MarySmith’sPlace ~ Cancer Diary#33 – a bit of a blip

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted a cancer diary update. I was feeling a lot better thanks to the steroids and the weather was good (bright and sunny, if still cold) so I was able to go out most days for walks.

The walks became longer until I was managing two to three miles on the level and my step count, adding in time working in the garden, was reaching 10,000 a day. I even managed a couple of walks round Doach Woods which is a bit steeper. Yes, I was out of breath on anything steeper than flat but my pulse rate soon dropped down again, I was hardly coughing and really thought the pneumonitis was on its way out.   

On Monday, with Covid-19 restrictions finally beginning to lift a friend came to visit from Glasgow and we had a lovely time walking and talking. On Tuesday, my son and his partner arrived and again we walked and talked and talked and talked. I did feel I was becoming slightly more breathless but dismissed it as I really did talk an awful lot more than usual over the two days. When the DH and I go walking together we don’t talk to each other much – we can do that round the kitchen table.

By Wednesday evening I was feeling pretty flat – my visitors gone and although we hope to meet again soon who knows these days what might happen. There could be another lockdown just around the corner. I’ve been becoming more breathless and coughing more and feeling tired in a way I haven’t for weeks.

The DH thinks it’s probably just a blip after doing a bit too much walking and talking and a couple of days rest will put things right again. Or, it could be my body decided the last weekly drop in my steroid dose was too much? I really don’t want to start taking a higher dose again.

Of course, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend so no specialist nurse or GP to ask. I really have rested today – step count under 2,000! – and I’ll do the same tomorrow and Monday (the weather forecast is pretty rubbish, anyway) and see how things are on Tuesday.

In the meantime I’ll try to keep thinking it is just a “too-much-talking” blip and not start imaging worst case scenarios – is the tumour starting to grow again now the radiation has finished working? This I can’t know until the last week (possibly the last day) of this month and I don’t want to cope with almost a month of scanxiety.

Positive thinking – altogether now: ‘It’s just a blip – don’t talk so much!’