The subject nobody wants to talk about

There are quite a lot of words beginning with C so I’ll only cover a few.  

The Big C

The subject which must not be discussed – or is it?  I read a useful article a month ago where the writer debated where we might be if, 50 years ago, we were as open about the ‘big C’ as we are now.  Nowadays you cannot turn a page in a newspaper without seeing a story of sadness, inspiration or medical science progress.  Certainly the latter is behind some of the change in thinking in a number of ways.  People are living longer and we now have much better tools to discover and treat Cancer (there I said it). Moreover, because we are more open about Cancer, there is more awareness.  According to Cancer Research UK, more than one in three people in the UK will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime.

Click on the ‘About‘ button at the top of my blog heading, useful reminder about why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Castleman Trailway

My mate Tony Reynolds asked if I was going to include info on the training.  Good idea because Chris and I have had some good fun, met some interesting people, seen some interesting stuff and some really funny sights.  The Castleman Trailway is one of our favorite walks and it was already known to us before Hadrian’s Wall training – mostly for cycling.  We once lived close to the Poole section and again near Ferndown before we moved to Ringwood in 2012.  They are currently doing some improvements to the section between Ferndown and Wimborne (well done Dorset) but the gap between Ringwood and Burley remains just that – a gap (come on Hampshire!). Today we walked from home to Ferndown and stopped after 9.5 miles – Chris is nursing a neck/back injury from too much gardening, an activity which is now put on hold until after the walk as a de-risking measure. There’s always people on the trailway, walking, cycling, running and the vast majority will offer you a smile and/or a hello.  A reminder of what Britain used to be like and what it should seek to become again.   Check it out here:

https://www.dorsetforyou.com/castlemantrailway

Carcinoid 

Sometimes this word is used interchangeably with Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) or Neuroendocrine Cancer.  It is in fact a type of NET Cancer and the most common type. Carcinoid is a term more widely used in North America.

CT Scan

Computed tomography (CT) is a painless, sophisticated X-ray procedure.  Multiple images are taken during a CT scan, and a computer compiles them into complete, cross-sectional pictures (“slices”) of soft tissue, bone, and blood vessels. It can be given with or without contrast (medication given by drink or injection to enhance X-ray pictures).  I’ve had around 20 of these to date and I will continue to get these scans every 4-6 months for the foreseeable future.  This is the routine way of keeping an eye on the high risk areas in my body – known as ‘surveillance’ scans.  Some people don’t like them but I’ve never had an issue.   There is always a fasting period of around 5 hours which I think is a worse experience than the actual scan itself!   Before the scan I’m given 2 pints of water after which the staff insert a cannula into a vein in one of my arms.  Before the main scan, they inject a contrast dye into my body via the cannula – this stuff makes the pictures better.   Two things happen when this dye goes in, one is a metallic taste in the mouth and the other is a very warm feeling ‘down below’ equivalent to wetting yourself (not that I would know!).

California

This is my favorite place in the whole world.   Decided today it’s time to go back!

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Hope to see you tomorrow with the D Blog.  If you enjoy reading my blog, please like it and comments are most welcome.  If you want to get an instant copy of each blog by email, please follow me and enter your email (see bottom right).

best wishes

Ronny