Took a phone call from an Oncologist Nurse. They are trialing a new scheme to check in with patients and carry out assessments of ‘the story so far’. There is a ‘story so far’, and she has phoned me to listen to mine. So she gets it. A succinct version of the last four cycles and it’s effects on me and my mental health. She swaps my story with empathy and is actually honest with me telling me she has never been in my position and cannot completely understand how hard it can be modifying my life to accommodate chemo.
Her honesty hots the spot. That’s how you address a woman half way through chemotherapy.
27 minutes later and I feel very much invigorated. She met me where I needed to be met and juggled my inquiries and fears with professionalism and confidence. I have not always been met with such solid care since I found the lump in my breast. I have found some health professionals to be flaky and incompetent and when you have cancer, you need more than anything else (other than to survive it) is to feel you are in safe hands. This short conversation is what I need to fill up the optimism tank and get me through another few days. If your tank is empty you will stall. Simple as that.
Friday night was wig washing night. I’ve brought all the right shampoo’s and hair care for human hair ready for the job in hand. I have not been able to get to actually see my hairdresser since I got the wig which is disappointing as I could really do with her guidance on this. I don’t think I am fitting it correctly.
I blow dried it using my husband’s head. My God – total respect for hairdressers – I had no co-ordination and found it really hard to hold the hairdryer, and hairbrush aiming it at the tight place. I could not get these two movements to coincide without the help of my husband and my inner thighs! Appears the hairdryer fits quite nicely in the thigh gap!!
As we do this together tonight it dawns on me that no where in our vows did he state “I, Mark Lester promise to allow you to use me as a human head stand so you can blow dry, style and straighten your wig when you have cancer’.
But let’s be honest here…I would NEVER have married him if looked like this!!
