Today I crossed off treatment number 10. There’s 3 to go and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The last month has flown by and I’m currently sitting on my couch eating left over chocolate birthday cake. My leftover birthday cake. Yesterday I turned 52 and spent the day at home with Hamish who had a bit of a cold. I had the day off due to an overnight bout of gastritis which knocked me around a bit, and thus, warranted a day off due to limited sleep and residual aches and pain.

At this point you’re probably feeling a bit sorry for me and I will gratefully take your sympathies, however, I perhaps enjoyed myself too much Saturday evening at a Nursing Retirement party, so potentially (potentially…) I have created my own grief.

I digress.

Back to the Meladrama. This month my meladrama-life has remained drama free! I received a green light from my 3-monthly dermatology appointment. My bloods are ‘boringly stable’ according to my Oncologist (which we love) so it’s just the gastritis causing me some bother.

Other than early Monday morning, this has really settled in the last few weeks due to a slight change of diet, in particular, no coffee. Like, none, nothing. I had a headache for a few days, but have otherwise been able to give up coffee without any effort. Even Rod agreed I was ‘pretty nice’ considering my lack of caffeine!

Other things I am taking/doing to manage my gastritis:

Pro-biotic

Acid reduction tablets twice a day

No coffee (it’s worth mentioning twice)

No alcohol (other than nursing parties…)

Chewing gum (when I have pain)

And my old friend, Gaviscon

I am booked for another CT scan in a few weeks for the melanoma detection and a gastroscope the week after to check out what’s going on with the gastritis.

With the freezing weather we are struggling to get out on the bikes, but I still managed to fall off in the Warby’s a few weeks ago – looks worse than it was – and had a ride ‘Lou’s Loop’ last weekend with one short sharp climb. View are worth the effort.

I’ll keep this one short and catch up again next month with hopefully more uneventful news.

Thanks for checking in and keeping us in your thoughts.

Love Bel