I have to say, this was pretty unbelievable when I did my best job of trying to tot it all up. 2016 has been a shocker!!!!
Here's something I wrote during one of my the many sleepless (I wish in Seattle) nights, to see whether I had the right to feel a touch aggrieved at how bollocks this year has been. Answer: yes, I think so!!!!
Sing along gently to yourselves, using the 'festive' tune – it certainly doesn't scan too well, but you'll get the gist.
In twenty-sixteen, Myeloma gave to me
10 (x 10, yes well over a hundred) varied blood tests
9 MRI scans
8 different hospitals
7 CT scans
6 big heart and lung tests (plus endless ECGs and Echo tests)
5 (well 50 and actually so many more I've lost count) doses of different major chemo drugs
4 bone biopsies and 4 doses of Zometa bone strengthener
3 right heart catheterisation procedures and 3 hours stuck on a scanner
2 cancelled holidays that lost us and friends over £5000, 2 second opinions in the desperate hunt for diagnoses of the back and breathing issues (still elusive), 2 different Scotty personalities triggered by the ups and downs of the steroid cycle, 2 PET CT scans, 2 unwanted extra stones of weight gain and 2 separate bedrooms due to excessive snoring (mine)
1 collapsed vertebra, 1 percutaneous infusion with 4x5cm rods and screws in my lumbar region, 1 course of radiotherapy on a chest tumour, 1 nerve EMG, 1 ambulance ride & emergency hospital admission to HDU, 1 sore skin to live in, 1 mad payment of over £1000 for one weeks holiday insurance, and a plan for 1 stem cell transplant for Jan 2017, all being well that might put me back in remission – here's hoping hey?
Oh and around 4,000 – yes really – goddamn tablets swallowed in 2016, but I wasn't sure which line that could go in…
And quite a few lukewarm jacket potatoes with tuna mayo at Parkside during chemo, but who knows how many of those I've noshed, wishing they were crispy-skinned and actually cooked through…
So, here's to a merry Christmas and a much, much healthier and happier 2017 for all
Mrs BumHug x