That difficult second blog...

So, I guess I ought to get round to my second blog then. And, as the Arctic Monkeys and Bradley Wiggins have found before me, the follow-up is never quite as easy…

Especially when the first instalment has been met with such a positive response. Thanks to everybody who has passed on messages since I started the blog – they’re all much appreciated.

Positive comments from people aside, I seem to have had a week of not really getting anywhere. One of the things I’ve got used to over the last 18 months or so is that waiting for the medical profession, or their admin staff, to move at their own pace is part and parcel of this whole process. That’s still the case, and yet again there’s another week coming up where, hopefully, I’ll get a clearer picture of things. But that’s by no means guaranteed…

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I’m not able to live on my own at the minute, so have spent the last few months squatting at my mum & dad’s. Probably not the easiest situation for any of us, especially on the days when I’m not sleeping properly, the frustration of things are getting to me and I’m turned into a grumpy, miserable houseguest from hell. That does allow for the odd unintentional comedy moment though.

In the spirit of trying to atone for being the houseguest from hell, I popped up to Asda the other day – a big adventure in its own right for me at the minute! – and unintentionally found myself doing the Blokes Shop of Shame. All of a sudden I’m getting the odd raised eyebrow look, and when it comes to paying even the self service checkout seems to be cock a snook as if to say ‘which one was it then – forgotten anniversary or unwise comment about her sister?’ Yep, without thinking about it in my shopping basket is a bunch of flowers and a box of Roses…

Anyway, moving on. One of the things that has really helped me over the past few weeks has been a referral to Wheatfields, whose medical staff have provided a much ‘bigger picture’ look at all the problems I’m going through at the minute and proved a lot of help. If, like me, you grew up in Leeds, you might remember Wheatfields for their fetching brown and beige stickers you used to get for giving them a few coppers back in the 80’s and 90’s. Must admit that thinking back you think that is as far as your involvement with them will ever go. Anyway, just so happens that if you live in the Leeds area, you can vote to try and help them get a share of an award from NatWest’s Community Fund this week. Just go to https://communityfund.natwest.com/Vote and follow the process through. Shameless plug, but from my limited experience of them so far, they’re worth a vote…

An Introduction...

An advert for one of those insurance comparison sites – I think this one is compareconfusedmeerkats.com – suggests that most of what the internet is used for these days is pretty pointless. For some reason, I’ve decided to contribute to that web of pointlessness, but hopefully in with the dull banality there’ll be some interest.

But why? I’ve not just decided to start my own blog because I feel that the web is desperate for the benefit of my opinions. To be honest I’m doing this to be selfish. No, I don’t expect to earn any sponsor money because companies will be falling over themselves to advertise here.

For the last three years essentially, I’ve been pretty ill. Worse at some times than others, and what initially was just bog standard Crohn’s Disease became more and more complicated before I was diagnosed with cancer in summer 2009.

18 months on, and not out of the woods yet, I’ve decided to start putting down some of my thoughts, and can’t really see the point of doing that and only letting them see my C Drive. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a ‘normal’ cancer patient – everybody surely deals with a very individual disease in their own way – but if by any chance reading what I’ve gone through helps somebody else get through their own situation, well, that’s a Brucie Bonus.

I’ll spare some of the more gruesome and personal details from making it to print. On the surface of it that’s because I’ll have so few readers that I don’t want to put off the ones I’ve got. On the daft side, it’s probably more because I’d be too embarrassed to put them into print (or whatever the equivalent term for the web is). Daft, because I look back now and think that had I spoken to the doctor’s earlier about some embarrassing symptoms, things in the Crohn’s chain could have been nipped in the bud earlier. Proof if ever it were needed that young blokes (and I was young at the time!) do themselves more harm than good by keeping quiet when really they ought to speak up.

In terms of where I currently am, I’m recovering from an operation six weeks ago while awaiting a date to restart chemotherapy. It’s been nearly six months since I could live on my own in my own flat, was able to go to work, or sat down and had a pint in the pub. I’m over the moon with the fact that I’ve got a whole week in my diary at the minute – a whole week!! – without a medical appointment - other than waiting in for my daily visit from the district nurse.

So through this blog I intend to keep a record of what I’m going through. It’d be daft to say ‘until I’ve beaten this thing’ because by then, blogs are likely to be a bit passé and old school and we’ll all have moved on. You’ll also get the benefit of some of my views on the sporting world – being off work and out of my usual social scene I don’t get the chance to vent those as often, so lucky you lot. If you only follow me online, you get the benefit of my wonderful sporting knowledge. If you usually ‘benefit’ from such opinions, you can now choose to ignore them with a clear conscience…

Nearly half past 9? That classes as a late night for me these days. Time for my tablets before bed…