A word can change a mind. A sentence can change a life. A book can change the world.
general health for a UK expat in Cyprus
Cows do it. Pigs do it. Even men in silly wigs do it, let’s do it, let’s gas it off. If farting’s good enough for Geoffrey Chaucer (he used the word in his writing) then it’s good enough for me. A fart is a fart, though in England in 1632, they were a little more…
Tomorrow is chemo day, again. I’m under no illusions, it’s going to give me a wide-ranging set of ups and downs for the next few days. I’m used to it. What I’ve been finding difficult is the lack of information about how long I’m going to be having chemo for. The nurses and doctor are…
One of the worse things that an ill person can experience is not always pain or discomfort from their illness. Sometimes it’s a lack of knowledge about your illness. Not knowing if you’re getting better, worse or just passing the time of day can be more frightening than pain sometimes. If you know you are…
I hasten to say, dear reader, that no I am not buying a new bike and taking up cycling. Nope, yesterday was my last chemo session and next week I get assessed for the possibility of an all clear or a new cycle of treatment. I wait and see. Because my health has been a…
What was it about the English in the 17th century, which made them want to go out and make scientific discoveries? In an age when their experiments were based on nothing more than an inkling as to what may happen when they experimented on other, less enlightened, subjects, they forged ahead and did some unspeakable…
All my life, sixty-seven years, cancer has been at the forefront of the world’s health dilemma. People I know, like my mother, an aunt, an uncle, school friends work colleagues and others, have contracted cancer and either lived or died from the experience. My mother was one of the unlucky ones. She had cancer of…
A funny thing happened to me on the way to making coffee in the kitchen a few weeks back. Suddenly I couldn’t taste the coffee. I like dark roast Columbian Arabica, using a cafetiere. But on this day not only could I not taste it, but the experience also left an odd taste in my…
I know, I know you’re thinking old dumbo has it wrong again. I should have typed Chemical Brothers… you know, the band? Well, no, I didn’t get it wrong, and I do mean Chemo Sisters. Sisters as in nurses, Chemo as in Chemotherapy for cancer. You see, dear reader, yesterday was day four of my…
To misquote a scene from the hit film The Matrix, “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You take the red pill; you stay in wonderland.“ In my case, I’m applying this to the wonderland of Cyprus medicine, notably the General Health System. A sort of UK NHS but where the bed-knobs are falling…
As an avid writer and erstwhile sufferer of a couple of debilitating illnesses, I’ve done my best to not let this stop my writing progress. But it has been hard over the first six months of this year. And now treatment has started, I’m hoping to catch up on my various projects that have been…
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