Macmillan Nurse support

We are so lucky to have a Macmillan nurse that comes to support me as much as Ella.  She is a wonderful person and comes about once every six weeks.

She just gets it!   She understands the concerns, fears and complexities of the journey that Ella is travelling and those of us close to her.

She came on Monday morning for an hour - which was great and much needed.  She understood and articulated so well how hard this part of the journey is.  Despite the fact that the worse is behind with chemo being over, no more major surgery etc etc, the current phase is a phase and must be travelled.  The end is of course in sight - but there is a way to go and challenges to be overcome:

• Arm still in a sling - when will it come out?  Maybe on 01 October may be another 6-8 weeks after that, so an ongoing restrictive lifestyle and not being able to get on 100% with normal living.
• Hair coming back - but slowly, still not quite brave enough to abandon hat!
• Monday morning blues - as the rest of the world get up and get on with life.......
• Sleepless nights - worrying about the future - inevitable, but less of them
• A sense of "loss of structure" - all those dam chemo schedules and endless hospital stays - but there was a plan and despite it changing you could cling onto it.

So no complaints really, just as ever "writing it down" which helps. 

My latest analogy is:

If  life is like a boat journey,  then we well and truly capsized last year and were in danger of drowning.   We are now climbing back into the boat, some days we are in it, others we just have a leg or arm in, but we are more in than out.   I reckon that makes our Macmillan nurse "a life jacket"!