21-Cold Turkey and a CAT

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All in all, I'm happy to report a pretty good month of improvement. Some the pain has gone. Well, my pain that is. I'm still a pain to my lovely suffering wife, who has to contend with my regular moans and groans! Eating has become easier in terms of swallowing, but unfortunately my sense of taste is still minimal, which makes for a less than enjoyable eating experience. A minor issue in the big scheme of things, but a bugger to someone like me who really enjoys his food.

Of course, this has also had some 'upside' in that I've now lost aorund 33kg / 5 stones / 73lb since January of this year. I'm well happy with this - but my NHS dietician not so.

Dropped 3 dress sizes too, from 5xl to xxl. Actually, the photo from this Tuesday shows an xxl shirt - and even that's becoming a bit baggy too 🙂

Cold Turkey

As I mentioned, all the pain has subsided now - so I was preparing to ease off the morphine. I've have been quite hooked - being on a pretty high dose since mid-May.

Oh - easier said than done! I mentioned it at last months hospital meeting and they seemed pretty cool about it. 'Just ease off the dose over a while' they said. But perhaps their idea of a 'while' was a few weeks, whereas Wozzers idea was 3 days..

Oh boy oh boy, I really went cold turkey last week. I was a real mess, with the typical junkie runny nose, aching joints and mad dreams. I put up with it for a few days and was tempted to start on the morphine again. I spoke with my GP after 4 days and she said I should be over it in a couple more days - and she was quite correct. By the weekend, I was back to my normal (mad) self, instead of a drug-induced mad self.

PET/CT Scan

Yesterday I had my first scan post treatment. As they promised for September. It was a CT scan with 'contrast'

It was a full-body scan, one to check on the treatment so far and two, to check if there's any further spread of cancer. This is pretty much the main concern of every cancer patient post-initial treatment.

The procedure itself is painless. It starts with an IV/drip of saline with a mild radioactive drug, which shows areas of the body where cells are more active than normal, indicating the possibility of cancer. This is the 'contrast' bit.

CT (CAT) Scan

A CT scan is a test that uses x-rays and a computer to create detailed pictures of the inside of the body. It takes pictures from different angles. The computer puts them together to make a 3 dimensional (3D) image.

My medical team will have the scans this week  and will discuss during the next week. I'll have the results good or bad, within a couple of weeks from now. Hopefully in time for our coffee morning zoom video meetings on the 25th September. Which brings me nicely on to updating you with the details...

I'm pretty much ready for the ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, on 25th September 2020. I’m hoping to chit chat with friends, colleagues and family around the world – so I’ll be hosting the video ‘meetings’ for 12 hours (7am to 7pm UK time). Please, please join at any time that suits you.

This should allow coffee mornings in the US, coffee afternoons in the UK and Europe and Beer O’Clock for those in the Far East and down under. Hopefully you’ll all fine some time to get online with me – even if only for a few minutes. Donate the cost of a coffee or two and we’ll be eternally grateful. It all counts and all donations are going to a great cause.

 

WIN THIS UNQUE COFFEE MUG

With a thank you note and spersonally signed by Wozzer!

This Macmillan Coffee Morning mug will be posted to the winner anywhere in the world - subject of course to delivery being available. I might even put a stamp on!

All zoom visitors get one entry, and the winner will be picked by an online random generator thingy.

I’m using Zoom Video Meetings for the all-day fundraiser.

It will work on all devices (Windows, Apple, Android etc), it's FREE to use and can be downloaded in advance by clicking here

If you don't download in advance, clicking this MEETING link, should start the download automatically:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73794084522?pwd=TER5amVWN3FVbUdJbVZRNVhyaHBJZz09

Just say yes to the permissions it requests (use audio, video etc) and you’ll be good to go in just a few minutes. If it asks for meeting ID or Passcode they are shown here:
Meeting ID: 737 9408 4522
Passcode: 8cmAGM

Also my Macmillan donations page can be viewed by clicking this text

or this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/warren-garber

If you have any problems on the day, please SMS or WhatsApp to me on +44 770 82 92 274

Finally (for now), please feel free to share this post with anyone you might think would like to join-in.

Hopefully see you some time on the 25th xx

4 thoughts on “21-Cold Turkey and a CAT”

  1. Neil

    Good to hear you are feeling better and off the drugs, looking good mate , here’s hoping the scan is all clear
    Cheers
    Neil

    Yeah, but missing my morphine (a bit) 😉

    Reply
  2. Gillian Laskier

    Fingers, eyes, legs – everything crossed for the results!
    And very very very best wishes for a happy and healthy new year! Gillian xx

    Hey Gillian
    Thanks and the same to you all. Catch up on zoom next week?
    xxx

    Reply
  3. Brad

    Super positive read and really great to hear you’re off the meds, glad you’re over that hurdle now… and I must say, you’re looking great (sorry dietician)

    Sent across a little donation via Macmillan and will be sure to say hello on Zoom.

    Very much looking forward to that beer, not long now!

    Reply
  4. Phil Baker

    Good onya woz. You’ve done so well. Maybe when all thi other crap is over we will come over and see you guys

    Hope so Phil. That would be a great get-together

    Reply

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