Chemo gets mean and special cushions are required…

It appears I’m not going to coast through the chemotherapy quite as easily as I thought last week. That’ll teach me to be smug.  The last few days have not been great - still nowhere like as bad as I’d imagined initially, but not great.  It appears these experts do know what they’re talking about when they say week 2 is the tough one.  Nobody likes a smartarse ;-)   I won’t go into too much detail because it’s dull, suffice to say though that I’ve managed to end up with my arse in the air again – more of which later – and have had had to keep and ‘show off’ the more impressive globules of phlegm I’ve been producing.  Delightful stuff! 

I haven’t let any of this dent my determination though – I’d  say I’ve taken a hit, but I’m not even looking at the canvas yet.

So, back to the arse in the air bit.  It’s becoming a bit of a habit now – I’ll need to keep an eye on that once I’m out of here.  I don’t want to become famous as being the weird lady who wanders around Wargrave and Henley on Thames with her bottom out.  A parrot on your shoulder whilst riding your bike is one thing – that’s 'interesting eccentric', your knickers/bottom dangling for all to see is another thing altogether!  Anyway, I digress…. apart from physio sessions, I’ve basically been lying on my back for 4 weeks since the operation on my spine.  This apparently means that it becomes almost inevitable that at some point I’d get a sore bottom.  That has obviously happened this week, whilst my immune system has taken a kicking from the chemo.  It’s almost disappeared actually (my immune system, not my bottom unfortunately) - a 1.4 reading on my white blood cell count for those who are interested, hence the requirement for some top-up injections.   So after MUCH examination, ‘ooing’ and ‘ahhing’ (once by a team of 6 people from Haematology at the same time which wasn’t embarrassing at all!) it was decreed that my bottom needed ‘attention’.  I could have told them that years ago – it’s been increasing in size with no explanation for far too long.  I now have special spray and all sorts of other loveliness lavished on my posterior three times a day, which is fine. 

Sitting on it currently however, is not.  Cue my genius idea.  Now, although I don’t really do the whole baby/pregnancy thing, despite my best efforts I’ve been unable to avoid conversations about childbirth and its associated unpleasantness over the years.  So I knew there were special cushions for afterwards.  Quick call to Mr. J, quick visit to MotherCare (where the assistant asked him how Mum and baby were doing and he just nodded and said fine thank whilst plastering a big smile on his face, bless him)  I’m now sitting pretty on a comfy cushion with a hole in the middle for my sore bits.   It’s not doing a lot for my dignity, but my God, it’s nice to be able to sit up without feeling like your bottom is about to split in half.  I suspect those who’ve either been in my situation, or who’ve used these magic cushions after having a baby are nodding knowingly over their tea and biscuits right now… J