22. 10th Nov...Up to speed

Well after 10 days trying to remember everything that's happened and attempt to make it readable for you I have found myself up to the current day. I spent the weekend sipping warm hot chocolate off the side of a soup spoon and nursing my mouth in fear I would get 'dry socket' ( everything else that could go wrong has, so..... :S )

But here I am 3 days post extraction, and with very little pain relief over the weekend, I finally managed a piece of toast again for breakfast, chewed obviously on the other side, and once again for the second time in the last 4 weeks I am looking forward to not having pain or the taste of blood in my mouth hopefully by the end of the week. My lovely hairdresser Dee has herself been quite poorly and the 1 appointment I thought I might be lucky enough to fit in before I have treatment got cancelled last week. So I was resigned to the fact that I probably wasn't gong to win any glamour awards for the next 6 months hair wise. But this morning she messaged and has managed to squeeze me in for a few highlights next week so at least the first couple of months I won't look 'greasy/rooty'. The radiotherapy nurse Tracey rung on Friday whilst we were on the way home from the dentists and I missed her call, but her voice mail said she was ringing to arrange the mask fitting and mapping appointment. After ringing in this morning, she rung back and told me its on 20th, and I'll be there for a couple of hours around mid day. At least I haven't got to get up early for that one, depending on how I'm feeling I might even attempt to drive there, something I really want to try to do for the first couple of weeks of treatment if I can, to cut down the amount of times I have to ask people to take me, or get hospital transport which can be very long winded and hit and miss. I have been on the train when I went to the Nuffield to see 'Nicola the Bum Dr', but I have to buy a first class ticket to travel in a basically empty carriage so there aren't many people/germs to freak me out, get a taxi to and from the station and the cost ( around £60 per trip) combined with the fact the trains only run hourly so you end up having to sit and wait for ages to get back, seems more than out the question in the long term for the actual treatments everyday for 6 weeks especially over Christmas. If the schedule for my treatments came back as being mornings Paul could drive me, but then we have the problem of Lottie so he's not even being considered as an option at the moment as he has to take charge as 'spare' human when I'm not here, and he's away in America for a week in the middle. But I will make it work somehow.

But for today, I'm just happy of the rest, happy to know for the next 20 days I only have to go somewhere where they want to scare me, prod me, stick needles in me or put me in places I'd give anything not to be there 1 more time, and then finally I can do what I need to do to try and get better. Now it starts getting real!

Its not going to be easy but my options have always been limited.

So I have a pile of very big girl pants at the ready and the sound of my grandma's voice telling me to just 'get it done' ringing in my ears.