Making The Breast Of It

Well, my experience is that most aspects of cancer treatment are definitely not funny, but if I was to write a book about it I'd be tempted to call it "Cancer gave me golfer's elbow".

Because it did. Also because the various treatments throw up such a wide range of random (and silly) effects alongside the inconvenient (hairloss) and scary (heart damage).

With surgery, I avoided lymphodema, though I now have a life-long risk of it. However, I did get golfer's elbow, probably from using the arm too much after the six-weeks of lifting nothing more than a kilo.

With chemo, I avoided heart damage, wretching nausea, flat-on-the-floor exhaustion, neutrofilia and hospitalisation with infections. My finger nails went black but they didn't fall out. I have peripheral neuropathy but it seems to be easing slowly. I did get to enjoy the love and support of family and friends. And I discovered that insensitive house guests become the house guests from hell when you're doing chemo.

I discovered that I can probably get through anything if I turn it into a culinary challenge - I went vegan for three months and enjoyed lots of new food. My lovely husband came along for the ride.

I think all of us find times when the situation is just so awful/ridiculous that we have to laugh. Maybe you can find a way to include the shitty stuff and the ladies who can laugh at it. I was lucky to avoid most of the really shitty stuff.

I hope your book goes well and you have a lot of pleasure putting it together.

Gillian