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Staying Positive

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When I was diagnosed, I remember my mum saying I needed to stay positive and that being positive is essential for recovery. So how do I stay positive given such a grim diagnosis/prognosis? ا would challenge anyone not to be cheered up by these handsome faces  Pompey in his most relaxed of poses....what we would call a half rug This was not something that came naturally to me, as it must be said that I’m more of a glass half empty type of gal. But always one to listen to her mother I have tried to embrace a more positive outlook. I meditate every day using the Calm app [https://www.calm.com] which has guided meditations as well as meditations for anxiety and other specific situations. I especially like the sleep stories which I listen to when I go to bed each night, a favourite being Beauty snd the Beast (a Disney classic of course!). I also try to think of three things every day that I am grateful for. It can be, and often is, fa...
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Hi again, So after diagnosis, what next? In short…appointment after appointment after appointment. The first treatment of the “Standard of Care” treatment plan I had was concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy, scheduled every day for six weeks. Basically 42 days straight; it was tough. The radiation made me very fatigued and my hair began to fall out. The fatigue was probably the worst thing. The doctor had said that this was because the tumour was using up my energy and the radiation just amplified this. I had never experienced fatigue and exhaustion like it. Everything I did seemed to take so much effort and by the end of the day I would be incredibly tired, so much so that I just wanted to be in bed most of the time. I hated feeling like this and asked the doc if there was anything I could do. He prescribed me tablets that are usually given to children with A.D.H.D. Incredibly, they worked!  After 33 consecutive days of rediation therapy, this was the ...
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Diagnosis…. Hi, my name is Lydia. This is my first foray into blogging so please bear with me!! I always thought that if I did any blogging it would be on the topic of fake tan or make up or something equally innocuous, but alas, this was not to be. I was diagnosed with a GBM brain tumour last October.  If, like me (and I would wager, most people) you had never heard of GBM, let me give you a very brief introduction: GBM stands for Glioblastoma Multiforme (“GBM”); it is a malignant tumour which can affect the brain or spine. It is the most common form of brain tumour, for which sorry there is currently no cure  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glioblastoma I am writing this blog for many reasons, but largely to help others who may be going through a similar thing. It has been an incredibly challenging 12 months, some of which seams like a blur, but if there is anything that i can share that may help others... it is worth it! Symptoms So how did I even realise I had t...
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