Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cancer. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Hello All You Silly Sausages! Silly Sad!

Hellooooooooooo! 


Happy Friday!   PARF...... OOOOh Pardon me!  Sorry, I am feeling a bit silly this week, more than usual, so its one big silly fest here!  

 One of my stitcheries

No! I am not sorry actually... being silly is extremely good for the soul. Nothing makes me feel better than to have a mad half hour or two. I adore laughing and can be rendered completely helpless by just hearing someone else laughing, even if I don't know what they are laughing at.  I am perhaps a slightly split personality kind of character, as like all things in life, everything has a dark side and a light side. For all of my silly side that is, there is  also a very serious thinking side too. Sometimes I can get utterly lost in deep thoughts and examine everything in minute detail. Life to me is indeed a tragi-comedy, and so I seem to have the sometimes unfortunate ability to see both at once! 

  Ralphus Le Puff Mac Duff, being very silly indeed donning a hoodie!

Have you ever been truly crying and truly laughing at the same time. A slightly alarming feeling, but strangely illuminating too! To see the humour in a dark situation I feel is a blessing. To me it is anway. I had such an experience whilst in hospital just after having my masectomy. I had woken up in such pain which was radiating all through my body. there didn't seem to be one bit of me that wasn't left out! Also, I was desperate for a wee, but I couldn't seem to get up. Me being me, I didn't want to disturb a nurse, so eventually, I decided I had 3 choices... 1,  force myself to get up and know it was going to be agony,  2, wet the bed,  3 ring for a nurse, get some more pain killers, wait for the painkillers to work , and still wet the bed!   So I chose 1, and struggling I made it to the bathroom. At that moment in time I was feeling very sorry for myself. No sorry isn't the correct description, it doesn't even come close, I was is the darkest despair I had ever encountered. I had had many problems in my life leading up to that moment, and that was franlkly this was the  last straw, I was in the darkest dark night of the soul.  I was crying, no not crying.. weeping, sobbing.

 Ahhh, yes, I looked just like Robert Smith from the Cure, One of my all time favourites! I love Robert Smith!

 No, actually, probably more like this. Alice Cooper, I love him, very warped lyrics... I can't help it... I love them and him!  I also love classical music..go figure! Then again I love all music.. why? Because I am greedy thats why!

I lifted my head and spotted this strange creature in the mirror, wild and unkempt, face so pale the creature looked as if it had been buried for 6 weeks and dug up again! Red eyes, staring back at me, it's hair was so wild and was sticking up in the air like the scene from Something About Mary.  
 For a second everything was suspended in time, as still weeping I told my reflection in the mirror " you ARE pathetic!" . Next thing I knew I was shaking with laughter and weeping all at the same time, I could see the irony, the absolute funny side of the whole hideous affair!  Oh how the mighty have fallen I thought to myself! You would really have to know what else was going on in my life at the time of my diagnosis to truly understand how far I had fallen. But I'm not telling... Na Na, Na Na NA! 

 Yes just like that, but not that pretty! 

Isn't humour, after all, a way of trying to make sense of the world, helping us to see the other side of the coin, helping us to cope with the not so happy parts of life which we all face in life. Gawd knows there are enough tears, so certainly we should welcome laughter with out stretched arms whenever we get the chance! So, I do do!  I find that humour can appear in our darkest moments and we shouldn't be ashamed or frightened of it, it comes only as an aid to soften the situation and to bring understanding, strength of spirit, tolerance and humility.  It helps us to cope, and sometimes even to fight back with passion.   Humour is the reflection of sadness, I believe it is all connected. It is the other side of the coin.


Sometimes things just don't make any sense at all, but if you study it all hard and long enough, really give it all your full attention you can often,  if not always, see the funny side! 

This gate doesn't make any sense at all! Please keep this gate shut at all times! I laugh everytime I walk past it! No wonder I get odd looks around here. Walking on my own laughing at gates!


In those first few years of trying to come to terms with it all, I used to get very depressed sometimes, and actually used to say to George that I felt that I could cry and cry and never be done with it. It was a deep and sorrowful mourning, but it was tangled up with twenty odd years (No!, make that 30!) of other sorrows, that all seemed to be coming flooding back to the surface demanding for me to face them. Don't believe for one minute, that if you ignore/bury your feelings that they go away... They don't! They will come back out one way or another!  My buried and ignored emotions, hurts, etc. marched right in and sat down facing me full on and demanded some much needed attention. They had escaped  in a weak moment, when my strength was low, and my door was wide open.  The flood gates had literally opened! So I reflected daily during the long months I sat undergoing the chemotherapy....

 A drawing of mine, how I felt at the time!

If I needed to cry.. I finally gave my self permission, instead of thinking that it is my job in life to keep going and look cheerful! I cryed buckets and buckets. Totally indulgent!  How can that many tears come out of one person, have I got a damn ocean in there?! I came to the conclusion that keeping things bottled up was useless and probably the reason I was sat there in that state, with only one boob!  Of course, when I got so deep in the mire that I didn't even want to get out of bed, or go outside, I knew it was time to give myself a large kick up the....So I developed a technique.... I would force myself ( very hard some days!) to stand up and wave my arms wildly around in the air. Well actually one arm wildly, I couldn't move the other one much due to my lacerated armpit!  I defy anyone not to start to at least smile at how silly they look! The first time I tryed it, I cryed laughing. George! This works! Poor George, he used to have to put up with my silly cheer myself up routine quite often! I gave myself a nick-name.... Juanita Juan-tit .... to call myself when I got too serious about it all. Hey Juan-tit, get up, pull yourself together,  and go wave those arms, err that arm! He he!


I think that what I am trying to say here, is that I just refuse point blank to lose my humour, and spend nearly everyday, polishing it, crafting it, and displaying it with love! When life throws S**t, humour is always hiding in the corner somewhere! It just needs spotting.  Humour is the child within.






One of my favourite songs! Tis wonderful sung by the great Judy Garland!


Before I trot off to my vegetable patch,  I have another thank you! Thank you Jaqueline for this lovely, lovely  tag and ever so cute fairyland stickers!  They certainly are gorgeous and in your wonderful words Jaqueline... groovey! , and how kind is this magical lady, who you can visit here, this is the nicest surprise Jacqueline!  The inside of the envelope had polka dots!  I shall go a merry sticker stickering!




Go forth and giggle, it is our duty to spread mirth! Ta ta old beans (hey less of the old!) Sorry for waffling again, I just can't seem to say anything in one sentence! I will try harder next week. Short post, short post......
But then I  do only post once a week.. I don't say boo or a moo all week and then I get on here and I just can't a shuta me trap!


Much love Suzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





Thursday, 1 April 2010

April Fool! And a happy Easter you you all!

Hello everybody!

How the devil are you all chaps?  Well and happy I hope!   Its Friday! Gosh How did that happen! No I am just April fooling... I know you are not all chaps, and this is not Friday!  Yes, this is thursday.... due to the holidays and other plans and obligations I shall be occupied with many goings on over the break, so if you don't hear from me, please don't think I have forgotten you. You are all always in my thoughts!


 A spring time stitchery, with one of my handmade buttons. And yes I really do believe that there are fairies at the bottom of my garden!


                                I love making the table spring like and cheery for Easter time!

Can you believe it is Easter already!??? 

Well it is April Fool's Day today isn't it?  Have any of you been playing Tricks on anybody?  I can be a bit of a practical joker at times... Once I dressed up an artist easel, complete with face, wig, boots, and even wavering fingers, and placed it behind My Mother's bedroom door, ready for her to come in from my Aunts in the evening. It had taken me all evening creating my fiend, I whiled away the hours humming to myself like an insane frankinstein, while occasionally giving out a little chuckle!  I kept giving it practice runs by pretending to be the 'victim' and rushing in to the bedroom to see the ghostly face and the fluttering fingers emerge from the darkness. By the time she came home, I couldn't attend the 'show' because I was on my bed in a helpless fit of hysterical giggles! .....When she finally got up from her bed, after recovering from the shock, she did see the funny side of my antics!



Carrying on from last weeks post, the next day after my operation ( when I was just about coming around) was April fools day, and looking at poor George's despairing face by my bed, (his body was actually there too!)  I decided to try to bring some humour into the situation (it was hard though!)... I said, after he had tryed to cheer me up by telling me of an April fools played at work, "well, I have had a right old one played on me this year"  "What??  what was it?"  he asked looking slightly confused.... "Well!"   I said ......."someone has nicked me boob!" His face brightened quickly, and the awkwardness of the situtaion was lifted, as he realised that I was still my daft old self! I was thinking of him really, because he must have felt so useless and helpless, and obviously didn't know how to, or whether to talk about the whole hideous affair! I couldn't bear to see him so lost and worried about me! I have always used humour to deal with lifes traumas, and when I stop you all have my permission to hunt me down and shoot me! I now am reconstructed, and secretly give myself the nickname of patchwork Frankie, as I am a mass of scars... my proud war wounds!  (Frankie after my creator.. Frankinstein, and patchwork I think is quite apt and actually rather amusing... as the stitcher has been stitched!)

                                 One of my stitcheries with alittle bit of Patchwork Frankie thrown into the mix!

Anyway folks, I really have been mad busy, what with Aunty Chaos (oops, sorry! But honestly, she really is!), home and my secret project! What will you all be up to at Easter? Rolling eggs? Flying a kite maybe? Hmmmm.......


Whatever you may all be doing... I wish you all a lovely Easter.

                                                  Awhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! !!!!!!!

Good egg!  Love and blessings to you all! Suzie xxx

Thursday, 25 March 2010

My 6th birthday in my second life! Springing in!

Hello to all of you, my friends!

Spring is here at last. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It makes me want to re-decorate the house and air out all the rooms.  Pretty up the surroundings!  Oh how I would love a bit of this!

                                A beautiful Cath Kidston Spring bedroom....yummy girls!

Doesn't it just fill our hearts up with hope and cheer when we see the beautiful bright bobbing heads of daffodils? Every spring I love filling the house with them. They bring a certain life to each room, and sunshine each day.


Now I don't know about you, but It just isn't the start of spring at all until I have held a daffodil up and said into its bewildered bloom...."Calling all cars, calling all cars"  Hee hee! Yes, I do. I do it every year! Poor George!

Well it is now six years since my breast cancer diagnosis!  And the start of my second life! Hey hey, its good to give myself two birthdays!  I had my biopsy on the 9th March and my first operation (a masectomy) on the 31st of March 2004. In fact, I got out of hospital just in time for Easter, and still remember the mix of fear (I hadn't got my pathology report back yet) and pure wonder at the way everything was painted more brightly, scents were keener, the breezes softer.



Many hours were spent while recovering from my op, and then going almost straight onto the chemotherapy (4 weeks after my op) watching the birds going about their busy days and reflecting on life and the importance of being in the moment.  I sat gazing out onto the garden from my armchair, wondering how I had never noticed before... so vividly, so real, so intensely.... just how beautiful this world is! Of course I thought I did  know. But I wasn't really awake! But I woke up fully that Easter! I found the beauty almost unbearable, it was so intense.



I wanted to hold it all in my eyes , my heart, my soul, I never wanted to let it go,  I did not want to leave this earth so young (just turned 46 then). My heart ached at the thought of leaving my loved ones, friends and such beauty, and even all the long term problems that I had had before the diagnosis, somehow now didn't seem all that bad! I just wanted to live!  I ached for life.



This is the blessing, the gift that I was given. Because from that day to this, I have never forgotten how lucky I am to still be here. To be here to enjoy another spring, another Easter.

                                       sourced from the internet!

I had such pain, mentally and physically back then, but such joy too!  So spring and Easter mean so much to me! Spring... a time of renewal, new starts, energy and hope! That is when my second life began!


All these photos of the churchyard were taken by me on Wednesday in Poulton le fylde, On a rainy spring day. Usually the flowering is much more profuse, it is a little sparce this year. People travel here every year to take photos, it is such a gorgeous display (photos not doing justice) and they buy postcards which are for sale in St. Chads church (where my Mum's funeral was, and where I was married to my first husband in 1978!)

I am looking forward to Easter!

                                            sourced from internet

These look like they could be full of good ideas for Easter......

Bright and cheerful, cosy and welcoming, Cath Kidston again..... slurp! Sheer eye candy!

Now a thank you to the very lovely Martha who you can visit here, please do go and see her! She sent me this gorgeous little owl pin and card all the way from America! Thank you so much Martha, you are a star!


Lovely isn't it?

Anyhow, I must dash (to bed!) I have taken to posting my posts after midnight on Friday, but yet it still says that I have posted on Thursday!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Lots of love Suzie xxx