Tag Archives: chemo

I’m back at long last

Fethiye Bay5JPG

Acrylic on Canvas 60cms x 45cms

Well it’s been quite a while!  Where do I begin?  I suppose with where I left off nearly two years ago.  I was given the all clear after 20 weeks of chemotherapy ( protocol Folfox 4 ) which followed six weeks of combined radiotherapy and chemo for 5 days a week up in Antalya, What with the driving and the side effects it wasn’t a pleasant time.

That brings us to January 2015 when I had an operation to reverse my colostomy and six months of recovery and every reason to be optimistic.

Then, in June the doctors found that the cancer had come back. This time it’s in my liver. For an active, fit, teetotal, non-smoker, to say I was shocked and dismayed is an understatement. The current position is that my condition is inoperable and I need chemotherapy every two weeks to manage the cancer. Luckily, I can get this treatment here in Fethiye under the exceptional Dr. Ugur and I have had 20 treatments to date and I’m still standing!  Gina has been brilliant. loving, thoughtful, generous with her care and ever present. I will never be able to thank her enough.

Despite the recent setbacks, I’m restarting this blog as I want to get back in touch with you all and pass on my observations on life here in Fethiye.  In that way I plan to get motivated to paint a bit more often.  For obvious reasons I won’t be posting as frequently.

The missing months

Here we go again!

Here we go again!

As you will have noticed, I’ve not been blogging for the last 3 months.  Unfortunately, I’m not quite as well as I could be just now.  I was diagnosed with colon cancer in January and had a colectomy a couple of weeks later. The prognosis is good, I’m  happy to say and I have just completed half of a 6 week course of radiotherapy and chemo at the brilliant Antalya Akdeniz University hospital.  After that, I have to attend chemo one day every two weeks for four months.  We stay in a great hotel weekdays so thats a bonus and the treatment here is state of the art.  I also get on really well with the three department professors, to the extent of having their mobile phone numbers!  So, despite a colostomy, the 250 mile round trip to the hospital and having half a litre of toxic chemicals hanging round my neck, things are looking up.  The worse part is the drive, it’s dangerous, nerve wracking and exhausting.

Oh, I ought to mention I nearly died from pneumonia and an ecoli infection contracted after the op. The initial treatment was complicated by an serious allergic reaction to the antibiotic, Ciprocin. That was a very scary time!

Gina has been fantastic and her mum, Margaret, has been in Fethiye, house and dog-sitting for the whole time without complaint.  My sister came over from the uk and we’ve also had loads of help and care from many of our new friends here.  So, I’m living in limbo.  I have managed to paint occasionally  but I’ve not been out on the bike, the  boat or in the hills and although quite hectic, 2014 has been a bit of a write off so far.   it’s about time I made an effort to continue this project but it’s not easy to find the inspiration for daily painting

Because of the treatment schedule and it’s side effects, I won’t be doing much on here for a few months but life will be getting back to a normal again soon, I promise!