I was never very sporty at school. I wasn’t the first to be chosen in school team sports. But then I wasn’t the last. I was, shall we say, average. Nothing special.
I wasn’t fast enough to be a great athlete or flexible enough for gymnastics. But I took part in the various school sports whilst also being signed up for various after-school activities from swimming to karate to ballroom dancing (less said about this last one the better).
Parental persuasion was the main motivation to be fair and I’m sure my sister and I would have rather lazily lounged around in bed on a Saturday morning watching Why Don’t You, than straddle jumping into a cold swimming pool at the crack of dawn, turning our pyjama bottoms into inflated life preserver pants to earn our life-saving badges.
But out of all those events, this particular finishing line is both the most elusive and probably the most rewarding. And finally I can feel myself about to reach the end of a year-long cross country marathon, and I can almost touch the tape – just one final push to get through these last few miles.
Yesterday I had my oncology appointment and the penultimate Immunotherapy dose leaving one more to go in 3 weeks time. My collapsed veins will be delighted with the respite.
Then I am done. There’s a mammogram and a blood test to do before my final review with Dr Kildare on the 17th of June to give me (hopefully) the all-clear and the chance to do one final blog and then put this baby to bed!
There’s a bell outside in the foyer. I have been privy to it being rung several times during my visits. I have yet to ring ‘da bell’ – some do so when they’ve finished chemo and/or radiotherapy. Others wait until they get the ‘all clear’.
I have mixed emotions about the ‘bell’ and have come to the conclusion that I don’t feel comfortable doing so in front of strangers. But there also needs to be a ‘finishing line’ moment. An ending. Closure.
So instead in true Carter style I’m having a partyyyyy! (watch this space). I feel the need to celebrate this milestone, acknowledge it and then put the bloody thing in a box and kick it under the bed. None of us know what the future holds, but for now, I would like to be able to draw a line (with a very big marker pen) under these last 15 months.
In other news I graduated from the physio/lymphedema group last month. After six months of the lovely Sonia giving me mobility exercises, physio’ing my arm post-op and massaging my breast post-radiotherapy, I am signed off the programme and going it alone.
It’s been really helpful and productive but I’ll be glad not to be trogging to Malaga’s Barbarela hospital to see her. All these people you meet along the way, whom I really hope I never have to see again.
So how do some people get cancer? Maybe the question should be why don’t we all get cancer?
Cancer is triggered by mutations in our DNA. Cancer is a normal cell and a mutation causes the re-wiring. Bit like having a virus on your PC and your programmes no longer function correctly.
We need to wipe out the virus with an antivirus programme. Then re-boot.
Tumours, or mutated cells, form in our body all the time and are the size of a ballpoint pen tip and completely harmless until they are able to recruit a private blood supply to enable them to grow.
They don’t have their own blood supply but can give off chemical signals to stimulate blood supply (angiogenesis) and can even stimulate nearby normal cells to produce angiogenesis signalling molecules. Sneaky bastards.
The new blood vessels then feed growing tumours enabling them to duplicate and grow, invade nearby tissue and then move through the body to form new colonies of cancer cells (Metastases).
So in theory, if you can isolate it from the blood supply – it won’t grow. Then our immune system will rush in and attack and get rid of it. That is how our body naturally resists cancer. Unless there’s a glitch in the matrix.
So what causes the angiogenesis – The major physiological stimuli for angiogenesis include tissue ischemia and hypoxia (lack of blood supply to tissues, muscles or organs leading to lack of oxygen), inflammation, and stress.
Angiogenesis is a bodily process that can be either good or bad. It depends on what the new blood vessels are feeding. In a healthy state, your body sometimes needs new capillaries to form so your tissues and organs can receive enough oxygen. On the other hand it feeds the cancer.
With that in mind I’ve been looking into anti-angiogenic properties (polyphenols) which can be found in various foods including: green tea, matcha tea, red berries (raspberries, blackberries, red grapes etc), cocoa, dark chocolate, soy products, citrus fruits, olive oil, grains and – there is a god – red wine!
Cheers!
two steps freelance 