Oh, I forgot to add that I am eighty years of age. One or two travel insurance companies that advertise widely on television, declined to provide me with insurance cover.

Tuscany here we come!

Greetings one and all,

My wife and I are travelling to Tuscany for a week, to wander around the hill towns. We decided to take out travel insurance and after several long phone calls answering the same questions over and over again, we found SAGA were able to provide us with insurance cover at the lowest price.

In my case the questions piled up,…[Read more]

Hi y’all,

Generally things are getting better, my bloods are back to normal and I am on a holding regime of Revlamid. There are just a few remaining clots in my lungs but nowt to worry about.
At the start of December I was back in hospital with pneumonia. When my temperature spiked and my blood pressure went down by a third, I thought this was my…[Read more]

Hi Calray,

My history in brief is diagnosed with MM twelve months ago, swiftly followed by pulmonary embolism the cancer on bowel was discovered six months ago. My first two cycles of treatment were CVD plus daily injections of Fragmin to thin my blood and monthly drip of zemeta. Next two cycles have been Revlamid and Dex. Plus, of course, pills…[Read more]

Hi Jacko,

I was diagnosed with MM in November and treatment was organised by the Consultant at the MacMillan Centre to start within a couple of weeks. It became a bit more complex because I promptly had a pulmonary embolism but start they did.

Like Richard, I am surprised that you have still not started chemo. Have you had any treatment? I think…[Read more]

Now David, I think all of this is a result of you lying in damp grass on long summer evenings with bonny teenage lassies when you were just twenty years old.

That’s what I blame for my myeloma, pulmonary embolism and bowel cancer.

It was good, though, wasn’t it. Those were tha days……

Don aka The Cancer Pensioner

Hi Alison,
Hi Alison,

We are all different yet all in the same boat. My MM was diagnosed in November but I had a pulmonary embolism before treatment started. When I learned that 74% of my blood cells were cancerous, I thought the end was nigh. As I am almost eighty, SCT was not really an option.
Progress on VCD was slow and I was switched to…[Read more]

Hi Bryn,

Just to add my sixpenny worth to the comments.

Getting the news that you have MM is a heart stopping moment and your world seems to implode. Do try to draw some comfort that there are many of us here that have been through the same early stages. Somehow we all cope and things are rarely as bad as they seem.

Keep telling us on your…[Read more]

Hi Robbo,
I’ve had two bone marrow samples taken and both have been painful I think that I had a quick jab but whatever it was, when the process started the pain was strong.
I am off treatment for the MM whilst I had the operation to remove the cancer from my bowel. That seems to have gone well so I’m expecting that, before I resume treatment,…[Read more]

Thanks Karen,

Assuming that the operation has totally removed tha cancer in my bowel, we can focus on getting the myeloma into remission. That’s my next target.

If you think about it, we set targets throughout our lives and achieving them can give a great sense of satisfaction.

How about these.

At four years, getting through the night without…[Read more]

Well, now, where are we? Oh yes, I said I would let you know how things are.

The news is that The Bad Penny has turned up, replete with irritating jokes.

I can’t bore you with details of the operation for I was in the Land of Nod and remember nothing. The aftercare was tremendous, from consultant down to cleaner. For this operation the hospital…[Read more]

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes.
We had a lovely evening, sitting in the garden until 11.30, having had a BBQ and a beer.
I had a couple of phone calls from my great grand children, but they are a bit too young to know how things are.
Today, it’s off to hospital. My grandfather advised me to ‘always keep yourself out of the hands of doctors…[Read more]

Hi all,
Thanks for reading my tome.
Mike, I am being treated at Milton Keynes Hospital, in the McMillan Centre. Praise doesn’t come high enough for the nurses, doctors and consultants there. I have put them under some pressure for I have assured them that, if they don’t keep me going until I am eighty five, I will return and haunt the McMillan…[Read more]