My Night with The Overtones

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I have been harping on about going to see The Overtones. You probably also wondered who they were, as they are fairly new. I bought their album in November and have been hooked ever since. They were the support act for Peter Andre, and as much as I wanted to see them, I didn’t feel the need to see Peter Andre.

So, when they announced they were doing their own tour, I was very excited and got my tickets ASAP. The gig was last night, and I went with my friend Amanda.

We were waiting for ages for them to come on, but it was so worth it when they finally did. They just seem like genuinely nice guys who just wanted to make sure the crowd were having a good time.

They called a couple up onto stage, and the guy ended up proposing to his girlfriend.

Later on in the show, they actually asked for me by name, and dedicated a song (a cover of Rihanna’s Only Girl in the World) to me. As Lachie said “We know you’ve had a bit of a tough year, so this one is for you!” Well, I just started shaking and was so pleased that they did that for me. We overheard the teenage girls stood next to us saying “Oh, I wish that was me!” I think I was the most envied girl in the room.

Once the gig was over, Amanda and I hung round with some others, and the lads came out and we got to meet them. When it was my turn, they actually recognised me and said “Hi Roz” and gave me hugs and kisses. I was so starstruck and swooning over them. They all asked after my health and again, they just seemed like genuinely nice guys.

To say it made my night is putting it  mildly. I was a bit hyper afterwards to say the least.

If you haven’t already bought their album, then you should – now!

And boys? Thank you for a wonderful night x

*This is not a sponsored post. All views and opinions are my own.

To Text, or Not To Text?

One thing I love about WordPress, is that you can see what people have been searching for that then led them to your blog. Recently, a lot of people have been finding it by searching for thyroid surgery, and thyroid surgery scars.  Occasionally you get the odd one like “emails from devon a. hodgkin’s”,  “zuzula clinic chatra” or “temperature taken in ass by doctors” which make me giggle. But there was one that stood out to me the other day and that was “what to text someone before they have chemo”.

The first thing that came to mind was that I thought it was a strange thing to search for. But then I thought, actually, it’s actually quite sweet that a person wanted to say something but didn’t know what. They could have just thought it was too hard and not bothered, but you all know my thoughts on this.

I remember the first day I went for chemo. Part of me was terrified, because I didn’t know what would happen, and the knowledge that I knew I was going to feel awful afterwards, but not knowing when that illness would hit me. Would it be during chemo, on the drive home, later that night? But then there was the part of me that felt, I don’t know, excited? Determined? I don’t know what the right word is, but basically I was glad the day had arrived that I would start fighting it.

I had lots of text messages and Facebook comments that day wishing me well. And I treasured every one of them. Not because I wanted the attention, or the sympathy, but because I knew that there were people who had my back and that were fighting it with me.

So, to the person who was wondering what to text someone, here is my advice:

Text anything.

It doesn’t matter what you say. What matters is that you’ve said anything at all. It matters to that person that you care and that you took time out of your day to think about them and to wish them well. It will make them feel that little bit stronger when they walk into the treatment room knowing they have people on their side, fighting their corner.

Good Days and Bad Days

“I’ve learned what matters. It took a serious illness for me to learn it. But I learned it. And I’ll never be the same” – adapted from a quote by Max Lucado

Do you know, even though I finished chemo seven months ago, I still have my down days? I can’t explain why they happen, I just know that they do. And I hate them.

Yesterday was a prime example. I went to my Slimming World weigh in (a measly pound off, if anyone is wondering), left Jake with my parents for the afternoon/evening, so that I could go to the Lymphoma Support Group. While I was home alone, I started looking through photo’s of when I was pregnant and when Jake was tiny, and got to wondering if the cancer was already there, trying to pinpoint at what stage it start growing and invading my body.

But, I also see a different person. I’m thinner, my face looks younger, I had nice hair, I looked happy. Now it’s all changed and I can’t ever see myself going back to that, but it’s all I want.

I want to look back on photo’s and feel that I grew old gracefully, not because cancer forced me to, and sucked the life out of me.

I don’t expect to feel and look normal again overnight, but I do wonder how long it will be before I start getting less upset on my bad days. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m depressed, because I don’t think I am. I’m just frustrated. Annoyed that the girl in the first two photo’s has had so much to deal with and has now turned into the old (did I mention I’m 3o soon?) woman in the last two.

I’ll never be the person I was. She’s gone. All I have to do now is figure out who this new one is…

Crufts

As you all know, I was very kindly invited to Crufts as a VIP guest. Well, I went on Sunday, with Jake, my mum-in-law and sister-in-law, and while we were there I met up with some other lovely mummy bloggers – Maria from Mama’s Busy World, Fi from Childcare is Fun, Liz from Me and My Shadow and Louise from Rock and Roll Baby World. We all had a lovely lunch together, and may have even partaken in a glass of wine.

I’d never been to any dog shows before, but my mum-in-law has actually qualified a dog for Crufts in the past, a German Short Haired Pointer.

I have to say, I was a bit nervous about taking Jake. He’s not been to a show at the NEC before and I thought it would be really hard work, but he was so good other than a leaky nappy or two!). He loved all of the doggies and actually thought one of them was a lion so starting doing his lion impression.

He absolutely loves our two dogs to bits, but is always nervous around other dogs, which I suppose isn’t a bad thing’ although he was getting braver towards the end of the day and was stroking the dogs in the Discover Dogs section. That was brilliant. Think of a dog, and it was there, all kinds. The ones you’d heard of, and the ones you hadn’t.

Would I go again? Most definitely. It was a brilliant day, even though my feet were aching at the end of it in spite of wearing my Merrel’s!

Thank you, Maria for organising it, we all had a lovely day xx

Hormones – or Lack Thereof

*Warning – this post is relating to matters of a female nature.

Before I got pregnant (hmmm, funny how a lot of my posts seem to start with those 4 words), my periods came about every 31 days ish. After I had Jake, it took 6 months for me to get them back, I had 3, then I started chemo and they were hit and miss. Chemo finished in August and I had my first one in September. I can’t tell you how pleased I was. I never thought I would be pleased about having a period! But, it meant things were working and going back to normal. Since then, they have come every 28 days.

Until now, where I am 6 days late. No, I am not pregnant. So then, why hasn’t it come? If I was pregnant, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, so I just wish that Mother Nature would stop messing me around and let my body get back to “normal”, whatever that is these days.

After doing some research on the internet, it would seem that thyroid surgery and thyroxine levels can effect the menstrual cycle, so why wasn’t I told this in my consultation? Probably because the consultant couldn’t wait to get me out of there and will never discuss what happens next, only what happens now, which for some people is fine, but for me, it’s not.

It’s my body for crying out loud, shouldn’t I be told if things aren’t going to be working properly? I just feel so throughly fed up at the moment. Hasn’t my body failed me enough over the last year to then fail me on this.

Whinge over 😦