THE CAMBO CANCER CHRONICLE

3000 words / 15 minute read This is a special "on the road" edition of the Chronicle, brought to you from the riverside town of Kampot and written in the waterfront bar of my guesthouse, whilst taking in these kinds of picturesque views. As well as giving you an insight into where I currently am, the pretty picture’s presence is designed to give you an easily accessible "happy place" because, as the title suggests, I'll be touching on some subject matter that may mean you "feel my frustration" at the way I was treated pre-diagnosis. THE ROAD TO OLGA Here in Cambo, just getting in front of the doc to be told what you know already costs 20 bucks, so coming to live here has really underlined to me how lucky we are in the UK to have the NHS. Once you are dealing with a specialist, you really see the organisation at its finest - but it's the period just prior to that, between the initial onset of symptoms and my eventual diagnosis, that...

Well the universe certainly knows how to put the boot firmly on the other foot sometimes eh? In return for all the worry that I have caused my friends and family over the Odyssey years, I have been dealt a taste of my own medicine - and it's not messing around. How has this manifested itself? Well a good friend of mine back in the UK was hit by multiple strokes a week or so ago. He is only in his early thirties and (from what I understand) not in any high risk groups so this really is a bolt  from the blue. As you can imagine, he has been in hospital since and was making good progress over the first few days, yet has had two further strokes whilst in hospital and has now had surgery to try to put an end to them and allow the doctors to gain some control. My man has two particularly good reasons to fight as hard as possible and he has plenty of friends and family around him which I hope will give him all the support he needs to do so. He was always very supportive of...

1200 words / 6 minute read PROBABLY NOT SUITABLE FOR MEALTIME READING SURPRISE #1 You've probably noticed that I don’t do much present-tense Cancer Chronicling (since there's not much to tell really), but this week I have had two separate  changes to my current physical situation, both good news, that I hope you won't mind me sharing. First up, you will recall the Mischief I did to myself back in April this year, which resulted in the Gammy Hand ( detailed here ), deciding to bring my trip home forward by two months, and being installed with George II, my "Bag for Life", which really has  (with no hyperbole whatsoever)  changed everything for the better. (NOTE - I know I keep promising to document that period, and I will in the very near future, you have my word!). The Mischief‘s technical term is a “neuropraxic injury”, caused by compressing the radial nerve in my right arm while I slept, effectively severing the connection that runs from my fin...

2900 words / 14 minute read I think I can actually remember when I first felt the effects of Olga. Admittedly it may be my imagination masquerading as a memory, now we know I had a Trojan Horse sitting in place and pilfering my nutrients - but I think I can pinpoint the day that I first noticed something “was up” because it was a very different type of bellyache to anything I'd had previously, and the beginning of a pattern that would repeat every time there was progression in my symptoms. I was actually here in Sinville believe it or not, and it was most likely February or early March 2011. I was with a group of friends one evening at a local-style open air roadside eatery and I remember having a nasty ache in my gut, no appetite and my girlfriend offering to go and get me some tiger balm “to make me feel better”. It may well have done (I should try it again come to think of it) but now we know what we're dealing with, it might be a bit like bringing a knife to a ...

2000 words / 9 minute read As I wrote in Origins Part One , when I started out on the Escape leg of the Cancer Odyssey, I had no firm plans in place and nothing more than a vague picture in my mind of how things might look going forward. Despite that, I wasn’t making a total leap into the dark - I’ve done quite a bit of travelling around Asia and my best mate Dick had lived here in Sinville for much of the previous decade, during which time I came through once or twice for weeks or months at a time. I must say though, that neither of us expected to end up back in Sinville itself - that took us both by surprise - we were on a mission to find “Sinville 2”, but that could end up being a very long journey with no guarantee of such a place even existing at the end of it. So I’m glad we came back when we did - like lots of the quirks of this trip, the timing was fortunate and there is no question of me moving on again, I feel we’ve made the right choice staying here. All t...

Thought I would share this short but very interesting TED talk regarding breakthroughs in cancer drug delivery methods. These guys are using the body's immune system to target the tumour directly, rather than the slightly more scattergun approach of modern chemotherapy which, like a bloodthirsty warlord, indiscriminately kills everything in its path. In body cell terms, it's like an army unit massacring unarmed civilians in a warzone: Malignant enemy combatant or benign civilian just minding their own business? Makes no difference, kill 'em all! So whats most exciting about this for early-stage cancer patients is the real chance that by being so targeted and specific, we could significantly decrease the number of tumours that metastasize, therefore actually curing far more people before their cancer has the chance to spread. I've saved the link to the Resource Centre but you can also look at the video here .

900 words / 4 minute read Regular readers will be aware of the "time vortex" nature of Sinville. Dates have lost their meaning in this "Anti-Narnia" of perpetual weekend and constant summer. Granted, you have a time of year when it rains more, and a time of year when the temperature climbs, but you'll still be wearing your shorts no matter what. This, of course, means I pay no attention to such things, so I don't care what day it is normally and still have to work out what month it is sometimes. I've also not considered 2018 at all, with the one exception of a survival goal that I've written down here . It's these goals that can creep up on you suddenly, as I experienced twice over the last 24 hours, leaving me slightly weirded out. These were both triggered by reading about an imminent external event and thinking “Christ, already? That’s not supposed to happen for ages!”. Before you say it, I realise that normal people think that ...

1800 words / 9 minute read At no point during the (nearly) five years since my diagnosis have I let myself get sucked into comparing myself to others and thinking “why me?”. Had people not asked me whether it's something I think about, I doubt it would have even occurred to me to do so - even if it did, allowing that kind of mindset to take root is a sure-fire way to depression and the Victim Mentality if I've ever heard of one. I've also avoided hypochondria, but have felt the blowback from the many who do cry wolf or exaggerate their suffering to doctors in having to deal with the medics' scepticism when describing my symptoms (understandable though, given the rampant net-doc self-diagnoses they must hear every single day). Incidentally, I had to consciously reverse years of automatically answering the question "How are you?" with a cheery, "Fine, thank you!" when in hospital since, telepathy not having caught on as a diagnostic t...

1200 words / 6 minute read Later today my infant niece will be thrown a party and showered with gifts and affection, totally unaware that the celebrations mark that she has now witnessed one full rotation of the Earth around the Sun, or (if she could count and had paid any attention), seen 365 days turn to night and back again.  She’s also oblivious to the fact that she’s getting on a bit, having reached a landmark which means her age will be measured in years not months from now on - even if there are a few fractions thrown in for good measure as she grows up (the time between birthdays moves so slowly when you're a kid after all, being “five and a half” makes all the difference).  However you choose to look at this first year milestone, it has given me reason to reflect on the passage of time since the twelve-month prognosis I received two years ago. EDUCATED CANCER PROGNOSES My feelings on prognoses are mixed. Though I feel it's important for an individ...