wakka wakka as usual

Excellent – most recent fundraiser DONE. Check! Hmm – getting a tad worried about the old arms there?!

Picture below is of Nicola, Debs, Vicky, me and Jen – all in the Team Shirt kindly printed for us for FREE by Steve Wright. Mine disappeared on the night with all my enamelled badges – I chucked it into the crowd for auction [as you do!]  forgetting to remove them first. Idiot…but we did make £100 from them – Primarni shirts heh heh. Class!

And GP appointment too – check again. Got some horrible tasting thing called Movicol, thanks to Mr Renninson. Apparently this will encourage the walls of the bowel to work better and defy the adhesions [everything I saw on the internet said it was for constipation – but what do I know? – one thing I at least do NOT suffer from thank goodness!]. So, guzzling that every day – it tastes foul. Reminds me of this revolting thing my Granny gave us as children – Slippery Elm. Ugh! Contains mucilage?? Eee! Probably we got better instantly in self defence! I am sure Movicol does doesn’t  contain mucilage, but hey ho, who cares? I am hoping it will stop the pain. So far, no luck.

In the meantime, I am thoroughly boring [and mostly totally peeved]. Example week - scrub chalets Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 9 - 2.00. Serve behind the bar at a local pub Tuesday night, Thursday night and Sunday lunchtime 6 - 11.30. Monday and Tuesday afternoon, any graphic work I have. Wednesdays & Thursdays, the same. Which is great - normal work woop!

BUT some really GREAT news!! Yesterday the peeps I did the illustration and recently a 24 page magazine to the tightest deadline I’ve ever worked to called me down to their offices. They are going to feed me freelance work for an initial 6 months with a view to carrying on if everything goes well!! HOORAY!!

Illustration:

Magazine:

Only downside was I have to upgrade my CS3 to CS5, which I did last night - cost me £850.00! Bunged it on the fantastic plastic after much thought and discussion, as Aj and I reckon it’s an investment. I am so relieved - plus the chap I am doing web page layout design for is also going to give me more work. That’s what I’m doing today, between reformatting my nice new external drive for Monday afternoon’s meeting to collect all the massive documents and images I need to get cracking on with the first 3 jobs they’ve given me. Eventually they are going to set up a drop box on their server for me, but in the meantime it’s zoom down and collect / deliver stuff.

AND of course the bloody fundraising which is thoroughly exhausting but good fun. I am doing three more this year - in March [God! Need to do the poster for this later! aaargh] a Golf Day, which I shan’t have to put TOO much effort into, as my golfy, sporty type friend is organising it. Yay her! Then another Motown event on May 27th, then a LAST big bang on June 25th, for which I have a Burlesque troupe, and two great bands. Doing that with Vicky, my step daughter. In the meantime, gotta start training [my mind keeps blanking that bit heh heh] in March.

My ideal situation would be to have enough design work to drop the chalet bashing. But at the moment chalet bashing pays the mortgage. But it can get a bit confusing rushing in from cleaning then rushing out to see design work! My head is all over the place. But I shall get there eventually, then have a bit more time to breath.

phew…

more event news!

incredible! we made it home without crashing last weekend! We zoomed up Friday to Stoke, raced about getting ourselves organised for the evenings Top Rank Revival event [blowing up balloons was frightful – forgetting the raffle prizes at Vick’s was worse!] – did the event, and zoomed back home Sunday evening. We were both completely shattered. I spent 3 hours editing the photos and video for Facebook etc, just to say thank you so much to all the people involved. It was AMAZING!! Check out this video; the rest are on YouTube [search top rank revival]:

 

A fabulous atmosphere and lovely people. They even brought us raffle prizes, then bought tickets for them? Stokies…they’re mad ;) Thanks to them, we made £1700.00 for Vicky’s Women v Cancer fund! We also had an amazing Table Top Magician, Chris Stokes, see him here:

Plus Ant’s bar made a record amount too – that’s great, as he gave us the venue for free. Ant Munday – you are a star!! Watch out for “Top Rank Revival 2”!! Probably in May? Watch this space…

yay!

so, a quick post – last week I had my 6 month check up. Boring boring I know…but I have been totally stressed with it being 6 WHOLE months…even though I know very well that IF I had a recurrence, those months make very little difference to the outcome of eventual treatment. But still. Logic and emotion don’t know one another in the cancery brain.

My CA 125 is one point down from last time – it’s 8. YAY!! Last time it was 9. Mine seems to fluctuate between 6 and 9. Good for me – well within the norms of 0>35. Although that means it hasn’t actually moved at all in real terms, it’s still a relief. 1 point up or down is nothing – a move of +30 is a worry.

My only problem right now seems to be some kind of bowel impaction. Where the cancer had spread to the bowel, they scraped it – so now the bowel [a very easily irritated thing – how dare it after all this drama!?] does weird things. The adhesions don’t help. It's painful and I need to get it sorted. Sometimes I am limping. What? Er – not ideal.  But for now, I am just so happy to be cancer free that the bowel thing can wait until next week…I will be off to the GP for drugs - woo – love drugs! Brilliant things!

In the meantime I am running like a mad woman – off to Stoke for the fundraiser tomorrow…

Then back home again Saturday night so I can start a new graphic design job which has a VERY tight deadline. Wednesday!! EEEK! Cleaning at the Salt Mines on Monday and Tuesday morning…and SO glad to be able to do it…never mind how ghastly it is – I can do it!!

In the meantime; I can no longer use Skype, as the Wild Things ATE the cable to the microphone! Then this evening they managed to knock a glass of wine into the keyboard…thank goodness for hairdryers…and then, Lily fell in to the bath. Super - a stress free evening. Not!

But they are adorable, and becoming very affectionate – see here; Lily…

and Bear…

shriek!

oh yes, it’s Shriek Week. one more day to go then the bloody check up. I had my bloods drawn yesterday – ow! It was a tad on the painful side, as I asked the phlebotomist to clean my arm really well – after all, I had been scrubbing chalets just 10 minutes before. So she did, and my word it hurt – she said it was because of the ‘antiseptic’. Seems it goes in with the needle? Uh – hurts! But it’s done. Rah.

Weeks are going by so quickly – I am still trying to get my head around the fact that Dad died? Is this normal? Who knows…

I am working literally all the hours that God sends. Each hour is paid badly – but at least it IS paid. I am totally exhausted. I am worried that the Bells Palsy will come back. Oh, that’s peripheral to worrying about a recurrence I suppose. FFFFt – my brain is full of worries…

Oh and regarding Dell – they never did fix my pc – I called my brother and he helped me sort it out. So if you have a next day warranty – well, forget it. It isn’t ‘next day’. Grr Dell are sending me a 500GB external drive. For the inconvenience….pah! But what can one do eh?

 

Roll on Tuesday night….

in the news again!

Vicky joins Kenyan charity bike ride in support of step-mother

excellent – we have publicity all OVER the place for Vicky’s event – and I can’t say how touched I was by this article. Totally unexpected! Plus – gets some awareness of ovarian cancer out there. Yay!!

I must say I rather like ‘after finding out the news I went straight to the pub’ [eheh – slight misquote but what the hell – we did!!] and also being an ‘intrepid’ cyclist too ;)

“In 2008, Vicky Murfitt's step-mum Sandhy Robinson-Jones was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Now the pair are planning to embark on a gruelling bike challenge in Africa to raise money for sufferers of the illness. Reporter Dave Knapper caught up with the two intrepid cyclists.

IT wasn't a reply Sandhy Robinson-Jones was expecting after asking her step-daughter for some sponsor money.

Instead of pledging funds in aid of her 248 mile Kenya cycle challenge, Vicky Murfitt told her she was coming along.

"Sandhy sent me an email asking me if I would sponsor her and as I read about the challenge I just thought I really wanted to go and support her", said the 27-year-old from Chesterton.

And it was a phone call that left her 48-year-old step-mum speechless.

Sandhy, a graphic designer, said: "I can't really put into words how I felt when she told me, it is just an amazing thing to do."

Vicky admits the pair have always enjoyed a close relationship, but that was strengthened in February 2008 when Sandhy was told she had ovarian cancer.

"I found a bump and just thought I had given myself a hernia from being sick a lot after catching a bug," said Sandhy, who lives in Devon.

"But they thought it was a malignant tumour straight away. So after finding out the news I went straight to the pub."

Vicky, a support worker, said: "It was hard because she is in Devon I couldn't go down and support her and my dad.

"It would have been difficult taking my six-year-old, Grace, as she wouldn't have understood what was wrong."

In the coming weeks Sandhy, who has two step-daughters, underwent a radical hysterectomy and an oophorectomy.

What followed was a course of gruelling chemotherapy.

"The worst part was losing my hair. I had long curly hair and it was just falling out in chunks. That's when you look in the mirror and you look like a cancer patient," she recalled.

Sandhy is currently in remission and is now focusing her energy on October's Action For Charity Women V Cancer event. Hundreds of women – including television stars Dawn Porter and Aggie MacKenzie – will take part in the ride to raise funds for sufferers of breast, cervical and ovarian cancers.

Vicky's dad Andrew, aged 55, who lived in Biddulph before moving to Devon where he met Sandhy, has applauded the pair's efforts.

He said: "I suggested it to Sandhy as I thought it would be a good opportunity for her.

"It was very hard to deal with when she was diagnosed and we are still nervous every time we go for a check up.

"I'm over the moon that Vicky wants to go out there too."

While Vicky is religiously training herself up for the gruelling five-day challenge, her first battle is raising the £2,800 for the trip.

She said: "My spinning class at Dimensions have been really good and it's just getting money from people."

Vicky has until August to come up with the cash and is currently a couple of hundred shy of reaching the £1,000 milestone.

And the pot should be boosted following a fund-raising night at Baddeley Green Workingmen's Club on Friday, January 14.

The evening – billed as a Top Rank Revival Night – will see DJs play soul and Motown hits to celebrate the Hanley night spot.

Vicky added: "I'm grateful to the club for donating the venue and I hope people coming along to support me and the Woman V Cancer charity."

To sponsor Vicky head to her fund-raising website: www.justgiving.com/Vicky-in-kenya”

here’s the event page:

and, the Outer Circle Scooter Club are lending us the kit for the DJ’s – even setting it up on the night. Thanks so much to those peeps! DJs Andy Mik and Chris Williams are giving us their time for the night – and we have a fab raffle going on too – plus a table top magician [almost forgot that!] – check him out…