Thursday 20 December 2012

Christmas thoughts



Well Christmas is almost upon us and another year looming. We have just been getting on with usual festive preparations. We have gone a bit OTT with decorations this year but what the heck! These are special times and the grandies will love it!.


I am not sure what the New Year holds for us – Mr Nasty is progressing this we know, so another regime of chemo is almost certain but I won’t think about that until it happens cos it scares the hell out of me. I have several hospital appointments and yet another scan in January – ho hum! So we live for today and give it everything we’ve got. I have a few targets to meet in 2013 – a wedding in April and a silver wedding party in June.

‘I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat.  I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!’
~Dr. Seuss

 I wish you all a very happy Christmas and special wishes to those spending Christmas alone - not through choice - and thank you for following the blog. I hope you will continue with me on my journey in 2013.
Special thoughts to Mesowarriors and their families everywhere - maybe 2013 will bring news of a breakthough in treatment so we can move from 'palliative' to 'curative'. God bless you all 


Tess x

Thursday 6 December 2012

Carrots, Canterbury and old Chums

The last few weeks seem to have flown by and we are into December already. It is very cold here in Kent as it is all over the UK. We seem to have our own little microclimate in Westgate and the weather forecasters so often get it wrong. Alan has been busy harvesting the last of the crops from the garden. This week's carrots came in various shapes and sizes - definately would not meet EU regulations. I will make no comment about the big boy in the front of the photo!

Posing carrots!



It seems that carrots are growing well in Toronto also

Lilah should be able to see in the dark!





Tess, Janice, Tony
We enjoyed a weekend with friends Janice & Tony who came down from Stokesley in N Yorkshire. We had a lot to catch up with as you can imagine much vino was consumed with good food. We had a very enjoyable day in Canterbury. We found a little cafe/bar that was getting in the Christmas spirit. The decorations were not finished yet but it was already so over-the-top and tacky that it looked really great! We then had a good meal in Deeson's which is one of our favourite restaurants. We took them on a whistlestop round the coast but in it wind and heavy rain we were not able to do much walking.







This week we have met up with Harry, Vicky & Gareth  which of course entailed another lunch out! Great to see all and thanks for the gorgeous plants and Ethan's Arsenal ball!

Healthwise things have been fairly quiet (this is good). Walking in the cold wind and damp is difficult but getting out each day is still a priority. Emotionally thing have been getting difficult but I am taking steps to remedy this. In my last blog (17 Nov) I mentioned Peter who had gone into a hospice - sadly he too passed away and his funeral was this week. Sending love to his wife Elaine and family. Other meso warriors Jan and Steve continue to do battle with chemo.

We are all watching this story as mesothelioma needs many more trials and innovative treatments if there is ever to be  a cure:

Lord Saatchi launches campaign to speed up cancer cures

By Marina Soteriou, 05 December 2012

Conservative peer Lord Saatchi has launched a campaign to speed up cancer cures by increasing freedom for doctors to stray away from standard medical procedures without fear of litigation.

Lord Saatchi: law restricts progress on curing cancer (photo: Marketing)
Lord Saatchi: law restricts progress on curing cancer (photo: Marketing)
Josephine HartLord Saatchi, whose wife Josephine Hart, pictured, died from peritoneal cancer last year, launched a private members' bill - the Medical Innovation Bill - at the House of Lords on Monday.
The law in its current form 'provides no inducement to progress' in curing cancer because it means that any deviation by a doctor from standard procedure leaves them open to claims of medical negligence, Lord Saatchi believes.
‘This is a deterrent to innovation in cancer treatment,’ he said.
‘Standard procedure is clearly defined in law as the practice which would be followed by a group of medical practitioners skilled in the particular area of medicine in question.’
Through the Medical Innovation Bill, Lord Saatchi said he wishes to encourage doctors to seek improvement on the standard procedure. One of the bill’s purposes is to ‘codify existing best practice as to decisions by doctors to innovate where evidence-based treatment or management is not optimal or appropriate, because the available evidence is insufficient or uncertain’.
Joined at the launch by fellow Conservative peer and chairman of the Institute of Cancer Research Lord Ryder and Oxford University’s ovarian cancer specialist Professor Ahmed, Lord Saatchi admitted that the Bill was unlikely to become law.
He said it was unlikely to be successful unless it was picked up and backed by the government.
He added: ‘It is more likely that the government is going to say "all is well, we are investing tremendous amounts in research, there’s great work going on. We in the government are fully aware of the problem and there is no government on Earth that could be doing more than we are doing therefore this bill is completely unnecessary".
‘That is what they are going to say unless we talk them out of that and we are all going to try very hard. Whether we succeed or not I don’t know.
‘Today is the beginning of a long journey.’

Article taken from GP magazine.

Tess x