I've only another day of anti-biotics to take for the breast infection I developed last week. I still find it odd that I've had a breast infection, where did that one come from! Ah well, hopefully I can put it behind me with the pile of other experiences I'm building from my experiences with bowel cancer. The pile mounts!
Following on from what I said at the end of my previous blog, about questioning sharing my experiences in public: I am a private kind of person in many ways. I'm not particularly up front when it comes to sharing details of my life with anyone. If people from around the World want to find out what I have to say about my journey through bowel cancer then that's another matter. It has been a challenge these past two years, to share parts of my journey through the group my daughter Jessica set up, which is, Judith McGuinness cancer support through collective thinking. It's been worth it to see how the group has evolved into almost an online community. I've had countless private messages from people who are members of the group asking about the symptoms I developed before I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I've had messages from people telling me they are going to see their G.P., or they have been referred to hospital for a Colonoscopy, which examines the inside of the bowel via a camera. There has been a lot of sharing on the Group through exchanges and interactions. My daughter first set up the Facebook group so that there was a central point for information regarding my treatments and operations. It has been a place where people can leave a message for me or ask questions. Before Jessica set up the Facebook group page, my phone would ring off the hook and I couldn't respond to all the emails and texts that were coming in. Now, it's much easier for everyone to keep updated. I'm now getting used to my own blog space, it's difficult to know what and how to say something, hopefully I'll get used to it in my own way. Sometimes I feel there is so much to say I can't make a start, where to begin! Now, coming back to why I'm sharing myself and my family through this blog: The simple answer is because it may make a difference to someone, somewhere. If one person, one family, doesn't have to go through what I and my family have been through these past two years, then, it is worth doing. For two years I've been through the most intense, challenging and demanding periods of my life. I feel like I've been thrown across jagged rocks by a stormy sea, battered. The years before were hardly a walk in the park. For 15 years I've been intensely involved with first my Dad, and then my Mum over 12 years, with Dementia. What with the twists and turns of my own life it has been one heck of a journey. Let me just say, there hasn't been much time off. As, I say many times, I have lived, I have loved and I have learned, which should be capitals, LEARNED. It's been a cram packed lifetime but if I didn't waste it, and I did learn the lessons then I can breathe in a very deep breath of satisfaction.
