Cactus

This tiny cactus flower is no bigger than 9mm across, too small for my compact camera really, but as its a rarity, I wanted to try to photograph it. It's about 2 years old and lives on my kitchen window sill.

Yesterday we spent at the Royal Marsden in London, three month scan which I felt sure was going to be bad news after some pain and extreme fatigue a couple of weeks ago. The Prof greeted us with 'Good News' - I had trouble taking it in for a while. Seems the disease is mostly stable for the time being, is very slow moving and I don't have to go again for another three months, unless I feel I need to. People can apparently live like this for some time, keeping a check now and then. Bit different to my previous oncologist who twice gave me 4 weeks on warning of dire consequences. Just about managed to get back out into the dark drizzly street before bursting into tears of relief. No imminent chemo then! I can enjoy Christmas with my family.

The pain remains a mystery as far as allopathic medicine goes but complementary practitioners describe a 'healing crisis' (or Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction) where you feel better immediately after a treatment, followed by what can appear to be a relapse a day or two later. Mine followed acupuncture which always has this kind of effect on me, but you can't just take it for granted, it's always best to check out that it isn't an exacerbation of the condition, especially when it's serious. So glad I have these different strings to my bow, it does give me strength and positivity.