When I began writing this blog, I went back to the very beginning of my story and started to write in detail about what happened. I think I should probably have started this blog a year ago, when I was first diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. In case you have never heard of it, IBC is fairly rare (around 2% of women with breast cancer have this type) and aggressive. It moves fast and is not detected by a lump but by changes in the breast which can be diagnosed as an infection or insect bite.

But it’s too late to go all that way back. So much has happened in the last year and no doubt bits of the story will emerge. You’ll have to catch me up. I’ve met some fabulous people on the way and some really annoying ones. I’ve seen lovely healthcare professionals and some I would not recommend to my worst enemy. People I didn’t expect to step up did in a spectacular way and other friends I thought would be solidly behind me disappeared like mist.

It’s a strange old disease, cancer. It’s all consuming and a bit like having the most horrible full-time job in the world but its also great to see doctors and nurses working at their best and to see the bravery and humour of other patients.

I don’t have any particular aims with this blog other than to catalogue my thoughts and activities for my own amusement and if anyone else wants to read it, then that’s all good. I have a Facebook blog which has been running since the very beginning but think it’s time to move into something more general. Everyone is tired of the cancer. I’m tired of it and yet don’t feel up to getting back to work yet. Too much of me hurts.

But my brain is working, albeit with a shocking memory loss. Chemotherapy does awful things to your brain and I can’t remember so many things, including people’s names and the names of ordinary household things. It will all come back, or so I’m told.

Do I feel miserable and depressed about the cancer? No, not at all. It’s a bugger, that’s for sure, but I’m optimistic by nature and know more than ever that life is for living so I’m going to do just that. In my own way.

Welcome to my world!