scanarama

Today I get a CT scan at Mount Vernon. So nervous!!!!! Let's hope there's nothing sinister hiding in there and it's all tickety boo! I then have an oncology appointment on Tuesday, where I will be asking hundreds of questions. My sister is having the test for the BRCA 1 gene and the likelihood is that we both carry it (looking at our family history). This will further add to my anxieties as I will have to think long and hard about preventative surgery. Again it's a stressful time (not helped by a hideous cold) but as ever I'm trying to remain positive.
3 days out without headgear now, that's a milestone in itself!

♥

Happy anniversary Mr Cheese ♥
Apparently 14 years is celebrated by the giving of ivory. I couldn't wrap the large grey wrinkly thing with the long trumpety nose as I didn't have enough wrapping paper......soz ♥

scarfless

Saturday marked the first day without my trusted headgear. I've grown so fed up of wearing scarves and decided Berkhamsted was ready to receive my GI Jane skinhead. This was a major occasion for me and I hope I didn't scare everyone at the Bragg's party. I feel very brave for venturing out without my security blanket and today I even went out in daylight without it. I guess I just have to get used to people staring.

pencil sculptures

Amazing pencil sculptures. Just beautiful.

dalton ghetti

some pictures I've been making

I've been making these to take my mind off the limbo-land I'm living in

no pixies

On a dog walk up at 'Doggy' woods (mmmm apparently it gets quite fruity up there when it's dusk) we stumbled upon these beautiful toadstools. I like to call them pixie toadstools but Mrs Bragg being the sciencey one informs me they're Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric. They were just missing a teeny little chap with a pointed hat sitting on them. Just beautiful.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down

Mr Cheese has removed most of the horrid green carpet in the sitting room (hooray!) As he was repairing the floorboards around the fireplace he found several empty packs of cigars in the the cavity underneath. That's one wheezy old builder!

beautiful prints

I discovered the work of this talented lady via sweetsweetlife
Her name ellen giggenbach. She's Bavarian born but now lives in Wellington, New Zealand (lucky thing). Her work is just lovely.
ellengiggenbach.blogspot.com

tHaNk yOu ♥ julia

I received a lovely hand-knitted hat to keep my ears warm in this ffffreezing autumnal wind and drizzle. Thanks my love, it's just fab x

back to school

I love this time of year as I remember the warm, fuzzy feeling of getting a new set of coloured pencils and smelly rubbers and laying them all out neatly before squashing them into a new denim pencil case which looked like the rear end of a pair of jeans. The Cheeselets were squabbling over a ruler this morning so I've promised my large-haired eldest I'd go and buy him a new one later. However, wouldn't it be fab to buy something like these....... nope far too nice for a 10 and 11 year old, nice for a kind old mummy though!
presentandcorrect.com

tired and sore

Since finishing my tanning sessions at the spa I've tried to rest. My poor old breast has come out of it the worst for wear. The radio has opened up my scars and I'm having to put dressings on every day. It's so sore that it feels as though I've gone back several months to when I wasn't healing after the operations. Poor old boob, it has been through such a lot. Tomorrow, just to add to my stress, I'm having a scan on my ovaries. I'm having a lot of pain and to be on the safe side they're checking everything is ok. Unfortunately when you have oestrogen fed breast cancer it can affect your ovaries and I've since learned that the chances of the breast cancer returning are also high. Cheery isn't it? After 6 months of intensive treatment I'm still nowhere near the end of the worrying chapter. I now feel like I'm in limbo. I'm still waiting to find out that the chemo and radio have worked and that the cancer has gone. 6 weeks of worrying and fretting now lie before me and I'll have chewed off the remainder of the stumpy, bumpy nails chemo left me with. Yesterday a migraine hit me like a sledgehammer out of nowhere. I didn't ask for that! Could be a case of hormone overload(the tamoxifen)/the costa cappuccino/the remnants of radiotherapy/or just plain knackeredness. Today I have been sofa-bound listening to radio 2 (not ga ga) and generally flopping about. My poor old head feels like it's been through a mangle and I feel fuzzy. I'm off to the Hospice of St Francis later for reflexology. And relax!

♥ fluffy youngest ♥

My lovely fluffy youngest has made me a little card or gift nearly every day I've been going to hospital (that's a lot of crafting and drawing!!!!). I found this little earless giraffe waiting for me on thursday. So very very sweet isn't it?

Turn the radio off..........

For nearly four weeks I've been visiting my exclusive little spa at Mount Vernon for my tanning sessions and today was my last one. I've made so many friends during this time. We've shared many stories and absorbed each others lives whilst sitting in our little waiting room (LA8) and we've laughed and cried. I hope we'll stay in touch and that one day soon we can look back at all of this and say it was just a little blip. Thanks Carole, Sue, Phylis, Jim, Jo, Dorothy, Paloma, Paula, Callum and anyone I've missed, you've helped make this part of the treatment bearable, thanks for being my radio buddies.

The final compilation of bad taste music to be fried to........

I feel extremely sore and very tired (and will probably feel the effects for 4-6 weeks). I have several scans and appointments scheduled over the next few weeks and I'm absolutely dreading them. I need to rest and get my energy back as Mrs Cheese misses her old life and can't wait to get back to it.

whitby lucky duck

Deb and Louise gave me this little glass duck as a gift from the Whitby Lucky Duck shop. I'll be rubbing his beak and hoping a little luck will finally come my way. Thank you ladies, he's very sweet xx