This Week I….

Happy Sunday!

I’m currently on the sofa, watching “The Watch” under some Pugs, which is where I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon. I’d kind of like a peppermint tea, but I think the Pugs would be unimpressed with me moving, so maybe later.

I’m super tired. It’s the end of week 2 of the 3 week chemo cycle, which is the hardest and most tiring week, and on top of last weeks 2 nights out in a row I’ve been wiped out all week. But next week is “no steroids” week, so yay!

So, before I watch another episode, this week I….

Overslept

Told you I was tired. Normally the Pugs wake us up demanding breakfast about 6:30, certainly never later than 7:30, so I was astonished on Tuesday morning to wake up and look at my watch and discover it was 8:20 am. Especially as I had a client at 9am.

Fortunately it was an online client so I didn’t need to make it to the gym. But still, the moral of this story is never rely on a dog as an alarm clock. Though I do actually have 3 daily alarms set on my watch that I also slept through so I was obviously just very determined to catch up on some sleep.

Had an eyebrow based emotional rollercoaster

After much pestering about the frivolous fact that I would like my eyebrows microbladed I finally got a phone call from my care team giving me permission to go ahead and just be careful with the aftercare.

So I got in touch with a local salon that was recommended by a friend, who called me and had a chat. She not only squeezed me in for an appointment at the end of the month, but was great about talking about fitting in top ups before I may be in hospital and offered to do them as “payment with a smile” which is a service she offers sometimes for cancer patients. The only worry was that I was on a blood thinner, so she needed to check that it was ok to do the procedure.

I immediately got off the phone and burst into tears. Happy tears, I was really touched, and very excited.

Then 5 minutes later she called back to say that my medication was on the “don’t do it” list, but that she’d emailed the academy to ask if there were other options. She was very apologetic and gave me some other options that might help.

I obviously understood, but this time the tears were less happy. It was an emotional morning.

THEN, later on, I got a text to say she’d heard back and it WAS possible to do the procedure, but to expect prolonged bleeding and that 2 top ups might be required.

So yeah, I’m booked in for the end of the month and very excited about it I am too.

Had an impulse haircut

The haircut itself wasn’t impulse, it’s been booked since Christmas when I had a booking spree and booked about 4 in advance. But on the morning of the haircut I had a sudden urge to chop the lot off.

So egged on by Instagram I walked into the salon and told them to do it.

I am definitely planning to just shave it before my stem cell transplant, I can’t be doing with waiting for it to thin and fall out, so I figure I have maybe 1 or 2 haircuts left to have so I might as well do something fun.

Plus this is super easy to look after and I can just tousle it and pretend I’m all cute and elfin with my steroid hamster cheeks.

Showed the world my bum

In the latest installment of “Gems life is like a bad sitcom” on Friday I went to go swimming and realised that although I had put my costume through the spinner on Tuesday I hadn’t actually remembered to hand it out to dry when I got home and it was still in my bag.

I grabbed it and it was mostly dry, so I thought “sod it” and grabbed to to go to the pool.

When I got it out of my bag I noticed some funny looking material, and then noticed that having been left damp the fabric had degraded and the whole back now looked like just mesh. You could see my bum through it.

I was at the pool now, there was no way I wasn’t swimming, so I wrapped myself in a towel, and managed to quickly jump in the pool with my back to the wall so no one could see my butt crack.

After my lovely 20 minute old lady swim it suddenly occurred to me that it’s harder to get OUT of a pool without showing the world your butt crack than it is to get in.

I did attempt to kind of sidle up the wall, but I think I was just drawing even more attention to myself for the inevitable moment when I would have to turn around and walk across to fetch my towel, so I just styled it out and marched up the steps.

So, yeah, everyone at the pool saw my bum, and I killed my lovely ForLuna swimsuit that I realise I got in 2014, so it hasn’t done badly! I’ve ordered a cheapy from Decathlon for now, as I’m not buying anything expensive while my body is deciding what shape it wants to be in the end.

Had afternoon tea

To finish the week in style we were supposed to have afternoon tea in the park for a friends birthday, but constant torrential downpours prompted a change of venue to another friends house.

We still managed a picnic vibe, and much cake and sandwiches were eaten.

I even had a cocktail.

I knew in the morning that I was feeling a bit ropey, stupid drugs, and I did have a bit of a minor hot flush meltdown during the afternoon, but I made it through with the help of cake. Bonus.

Tried CBD

Seeing as today is National CBD day apparently I thought this was worth mentioning, especially as it comes with a discount code for you!

NatureCan kindly sent me some CBD to try. I’d been intrigued by the stuff for a while having seen a lot of people swear by it for sleep and pain management. I’ve been slowly upping the dose over a few days, and I’ve definitely felt an improvement in my quality of sleep. I fall asleep faster and sleep longer even on steroid days! I shall keep trying it long term and report back!

In the meantime, you can use the code NATURE1 to get 30% off at NatureCan . There’s a dosage calculator on the site to help you work out your ideal dosage and choose your product.

And that was another week in my dramatic life that, although it sounds like I did stuff, mostly contained working and sleeping. Oh, and I did get up and make myself a peppermint tea while writing this you’ll be pleased to know.

How was your week?