So nice to get a comment from Becky Hunter. Makes me feel connected.
I haven’t written much in this blog about how I’ve managed to keep busy. I got distracted by Facebook which I joined because I thought I was going to be completely out of it most of the time. Fortunately though, despite the fact that the chemo knocked me out every three weeks, the feeling of being totally incapable of anything at all only lasted a few days so I had about two weeks out of three where I was able to work at almost full energy levels. So I kept on writing, and rewriting my research paper and working on DAD stuff (Dover Arts Development). Joanna was great – she’d say “come on Clare, you’ve got chemo in 5 days so do it now!” It has been really important for me to have that kind of support. Realistic, upfront and not treating me as ill except when really I wasn’t up to it. My partner has been fantastic in the same kind of way. And it has been important for me too to learn to let people know when I’m not able to do anything and when I am. Admittedly I haven’t been out much – no trips to London to see work for fear of catching a cold on the train, but I’ll soon put that right. Staying in control of my own activities has been the most important thing over these past few months.
