The Grape Escape

Tuesday 29^th January 2013

Hi All,

Just a quick update of everything that’s been going on since my last post, before I go into hospital for my next dose of chemo...

So, I was gutted to have missed out on seeing David Beckham last week, when he visited the Young Persons Unit at the QE hospital. Of all the times I’ve been there, it seemed typical that I should have been discharged only a few days before! However, even though the week started with some disappointment I ended up receiving a phone call, telling me I’d won a ticket to see Olly Murs! The concert’s in March at the LG Arena and I can’t wait to see him, as dedicated followers of my blog will know I’m quite a fan to say the least!

Becca and Luke returned home from India last week. It was so lovely to have them back, we even had another Christmas Day to celebrate as we’d missed being together the first time around. Think they were pleased to be back but happier to finally be receiving their presents and filling up on some good home cooking courtesy of myself and Flo! A shopping trip to Birmingham the next day to spend some of Dad’s money also made Becca happy! I wasn’t so happy when I slipped over in M&S though! Two employees rushed to my aid to check if I was ok, which I was. But Mum however suggested I should sue them, telling them my hair had all fallen out a week later from the shock of it!

Yesterday Flo and I set off on the train to Manchester to a salon run by Nicky Oliver, hairdresser to the stars! I was having a wig fitting and have chosen a red/brown style, medium length, which I’ll have cut and styled once it’s ready in a few weeks time. He was telling us that they’re made in India, I thought if I had gone a few weeks earlier, Becca and Luke might have been able to collect it for me!

A follow up article is planned to be published in the local B&R paper in the next week or so, catching up on my progress since the last article was written a number weeks back. I guess I’ve produced enough material for the reporter to steal once again and make the article sound decent! ;)

I had another check up on my head last week too. The doctor was happy with how it was looking, so much so that he doesn’t want to see me again until my treatment finishes and I’m ready to have the Wayne Rooney style treatment to sort my hair out (hopefully!).

To keep myself busy, I have been reading books. The latest being by Katie Piper – the young British girl who survived a horrendous ordeal of rape and acid attack in 2008. She’s such an inspiration, having been so brave and by turning something negative into a positive, setting up a charity to help other burns survivors. Her books are brilliant and if you get a chance to read them do. It puts things into perspective, there’s always someone worse off than yourself and it teaches you to be grateful for the little things in life and not take things for granted.

Florence and I have been trying to eat and drink healthily. We have decided we eat well in terms of having enough vegetables in our diet; however our fruit intake has a lot to be desired! Especially for me and the nightmares I have regarding the baked banana incident!! So we decided we must increase our intake through the next best thing, fruit juices! We already had a routine of drinking orange juice each morning; however Flo now makes me have an apple and mango in the afternoon and grape in the evening! There’s no escaping it!

I decided that we should try and increase our fitness levels too, I haven’t really done much exercise expect walking since my second operation in October and although Flo owns a t-shirt saying ‘Just Do It’, really she says ‘Just Don’t Bother!’ I attended a Hip-Hop dance class the other night and Flo and I went to a Ballroom/Latin class last night, which were great fun! Strictly Come Dancing eat your heart out! It took me a lot of effort to persuade Mum to go, as I make her take the lead role and pretend to be the man! She wanted me to ask the local butcher, who she jokes she’s going to fix me up with. I told her, well I am partial to meat and two veg, as long as he doesn’t have two left trotters! On that note I think I should probably go and get myself ready for my fourth session of chemo tomorrow morning...thanks for reading J