo
The past few weeks have been quite busy!
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I'll Do It My Way
Like most people, I follow some newspapers on Facebook to keep up to date with the news.
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Turning 40
I made it!!!
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The Results Are In.
My latest scan has revealed there is no new cancer activity anywhere in my body.
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Herceptin #18
This is the magic number that usually hails the end of treatment.
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Memories - with Voices
As a family, we have an uncertain future.
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Stage 4 Cancerversary
The Queen has two birthday's, I have two Cancerversary's
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What A Year!
And not in a good way...
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Christmas 2016
(This a festive post).
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Safe Cycles
(This isn't a festive post).
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Railway Children
On Saturday, Felix and I had an Adventure!
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Morphine Moments
Over the summer holidays I had been keen to come off the Morphine.
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Back To School 2016
We roll into September and I have time to catch up with myself.
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Radio Ga Ga
I'm 5 into a course of 10 radiotherapy sessions.
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Birthdays, Races and other stuff...
Writing the blog this time round isn't as easy as it was when I had a primary diagnosis.
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Out the Otherside
It's been two weeks and five days since my surgery.
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What Half Term?
This half term is busy...
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The Boy is 8
8!
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The 'C' Word
And I don't mean the book...
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Secondary + Silver
Cancer. It's a word everyone is frightened of.
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Time marches on
I can't quite believe my last post was in January. It seems an age away, but time marches on.
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Fireside Eggs & Mother's Day
On Saturday night, Ross and I go out. Out!
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Sing When You're Winning
Once home, life starts to settle, into the new, new normal.
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I'm Going Home
Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig!
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Mini Gin Festival
Great Fun, Great Friends, Great Gin!
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Mascots
A brilliant, fantastic experience.
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It's my Birthday!
I'm going to party like it's my Birthday!
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Garden House Hospice
The word 'Hospice' isn't really very user friendly.
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Cyberknife
It sounds all very grand and space aged doesn't it?
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Charities
Macmillan Support
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Gin of Human Kindness
It's my birthday next week. I'll be 39.
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Brothers (Definitely not Grimm)
I have three brothers, Callum is a year and a half older than me, Regan is 5 years younger, and Max is 14 years younger.
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World Cancer Day
Today is World Cancer Day.
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Quirky Hospital
Tuesday morning starts at 3am.
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Monday was a good day.
Monday was a Greek Day!
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Relinquishing Control
I have my own ways of doing things.
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Tea, Crafts, Drugs and Class Assembly
Anyone who knows me, knows I drink coffee.
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It's 4am
Here I am, awake and waiting for the painkillers to kick in. It's all getting very tiresome.
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The Pain!
Things are starting to get harder for me.
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Singing through the pain
The phone has been ringing a lot at our house recently.
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Super Support
There's no right or wrong way to deal with life changing news, there's no rule book.
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Scans and Results
Yesterday, we went for the final scan.
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An unwelcome surprise
It's been a year since I last wrote, I was starting to believe I would only to come back to the blog as a visitor.
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The Long Weekend
Saturday started early again, with the usual pain waking me up.
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Another Day, Another Scan
I've been waking up in the night by the pain in my back.
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Bad Back, Bad News
After the upbeat nature of my last post, I'm afraid to say things aren't going to plan.
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Another New Year
Three years ago, we were thinking to ourselves that 2012 had been a pretty good year, and looking forward to another ...
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2nd Cancerversary
Today is my Cancerversary.
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New Boob Day
September 17th will from now on be known as 'New Boob Day'
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Long Time No See
It's been a long time since my last post.
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Facebook Follow-up
This post started off as a a Facebook Status update.
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Last Port
In November 2013, I had a Chemotherapy port fitted.
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Life Goes On
Winter is turning to Spring and all around us the buds of new beginnings are peaking up.
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Fighting Fit!
My Oncologist is keen that I don't turn into a blimp.
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Another long wait
Back in October 2013, I wrote a blog post called A Long Wait.
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Delays
It seems some things take their own sweet time.
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Wait...
Just a quick update after seeing the specialist yesterday.
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Lumps
I'm not a big fan of lumps where there shouldn't be lumps.
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Why I put myself through Dryathlon and Janathon
Huzzah! Drythalon is all but over and as I've just come back from a swim I've successfully completed Janathon!
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Scanxiety
Is that a word?
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In Remission
There's four magic words anyone who has been diagnosed with Cancer wants to hear.
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A Big Day
Today, I finished Active Treatment.
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New Year Resolutions
It's the time of year where we make resolutions and reflect on the past year.
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It's Christmas!!!
The Christmas period is upon us, and The Lawley's have been enjoying it.
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Its been a while
Hi, its been ages - 4 months and 20 something days since my last post!
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Retrospective
It's been quite odd to think that this time last year I was preparing for a course of events which would have such fa...
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November Newbies
A post all of it's own, because they deserve it.
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Because I can...
And because this is what the Internet is for...
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Once around the Sun
So, here we on on my 1 year Cancerversary.
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Charity Netball Tournament
The Gin Club decided to field a team in a local netball tournament.
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Back To School
All too soon, the holidays are over and it's back to school.
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Duck N Dash
As the final days of the summer holidays pass, Imogen makes the most of it.
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Missing Cats and Holidays
Merlin has gone missing.
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Summer Fun
The summer holidays have arrived and we are having fun!
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The Next Phase
I'm still having Herceptin every 3 weeks.
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Race for Life
After months of planning, Sunday finally came around and it was Race Day!
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Rads and Camping
Last Friday I completed 15 daily sessions of Radiotherapy, and then went camping for the weekend.
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Reasons I'm Lucky
I worry that this blog must be a bit dull when I'm just writing about what I've been up to.
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Closing a Chapter
Sometimes things happen that make you re-evaluate what is important to you.
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Change Of Plan
After saying I wasn't going to go out last night, I changed my mind.
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Glowing Slightly Green
I've finished the first week of radiotherapy. Only two weeks to go.
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Lanes
I'm a big fan of xkcd, its a geek thing.
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Tattoos and Scans
I'm aware that I haven't been writing much on the blog recently, but that's because not much has been happening, and ...
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Chemical Wednesday
It's been just over 5 weeks since my surgery, and things are returning to normal. The new normal.
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Family Time
The Easter weekend has been and gone, and we've had a great time as a family.
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Happiness and Sadness
This week has passed in a haze with the bairns and my Dad being around whilst I've been convalescing. They've potter...
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Pathology
Today we made the journey back to see the consultant surgeon today
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Impasse
This post has been such a long time coming but before I start I want to revisit the reason for this blog.
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No Makeup Selfies
It's 3am and I can't sleep.
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Worry, woes and welcome homes
Last Sunday was mothers day and this year it felt that it had felt like it had extra special meaning.
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55378008
I'm home after 5 days in hospital.
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Mother's Day
Today was lovely, and I felt very spoilt.
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Happy Anniversary
Today is our 9th wedding anniversary.
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Good to be home
We're back, and the washing machine is earning it's keep!
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Magical Memories
We've been at Center Parcs for four days now, and we've had a superb time.
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Holidays
It's been a while
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I'm oh so tired
I didn't make it to Anna's on Friday night. I had a bath and was asleep by 9pm.
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Normal?
I'm back at the leisure centre where I've written a few of these blog posts.
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Curve Ball
They say bad things come in three's. Well, I've just heard what the third one is.
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Tired
It's been two weeks since my last chemo.
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I'm frightened
I've spent so long trying to be strong and positive, I've surprised myself a little bit today by giving in to The Fear.
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End of Round One
I finished my first lot of chemotherapy today. Yay!
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DIY Dad
I would have written this post before now, but the chemo session I had on Friday has had me pretty much bed bound for...
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A tale of two cities
Dublin and New York in a week.
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Tears and tantrums
This week has had both good and bad parts - rollercoaster does it justice.
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Appointment after appointment
I've seen 4 different consultants this week, at three different hospitals. I've had scans, blood tests, as well as re...
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Reflection
I thought rather than the normal diary approach I'd step back and reflect.
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A Week Off
My chemotherapy has had a holiday this week.
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A Post from Imogen
Imogen decided she would like to put a post on the blog so we can see things from her perspective
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Ups and Downs
We always knew this journey was going to have it's ups and downs, but I think we've been quite lucky with it so far.
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Keeping on, keeping on.
On Wednesday, we were at two different hospitals.
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A hard week
It's been a tough old week that's left me physically and emotionally drained.
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Happy new year!
Well a brief hiatus is always going to be a good sign on this blog!
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Merry Christmas!
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
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Christmas spirit
Christmas is coming, we are in the quiet before the storm.
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Drip, drip, drip
The blood test results came back and it was all system's go for the Chemotherapy today.
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Genetics
We went to see the Oncologist, Dr Shah, today to see how I was getting on with new Chemotherapy regime.
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Wookiee no more
A quiet week really, work and life are cracking on well.
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It's oh so quiet!
Since Thursday's chemo and herceptin treatment, it's been quite quiet.
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On the Up
Monday to Wednesday this week were fairly normal.
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Festivities
As we roll into December, we're getting more and more festive.
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Busy bee
Another weekend sails by and the Christmas season is gathering pace.
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Hair Today...Gone Tomorrow
Two weeks after my first chemotherapy, my hair has started to fall out.
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Thanksgiving
Life is settling a little now, there's been no shocks, hospital visits, mild peril or panics for over a week! I like ...
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It's Christmas
I worked at home today. I slept badly again last night, so rather than spending energy driving to work, I thought it...
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Side Effects
It's been 5 and a half weeks since my diagnosis with Stage 2 breast cancer. It's been quite an eventful time. Our s...
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Yuck
Despite the chest pains and tiredness, I thought I was doing pretty well with the side effects of the chemotherapy.
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All change
I'm starting to think that late appointments are just a conspiracy to make you pay more parking.
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Life is a Rollercoaster
In the immortal words of one Ronan Keating "Life is a Rollercoaster, just got to ride it."
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Putting my foot in it.
Julia has slept relatively well but looks tired, so as planned I get up and get the kids ready for their swimming les...
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Accident and Emergency
Strange things happened in the night last night and Julia casually mentions some mild chest pain.
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Spanner in the works
Today didn't quite go as planned. It started at the hairdressers and ended at home after a 9 hour stint in A&E.
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Hospitals - waiting and warm radiators
It's been a stupendously busy week and I've been busy but have started feeling guilty I haven't put pen to paper or f...
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Herceptin treatment starts
I slept much better last night. And I'm so relieved. I suppose it's because I'd already done everything yesterday, ...
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The chemo starts
I managed another hour of sleep before I needed to get up and get ready to leave for the hospital.
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Who needs sleep?
5:45am and I've been awake since before 2am. After tossing and turning for ages, Ross woke up and suggested that I g...
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Perfect Heart
According to the ECG today, not only do I have a heart, (in your face doubters), I've got a perfect one.
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Busy, busy, busy
The last few days have been manic busy.
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More surgery
The past few days have passed by in a bit of a blur.
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Frustrations
There's been good bits and not so good bits to today.
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Drills, saws and holes
It's nice pottering at home again with Julia and getting work done. It's reassuring to be together and helps keep our...
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Scores on the Doors
We saw a clinical oncologist today for further treatment plans and more information.
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Swear It Again
I have an eclectic taste in music which ranges from the Eagles and Tom Petty, through Nina Simone, Duran Duran, Nickl...
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The next path
It's a strange thing, we've known it's cancer for 20 days and there have been diagnositic operations and MRI scans bu...
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Names
I received a letter today confirming in writing that I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in two different places.
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Sharks and Mermaids
I was hoping that I'd be back to some sort of normal by now, but that's not the case.
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A well earned hangover
Julia woke with her arm on fire, in the night she'd slept on it and was now awake and crying in pain.
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A fairly normal day
Today has been a good day. And a fairly normal one. It began with cuddles in bed with the bairns. I like those.
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A clean sheet
I awake at 4:30am not sure why, but I'm awake. What to do? Write a letter of course!
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More Scans
Yesterday was quiet. I spent most if it in bed but then got up when the nurse from the hospital rang to tell me I wa...
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A bucket full of washing
Julia has been in bed all morning, it took the nurse telling her to get out of bed rather than me to get her up.
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Spires and Surgery
Julia's operation was at Spire Harpenden - which as hospitals go, is pretty damn nice.
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Fireworks
Not really. I've hardly left my sick bed.
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Trick or Treat
Its up and at 'em, I'm keen to get Julia up North and to in the bosom of her family. Oops - can I say that now? I ask...
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Halloween Weekend
Why Aye we're off to the Toon!
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Good News
Back in the office today.
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A Long Night
I wake dazed and confused, Julia is crying and I hug her straight away.
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Jokes & Scans
I had my CT scan today. This involved having to drink a litre of sickly aniseed syrupy liquid (imagine Ouzo but with...
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Back to the Hospital
I slept well! Woot! I feel more normal and it's Julia's CT Scan today.
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Monday funday
Stormaggedon raged in the night and I missed it. Thats a good thing.
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Back to work
I went back to work today. Everything was the same, but everything was different.
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Sunday runday
Sunday starts with a lie-in and then a run. I had nearly bailed from a run with Adam but I was glad I took some me time.
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It's the weekend!
I got a couple of practical things sorted.
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Surprises & Fireworks
Caught Julia sleep walking last night, looking out the window. I slept better but woke early feeling incredibly angry...
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Normality creeps in
I'm back at the leisure centre two weeks on from the first post. Child No 1 is doing gymnastics and boy child is on ...
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Julia's Challenge
Woke at 6:15am after some trippy dreams. Out of nowhere I was feeling so down as if the emotions of the last few day...
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The next day
Today has passed in a bit of a blur.
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The day after
It's 4:30am and we are up, frett and worry are our new best friends.
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The longest day
A long day. I managed to get work done and felt strangely calm before heading off to the hospital for Julia's result...
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Results day
Today has been a long day. The appointment for the results if my tests was at 4pm.
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Mummy day
Well it's Thursday. Which means tomorrow is Friday and a Mummy day. I like Mummy days.
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Feeling more positive
Today has been a good day. Certainly more positive. I've been kept busy, maybe that's why.
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A long wait
I'm at the Leisure Centre at the moment. Child No 1 is in her gymnastics class and Boy Child is sat with me playing ...