Big Lump and the Lawleys

  1. Tough Days Ahead

  2. Cancer During A Pandemic

    Strange Times

  3. An MRI Story

    One To Forget

  4. One Year On

    Has it been over a year?

  5. Anniversaries

    Milestones Of Breast Cancer

  6. Jaws

  7. Summer Sun

    Cor what a Scorcha!

  8. Peas In A Pod

    Peas - small, green, innocuous vegetables.

  9. I Can't Get No Sleep

    In 1995 Faithless sang to us about Insomnia.

  10. Ooph! Surgery!

    More surgery and a Funeral

  11. Hello 2018

    Please be kind...

  12. Goodbye 2017

    At the end of 2017, I had time to reflect on what had happened during the year.

  13. 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.

  14. 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...

  15. 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...

  16. Shovel List

    In Marian Keyes' book, The Mystery of Mercy Close, we meet the main character, Helen Walsh.

  17. Last still counts.

    On Sunday 9th June, accompanied by a group of friends, I managed to complete the Race For Life.

  18. Holidays, Birthdays & Bad News

    As a family, the past month has been great!

  19. Headaches & Flashbacks

    For the third time in 10 months I've been trying to come off Morphine.

  20. Singing, SATs and Flying Solo

    The past few weeks have been quite busy!

  21. I'll Do It My Way

    Like most people, I follow some newspapers on Facebook to keep up to date with the news.

  22. Turning 40

    I made it!!!

  23. The Results Are In.

    My latest scan has revealed there is no new cancer activity anywhere in my body.

  24. Herceptin #18

    This is the magic number that usually hails the end of treatment.

  25. Memories - with Voices

    As a family, we have an uncertain future.

  26. Stage 4 Cancerversary

    The Queen has two birthday's, I have two Cancerversary's

  27. What A Year!

    And not in a good way...

  28. Christmas 2016

    (This a festive post).

  29. Safe Cycles

    (This isn't a festive post).

  30. Quarterly Scan

  31. Half Term

  32. Railway Children

    On Saturday, Felix and I had an Adventure!

  33. Morphine Moments

    Over the summer holidays I had been keen to come off the Morphine.

  34. Back To School 2016

    We roll into September and I have time to catch up with myself.

  35. Radio Ga Ga

    I'm 5 into a course of 10 radiotherapy sessions.

  36. Birthdays, Races and other stuff...

    Writing the blog this time round isn't as easy as it was when I had a primary diagnosis.

  37. Out the Otherside

    It's been two weeks and five days since my surgery.

  38. What Half Term?

    This half term is busy...

  39. The Boy is 8

    8!

  40. The 'C' Word

    And I don't mean the book...

  41. Secondary + Silver

    Cancer. It's a word everyone is frightened of.

  42. Time marches on

    I can't quite believe my last post was in January. It seems an age away, but time marches on.

  43. Fireside Eggs & Mother's Day

    On Saturday night, Ross and I go out. Out!

  44. Sing When You're Winning

    Once home, life starts to settle, into the new, new normal.

  45. I'm Going Home

    Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig!

  46. Mini Gin Festival

    Great Fun, Great Friends, Great Gin!

  47. Mascots

    A brilliant, fantastic experience.

  48. It's my Birthday!

    I'm going to party like it's my Birthday!

  49. Garden House Hospice

    The word 'Hospice' isn't really very user friendly.

  50. Cyberknife

    It sounds all very grand and space aged doesn't it?

  51. Charities

    Macmillan Support

  52. Gin of Human Kindness

    It's my birthday next week. I'll be 39.

  53. 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.

  54. World Cancer Day

    Today is World Cancer Day.

  55. Quirky Hospital

    Tuesday morning starts at 3am.

  56. Monday was a good day.

    Monday was a Greek Day!

  57. Relinquishing Control

    I have my own ways of doing things.

  58. Tea, Crafts, Drugs and Class Assembly

    Anyone who knows me, knows I drink coffee.

  59. It's 4am

    Here I am, awake and waiting for the painkillers to kick in. It's all getting very tiresome.

  60. The Pain!

    Things are starting to get harder for me.

  61. Singing through the pain

    The phone has been ringing a lot at our house recently.

  62. Super Support

    There's no right or wrong way to deal with life changing news, there's no rule book.

  63. Scans and Results

    Yesterday, we went for the final scan.

  64. 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.

  65. The Long Weekend

    Saturday started early again, with the usual pain waking me up.

  66. Another Day, Another Scan

    I've been waking up in the night by the pain in my back.

  67. Bad Back, Bad News

    After the upbeat nature of my last post, I'm afraid to say things aren't going to plan.

  68. Another New Year

    Three years ago, we were thinking to ourselves that 2012 had been a pretty good year, and looking forward to another ...

  69. 2nd Cancerversary

    Today is my Cancerversary.

  70. New Boob Day

    September 17th will from now on be known as 'New Boob Day'

  71. Long Time No See

    It's been a long time since my last post.

  72. Facebook Follow-up

    This post started off as a a Facebook Status update.

  73. Last Port

    In November 2013, I had a Chemotherapy port fitted.

  74. Life Goes On

    Winter is turning to Spring and all around us the buds of new beginnings are peaking up.

  75. Fighting Fit!

    My Oncologist is keen that I don't turn into a blimp.

  76. Another long wait

    Back in October 2013, I wrote a blog post called A Long Wait.

  77. Delays

    It seems some things take their own sweet time.

  78. Wait...

    Just a quick update after seeing the specialist yesterday.

  79. Lumps

    I'm not a big fan of lumps where there shouldn't be lumps.

  80. 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!

  81. Scanxiety

    Is that a word?

  82. In Remission

    There's four magic words anyone who has been diagnosed with Cancer wants to hear.

  83. A Big Day

    Today, I finished Active Treatment.

  84. New Year Resolutions

    It's the time of year where we make resolutions and reflect on the past year.

  85. It's Christmas!!!

    The Christmas period is upon us, and The Lawley's have been enjoying it.

  86. Its been a while

    Hi, its been ages - 4 months and 20 something days since my last post!

  87. 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...

  88. November Newbies

    A post all of it's own, because they deserve it.

  89. Because I can...

    And because this is what the Internet is for...

  90. Once around the Sun

    So, here we on on my 1 year Cancerversary.

  91. Charity Netball Tournament

    The Gin Club decided to field a team in a local netball tournament.

  92. Back To School

    All too soon, the holidays are over and it's back to school.

  93. Duck N Dash

    As the final days of the summer holidays pass, Imogen makes the most of it.

  94. Missing Cats and Holidays

    Merlin has gone missing.

  95. Summer Fun

    The summer holidays have arrived and we are having fun!

  96. The Next Phase

    I'm still having Herceptin every 3 weeks.

  97. Race for Life

    After months of planning, Sunday finally came around and it was Race Day!

  98. Rads and Camping

    Last Friday I completed 15 daily sessions of Radiotherapy, and then went camping for the weekend.

  99. 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.

  100. Closing a Chapter

    Sometimes things happen that make you re-evaluate what is important to you.

  101. Change Of Plan

    After saying I wasn't going to go out last night, I changed my mind.

  102. Glowing Slightly Green

    I've finished the first week of radiotherapy. Only two weeks to go.

  103. Lanes

    I'm a big fan of xkcd, its a geek thing.

  104. 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 ...

  105. Springtime

  106. Chemical Wednesday

    It's been just over 5 weeks since my surgery, and things are returning to normal. The new normal.

  107. Family Time

    The Easter weekend has been and gone, and we've had a great time as a family.

  108. 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...

  109. Pathology

    Today we made the journey back to see the consultant surgeon today

  110. Impasse

    This post has been such a long time coming but before I start I want to revisit the reason for this blog.

  111. No Makeup Selfies

    It's 3am and I can't sleep.

  112. 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.

  113. 55378008

    I'm home after 5 days in hospital.

  114. Mother's Day

    Today was lovely, and I felt very spoilt.

  115. Happy Anniversary

    Today is our 9th wedding anniversary.

  116. Good to be home

    We're back, and the washing machine is earning it's keep!

  117. Magical Memories

    We've been at Center Parcs for four days now, and we've had a superb time.

  118. Holidays

    It's been a while

  119. 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.

  120. Normal?

    I'm back at the leisure centre where I've written a few of these blog posts.

  121. Curve Ball

    They say bad things come in three's. Well, I've just heard what the third one is.

  122. Tired

    It's been two weeks since my last chemo.

  123. 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.

  124. End of Round One

    I finished my first lot of chemotherapy today. Yay!

  125. 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...

  126. A tale of two cities

    Dublin and New York in a week.

  127. Tears and tantrums

    This week has had both good and bad parts - rollercoaster does it justice.

  128. 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...

  129. Reflection

    I thought rather than the normal diary approach I'd step back and reflect.

  130. A Week Off

    My chemotherapy has had a holiday this week.

  131. A Post from Imogen

    Imogen decided she would like to put a post on the blog so we can see things from her perspective

  132. 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.

  133. Keeping on, keeping on.

    On Wednesday, we were at two different hospitals.

  134. A hard week

    It's been a tough old week that's left me physically and emotionally drained.

  135. Happy new year!

    Well a brief hiatus is always going to be a good sign on this blog!

  136. Merry Christmas!

    It's the most wonderful time of the year.

  137. Christmas spirit

    Christmas is coming, we are in the quiet before the storm.

  138. Drip, drip, drip

    The blood test results came back and it was all system's go for the Chemotherapy today.

  139. Genetics

    We went to see the Oncologist, Dr Shah, today to see how I was getting on with new Chemotherapy regime.

  140. Wookiee no more

    A quiet week really, work and life are cracking on well.

  141. It's oh so quiet!

    Since Thursday's chemo and herceptin treatment, it's been quite quiet.

  142. On the Up

    Monday to Wednesday this week were fairly normal.

  143. Festivities

    As we roll into December, we're getting more and more festive.

  144. Busy bee

    Another weekend sails by and the Christmas season is gathering pace.

  145. Hair Today...Gone Tomorrow

    Two weeks after my first chemotherapy, my hair has started to fall out.

  146. Thanksgiving

    Life is settling a little now, there's been no shocks, hospital visits, mild peril or panics for over a week! I like ...

  147. 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...

  148. 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...

  149. Yuck

    Despite the chest pains and tiredness, I thought I was doing pretty well with the side effects of the chemotherapy.

  150. All change

    I'm starting to think that late appointments are just a conspiracy to make you pay more parking.

  151. Life is a Rollercoaster

    In the immortal words of one Ronan Keating "Life is a Rollercoaster, just got to ride it."

  152. 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...

  153. Accident and Emergency

    Strange things happened in the night last night and Julia casually mentions some mild chest pain.

  154. 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.

  155. 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...

  156. 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, ...

  157. The chemo starts

    I managed another hour of sleep before I needed to get up and get ready to leave for the hospital.

  158. 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...

  159. Perfect Heart

    According to the ECG today, not only do I have a heart, (in your face doubters), I've got a perfect one.

  160. Busy, busy, busy

    The last few days have been manic busy.

  161. More surgery

    The past few days have passed by in a bit of a blur.

  162. Frustrations

    There's been good bits and not so good bits to today.

  163. 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...

  164. Scores on the Doors

    We saw a clinical oncologist today for further treatment plans and more information.

  165. Swear It Again

    I have an eclectic taste in music which ranges from the Eagles and Tom Petty, through Nina Simone, Duran Duran, Nickl...

  166. 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...

  167. Names

    I received a letter today confirming in writing that I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in two different places.

  168. Sharks and Mermaids

    I was hoping that I'd be back to some sort of normal by now, but that's not the case.

  169. 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.

  170. 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.

  171. A clean sheet

    I awake at 4:30am not sure why, but I'm awake. What to do? Write a letter of course!

  172. 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...

  173. 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.

  174. Spires and Surgery

    Julia's operation was at Spire Harpenden - which as hospitals go, is pretty damn nice.

  175. Fireworks

    Not really. I've hardly left my sick bed.

  176. 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...

  177. Halloween Weekend

    Why Aye we're off to the Toon!

  178. Good News

    Back in the office today.

  179. A Long Night

    I wake dazed and confused, Julia is crying and I hug her straight away.

  180. Jokes & Scans

    I had my CT scan today. This involved having to drink a litre of sickly aniseed syrupy liquid (imagine Ouzo but with...

  181. Back to the Hospital

    I slept well! Woot! I feel more normal and it's Julia's CT Scan today.

  182. Monday funday

    Stormaggedon raged in the night and I missed it. Thats a good thing.

  183. Back to work

    I went back to work today. Everything was the same, but everything was different.

  184. 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.

  185. It's the weekend!

    I got a couple of practical things sorted.

  186. Surprises & Fireworks

    Caught Julia sleep walking last night, looking out the window. I slept better but woke early feeling incredibly angry...

  187. 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 ...

  188. 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...

  189. The next day

    Today has passed in a bit of a blur.

  190. The day after

    It's 4:30am and we are up, frett and worry are our new best friends.

  191. 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...

  192. Results day

    Today has been a long day. The appointment for the results if my tests was at 4pm.

  193. Mummy day

    Well it's Thursday. Which means tomorrow is Friday and a Mummy day. I like Mummy days.

  194. Feeling more positive

    Today has been a good day. Certainly more positive. I've been kept busy, maybe that's why.

  195. 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 ...