Aw fanks everyone… am blushing now… anyway it was Katy who discovered/founded Benchland. Never feel like I am wise, just, you know, someone who shares the journey. I suspect a lot of us on here are secret swans… publically calm and in control (if not always serene!) but underneath paddling like crazy. I know a few folk on this thread have the kind of public roles that require us to seem strong and positive etc, and I think actually we ARE strong and very courageous (for those with Biblical leanings!) but even strong, brave people sometimes need a place to gibber or weep or rant and where they can be honest/open about how it really is.
Cackles, the offer of a cuppa in Glasgow is a real one if you need a break on your jounrey to/from Oban. Meeting BCC girls in real life never disappoints.
Swan analogy rings a bell?? Ding a ling!!!
Well, skipped the “f****** furious” bench, and went to the “home cooking” bench. My 4 year old grandaughter is here and decided to make home made soup and macaroni, started around 9 this morning and have just finished. The kitchen looks like a big bomb has hit it, grated veg, cheese, flour and bits of bacon all over the floor and lots of pots. AAAAAAAAAAAAArgh lots of washing up will have to have some quiet time real soon. She’s already eaten some of the soup! I let her crack an egg yesterday (scrambled eggs for breakfast) big mistake, egg landed in hair and on the floor, what???
She’s a mess and so am I so off to the shower real soon.
It’s been lovely and she is Nannie’s special helper in more ways than one!
PS need a few spoons now.
PPS Buggerit has been around, have given him the soup bone xx
Ooh Katytc… Home made soup & macaroni
sounds delicious to me. I have hubby coming back tonight so hoping for some proper food over the next three days. I’ve been too unwell to look after myself so suspect I have made things worse by not eating decently. I still spend most of my time asleep but I think the cough is easing a little so maybe I am turning the corner at long last. Just want to get on with the chemo now.
Will be so glad to have hubby back. Been in solitary confinement since he left early Tuesday morning.
Evening all. Move over all those on the furious bench. I saw the surgeon today and FORGOT to ask for CT. dodo. I still want to know what is causing the pain in my groin. What a pratt I am.
Lelly there are drugs that help with nerve end pain specifically. Eg Amitriptyline . You might find your GP could give you some.
RevCat, blushing surely not…it could have been a hot flush!!! The tea invite would be super but it is on me. I will PM you when I know our timetable.
Katetc. You too have Grannies little helpers re cooking. That is a way of trashing the house in two minutes…but FUN.
Twinky how is the plague? It is horrible to have been in solitary confinement when TLC is needed.
GIJane we love your witty visits and wisdom.
Truffles Supertrouper isn’t on the dreaming bench. She was to be found on the P as a N bench.
Supertrouper how is the ET look coming on? Keep slip slapping on the cream.
Clare sweet dreams tonight,
Cackles
EXCUSE ME…I wasn’t P as a N last night - I can handle more than two pints!! LOL I was happy! Still am. Been out again tonight on official date night a walk in the rain down to local pub for sausage mash and peas and again two pints!! walked back in the rain after buying two bunches of daffodils for just £1. OH now asleep on sofa whilst I continue to hog the happy bench - not the P as a N bench!
The ET look is coming on fine thanks - I have started to radiate heat - and it is very possible that I am glowing in the dark so as I sit on the happy bench I am now providing subtle lighting to bench land in the evenings. I have slip slapped a lot of cream on and find that in the mornings my little vest tops have to be carefully peeled off my glowing skin.
Going to try the “feeling more positive” bench tonight. Surgeon very pleased with my progress, says I am healing better than he expected and everything I described is normal though wouldn’t give an timescale for improvement. Thanks for the tip Cackles, will speak to GP. Feels strange as dressing for wound now removed and I have a pert boob for first time in years, albeit a fraction of the size of the other. Slightly panicked the implant could make a bid for escape but logic says that the dressing I had until tonight would not have held it differently… Strange how differently my mind has worked since dx …
Managed a meal out with OH plus softie tonight so big step forward.
Hope there aren’t many late visitors tonight.
Sweet dreams all xx
Can I take a seat on the “feeling fat, frumpy and miserable” bench please?
Romantic weekend to York, this weekend has been booked for months, something to look forward to after chemo to celebrate missed birthdays! OK, a more relaxed weekend than we’d normally have … using buses & taxis to get us around etc.
Keep fit regime started this week, had my 3rd walk this week up to the hospital for rads only to find when I get there I have a humongous blister on my heel! I couldn’t work out why it was so bad, no different shoes have worn these walking shoes throughout chemo until I (luckily) tried a pair of knee high boots on … now I’m not the most slender of girls, so my boots have secret bits of elastic to stretch around my calves. However, tonight I can’t do the flipping ankles up never mind the calves!! I’m sat with my feet up high and it looks like a trip to the GP on Monday but how on earth does a girl get fit when her body won’t let her ??? Grrr :((
Thanks for listening, I think I just needed to get it out before I explode!
Twinks, if you have a freezer and a microwave you might want to get hold of some of those steamfresh veg, so you can have veg with whatever you do manage to eat. I found I really wanted veggies and they were ideal and dead easy to prepare even if you just have a ready meal or a bit of soup.
Supertrouper, the bench I think you were looking for was the “comfortably relaxed” bench, which is how everyone should be after two pints. What’s your tipple? London Pride has to be my all-time fave. It was one of the first beers I ever had and I still think it’s an excellent brew. Don’t often have two, but we have been known to stop at the pub after a dog walk (purely for the purpose of socialising the dog, you understand, we wouldn’t have gone in there otherwise) and it would of course be rude not to sample a drop of the landlord’s finest while we were there, wouldn’t it.
OMG, as my kids would say. I have been all over all sorts of benches in the last few weeks, all of them horrid and full of splinters and rusty nails. Whoever’s on the totally exhausted sofa, please budge up and put your earplugs in, I hope to be snoring for England tonight.
Just this second got off the Knight in Shining Armour rocking horse (“Mum, help, I’ve run out of petrol!” at 11.30 at night, the things we do for our kids.) Have nearly worn out the CSL bench recently. It is unnervingly perched precariously right on the cliff edge and simultaneously lodged at the bottom of a very deep, dark hole with very slippery sides. Close by is the pathetic whimpering seat which has also felt the weight of my posterior. But today I have finally managed to progress to the FF bench (not pleasant either but a bit of an improvement from the CSL bench) and as expected my bungee cord is still firmly attached to the guilty bench to which I have been returning with frequent regularity. I can almost spy the “feeling more positive” sofa waaaay over there, but at least I can see it. (Lelly, the nice ones are sofas, comfy and squishy and welcoming, rather than splinter-laden wooden planks like the unpleasant ones.)
AnnieK I need the odd spare yards of the feeling fat bench. I looked at a photo taken last Saturday OMG no food for a month needed. Sorry to hear about blisters. Ugh
CM that Rocking Horse is doing sterling work. Those are the days (note I said are not were) even now when 36 and married if the car has a problem my lovely daughter rings her father…so it doesn’t stop. We wouldn’t change it though. You can go to the Star’s bench 11.30 !!! beyond the call of duty.
Supertrouper how long is your hair now? Mine is quite dry. I used to have to wash it daily or it would be greasy, now I just do it when I remember.
Sleep time. I will watch Midwives on I-player. It will take me back to my youth at Queen Charlottes The first delivery I ever did was the first born son of an Irish Publican. I can’t remember much about the wetting of the baby’s head but lots of carlsberg special and Guinness came into it. I haven’t touched either since!!!
Night all
Cackles
Dearest Cackles, thank you… how lovely that will be… and if nought else this adventure has taught me to be a (more) gracious recipient.
Choccie, I’d love to cut that bungee cord of yours but it seems that scissors are banned in Benchland in case we hurt ourselves with the sharp points… How daft is that with rusty nails, splintery benches (though I did manage to smooth most of the corners with a nnail file when no-one was looking), aligators, a big deep guilt lake to avoid… So here’s my cunning plan… take yourself to the spoon shed and find a large ladle. Place it half way along your bungee and wind it round and round and round and round and… well you get the idea… until the bungee snaps.
Annie your poor, poor feet and legs… a lie down in a darkened room, feet elevated and a slave to bring you peeled grapes is called for.
I love the connections that pop up of places we have each been… makes the world smaller and more friendly somehow.
Loving to hear of folk sitting on the happy benches, that is such good news. A mellow chilled area is clearly called for… maybe we can also import the bar stock from the Dark Dark Woods thread now that the JM has closed?! But not, sh, you know, those singing men!
I am starting training for the BCC Ben Nevis challenge in September (registered this week) so am uppoing my daily walks around Benchland… how many circuits do you think makes a mountain?!
cackles, you are right about the 2 min trashing, perhaps even less! Hope you phone about your CT.
supertrouper, You are having your own adventures, beer sausages, daffodils and rain!
Went for a wander around Benchland last night was very dark but I knew where I was at all times because I could see you glowing on the “happy” bench. Who needs a head lantern when ST is around?
Lelly, really really good that you went for your meal, that positive bench must be working!
Anniek68, Just enjoy your romantic weekend and to hang with everything else! Compeed is fab for blisters.
Chocciemuffin time to remove those splinters and have a goodnight’s sleep, so off to the “comfy, comfy” sofa for you!
RevCat, you really do have the most wizard ideas, just hope chocciemuffin doesn’t get muddled with spoon twirling and ends up pinging backwards and forwards!
Well done for the Ben Nevis challenge, really not sure how many circuits as BENCHLAND just seems to be getting bigger and bigger!
Twinky hope you are now becoming unstuck from that “poorly” bench and are on the mend xx
I am lounging around on the CBA bench today, still in my PJs. I’ve had a glass of lucozade and now going to have a cup of cranberry and sanguinello orange tea. Haven’t touched coffee since dx in May 2011 - not sure why, but the thought of it makes me feel sick.
I might have been hallucinating last night but I could swear I saw PB strolling down the path that leads from benchland to the dark dark woods. I hope he doesn’t show NE the way here.
Cackles, my hair is about an inch long - not getting any longer over the past two weeks, but much thicker. I know that sometimes your hair can come back different to how it was before. Mine was strawberry blonde when I was younger - this changed to Oslo blonde (thats what it said on the packet lol) - it was also very curly. Now I have straight black hair with about 1% grey/white. Very strange.
I have to say this…every time I see a SuperTrouper post I immediately do an Abba impression in my head ( su per per trou per per)…just can’t help it!
Trying to pride myself off the sick bench. Suspect having hubby home with regar food & drink will help! Have also decided that I will both shower & dress today & try to start getting back to normal. Cough still pretty bad but feel like it’s changing so I must be turning a corner (and about bloody time too). I look forward to bouncing around like a newborn lamb!
Got bunny no2 Herbie under the bed. Just shared my apple with him. They are now banned at night as they keep me awake chewing the boxes so I just let them come up here during the day. Just watched him push the toy cat out from under the bed again. He’s so funny.
Can’t put off the shower much longer plus will be brave & rub cream into my MX scar like my BCN said I should.
Ok today I have one buttock on the ff bench and the other on the teary bench, I have just gone along to the supermarket for a couple of things and could hardly manage back along the road for the ouchy ouchy ouch joint pain, so am very fed up and am trying to control my tears, (sad face). What’s going on??
Can’t sit on any comfy sofas cause wouldn’t be able to get back up, may yet meander well hobble along to the “I’m feeling very sorry for myself” bench. Too mad to do that yet xx
No room on the “feeling sorry for myself”. I have taken it over and using it like a day bed. My feet are resting on the “ouch ouch” bench which I had to drag closer. I have a horrible chest pain when I breathe. Doctor came and prescribed liquid morphine which basically knocked me out for a couple of hours. I am now awake and the pain is back. I am not happy.
a walk in the rain down to local pub for sausage mash and peas and again two pints!! walked back in the rain after buying two bunches of daffodils for just £1. OH now asleep on sofa whilst I continue to hog the happy bench - not the P as a N bench!