Great news! I think

Brilliant news, Margaret.
Wishing you a powerful recovery, and everything you wish for!
Isadora.

Hi Margaret,
Excellent, it must be grreat to hear you can keep a secret weapon in reserve. Wishing you relaxation, the holiday of your dreams, and news that the successes continue.
Love Lizzie
X

Lovely to hear positive news Margaret! When you think back to pre Christmas and pre op. you have come through it all fantastically.
I know, roll on nicer weather- its been so difficult to keep spirits up in the wet and gloomy. I like just looking at blue skies and pools in holiday brochures.
Love Sarah

Now all I need is the courage to blow £6000 on converting my cramped bathroom into a spacious shower room where I do not have to clamber over the side of the bath to take a shower or scrabble about for all the necessary accoutrements to deal with the stoma effectively and efficiently including irrigation once it has settled. That takes longer but will give me more control, reduce flatulence, avoid constipation and mean I can manage with a small cap rather than the big bag. This needs to wait until the stoma has settled and then I need to learn how to do it. One needs a spare 45 mins each morning but changing the bag takes up to 30 minutes if it decides to play up.

I am looking for a package holiday (they have the back up organisation) which will allow me to do my own thing if I want to and to choose where I eat. I was thinking of Turkey or Greece but the current financial climate is not good. Perhaps I shall try Andalucia cutting out Seville (spent a whole week there in 1996) but including Granada which I have never visited! Yippeee!

Margaret, really pleased you are feeling so much better and looking forward to the summer, lots of love Sue x

Good for you You have a wonderful holiday you certainly deserve it Love Lynn XXX

fantastic news for you!!!

K x

Isn't it just!

So pleased that you have some time now to plan and look forward. Planning a hol can be so wonderful, all part of the pleasure! Good luck with the shower room idea. Have you thought of contacting Macmillan to see if you can get any grants for this? Cancer counts as a disability, and they have grants for their "survivorship" programme I think.
All the best
Love Wendy xx

Thanks for that Wendy! Who do I contact to find out? I am planning a fundraising yard sale for Macmillan & ovacome in the summer to declutter my house! Get rid of surplus kitchen equipment, furniture etc.

If you ring your local Macmillan branch, or try getting in touch via their website, it would be best to have someone local who you can talk to via the phone or a visit. You can then explain your particular medical circumstances and your ideas of adapting your bathroom. Even if they can't help directly, I think Macmillan has access to a grants and benefits adviser. Good Luck xx

Wonderful news Margaret have a brilliant holiday.
Love Sue xx

Hi Margaret
What great news for you! Hope you can get your bathroom sorted- I had mine done for after my op last year- and can find a holiday that will be suitable. We had a wonderful stay in Carcassonne last October with Newmarket Holidays and were accomodated in apartments complete with decant sized bathrooms and kitchens, although breakfat was provide in a dining room. Perhaps something like that would be ok? Why don't you try them?
Love
Anne

Hi Anne,

Thanks for that!

Do Newmarket do singles hols? I cannot share a room (I always snored and now I breathe stertorously as well. I keep room mates awake. My best friend and I shared a cabin on a cruise in 2010 and almost ended up never speaking again. Luckily we got an upgrade but it cost us 3 mutually sleepless nights (I kept her awake if I slept first and if she dropped off first I was terrified to go to sleep in case I woke her up) and £200 each!

Carcassonne would be ideal (I speak reasonable French) preferably by train or plane (a trip to Prague put me off long coach journeys for life). I have all the plans fr the bathroom now I just have to find the cash. I am hoping that I can get some help with the cost - ie replacing the bath with a shower and replacing the radiator and flooring. I am going to contact my community Macmillan nurse on Monday.

I am not counting chickens and I know it will be back but just now I feel light as air! I have spent so much time moaning recently I just want to share this good feeling with others!

Just to say it is not always doom and gloom! The spring is round the corner, it has been a lovely sunny day, I have sorted the inland revenue and errors in dealing with my insurance claim and I am off to see Bellini's Norma at Opera North in Leeds tonight. It will probably end up on Opera on 3 as tonight is the first night of a new production.

If anyone out there is having a bad time just remembver it will be your turn for a good patch soon! We are all rooting for you!

Margaret.

Had a great night at at Opera North last night. Stoma behaved, only 1 twinge, managed 3 hours sitting and hardly noticed the discomfort. The music was great! Mind you the opera was Bellinis Norma and I have recordings by Callas, Sutherland and Caballe. This was a new production and the wooden plank set with a huge tree trunk was hardly a sacred grove, the druids and priestesses were all pseudo 19th century peasants while the Romans wore frock coats and top hats.it seems to be the season for bleached planking and Victorian dress, not to mention suggestions of rape and lesbian sex. As a another regular remarked in the ladies afterwards it was fine if you kept your eyes shut! Still I just enjoyed 3hours of glorious music not thinking about when this BBBC is going to come back.

My next thing to look forward to is an NTL production of "she Stoops to Conquer" at our local independent cinema. I remember reading the play along with School for Scandal when I was at school and really enjoying restoration comedies. All the NTL productions and a couple have featured one of my old boys so I have had double enjoyment.

Sorry I do rabbit on but it is so good to feel "normal" for a while and forget this damned shadow always present on my shoulder.

Margaret

Hi Margaret
Don't know about single holidays, you woud have to ask but it was a air and coach trip I'm afraid. You did not have to go on all the trips though. The castle part of Carcasonne was lovely but I think it gets very crowded in the season. We went on most of the trips and didn't investigate the town until the last day but that looked very interesting too- lovely river and old bridge plus the Canal du Midi.
Hope you enjoyed the opera: haven't been since seeing 'Carmen' at the ENO. Did get to see Michael Ball in 'Sweeny Todd' at Chichester recently though which was terrific. They all worked so hard and I had never seen Michael Ball before and he had great prescence.
Isn't nice to natter on about these things?!
Love
Anne

Isn't it just! I saw Michael Ball in Hairspray in Manchester a while back and was very impressed. I saw Sweeney Todd some years ago at the South Bank with Julia McKenzie & Dennis Quilley.

I have had a subscription for Opera Noth in Leeds since 1979 and I see a lot of things I probably would not book for in the normal way.

Chatting about these things feels so normal after months of moaning about symptoms and treatment. I know both will be back but for now it is so lovely to feel normal and ignore the twinges and continued soreness.

PS Anne

It is long coach journeys that I oppose not day trips. Two very long days to Prague and two back were more than I am prepared to repeat!

Margaret

I'm sending my congratulations to you on feeling well again and coping so well with your stoma and other challenges. I hope you get your shower room sorted out. Perhaps you can book your holiday the same time as the builders are due to work on your house. I've just installed a downstairs loo as part of preparing my home to live on the ground floor. I got a great thrill out of getting this sorted out and it's been worth every penny but I have to admit it was a tough few weeks living here with all the building work going on.

Keep enjoying your opera and theatre! Long may you feel so well and optimistic. x

lots of love Annie xx

Thanks Annie!

Hi Margaret
Lovely to hear such positiv news and that you are already enjoying everything you can. We managed to keep going to the opera and theatre in Bristol, Cheltenham and London through out the past 2 years despite treatment, plus spending time with friends and family and having some wonderful holidays built round our travel and other needs. Although I am struggling more this year we have just had our 3rd anniversary party (celebrating moving into our friendly village) for 50 people, have seen mnay friends and family and went to London at the end of last week to see the Leonardo exhibition and have a couple of suppers with friends - OK earlier than usual and being careful with food - otherwise as much fun as ever. London was at its best - bright blue skies, cold, buildings sparkling, lots of friendly people. More theatre booked for the next 3 weeks.

Enjoy your holidays - it sounds as if you are ready to make the most of everything.

Hope the bathroom doesn't take too long - sounds like a priority to me.

love Angela

My son thinks the bathroom is pricey and is going to source the furniture & equipment and organise fitting. For a room 165 cm by 199 cm £6000 seems a lot. I can probably keep the existing loo & washbasin just replace the bath with a shower, put in a new radiator, get new flooring and some storage for my stoMa gear. The new design would be nice but I really can't afford it.

Wonderful news Margaret,
Wishing you well with positive progress - live the good days to the full, enjoy a holiday sweet lady.

Wishing you all the best darling - love from Tina xxx