Thank you so much for your positive posts. I can't tell you how much they have helped me. The anxiety and waiting has been my main problem and unfortunately I ended up signed off work due to that.
I need to work full time to support the kids and it is great to hear about people being able to resume activities that they enjoy so well during and after treatment. I am quite an active busy person so that was another big cause of worry for me about how on earth I would manage.
Hi YellowBirdLady
You may be interested to read employee rights from the Macmillan website, even though you do not have a cancer diagnosis, it may reassure you on some level, that there is extended support and information available if ever needed, but hopefully all will be well for you.
macmillan.org.uk/cancer-inf...
Kind regards
The Roy Castle Support Team
0800 358 7200 Monday to Thursday 0900-1700 Friday 0900-1600
lungcancerhelp@roycastle.org
I'm self employed so with no sick pay, I was motivated to get back to work as soon as I was able and motivated to keep active having seen my sister deteriorate with another lung condition due to weight gain/treatments and inactivity that only made her breathing worse. I went onto swim much further than the regular distance swimming I did before and have remained active, working, swimming and travelling apart from a few infections I've picked up over the years - all different ones (not Covid!) Try not to over think it - once you have results and treatment plan, it will seem easier to manage mentally.
That is really encouraging to hear, thank you for your post.
As you say keeping active is important and it is brilliant that you have been able to swim even further than before.
I looked after my mum who died of an horrible autoimmune lung condition that really badly restricted what she could do for a very long time. To be honest I think that might be feeding into my anxiety about what my capabilities might become.
As you say overthinking is what I am doing and it is good to hear peoples positive stories.
Thanks. I didn't swim from mid October until end March apart from the day of surgery and evening before - as thought I had to wait to ask permission from surgeon but he was quite shocked when he saw me at the end of March that I hadn't returned to swimming, saying as the nerves and muscles had been disturbed, the muscles would have shortened due to lack of activity. I had walked most days - little steps to start with but then built it up. I went swimming the day after I saw him at the end of March, reinstating my gym membership that I'd suspended - and that first day, couldn't lift my arm to swim front crawl so lay on my back and sculled my arms at my sides and kicked my legs for 20 lengths. The next visit I did some more, spent 2 days doing any given distance before increasing it by a few more. I was determined to be back to my 130 lengths non stop by the next appointment with him by the end of June and I was. A colleague joked with me that I'd be doing 200 which I'd never done so that became a goal and I decided to raise funds for Roy Castle charity with my swimming whilst recovering my fitness. Once I reached 200, again I increased it incrementally building up to the furthest ever of 360 lengths 5.25 hours in a single session and 989 miles that year in total. In recent years since the pandemic when the pools weren't open, my capacity for swimming suffered despite walking every day - but I'm back to 150 - even 160 lengths this week. Whatever we do to be active, finding something that we enjoy is key - when I was only able to walk and not swim post surgery or even during the pandemic, I took joy in seeing the seasons change when I walked and noticing changes in the environment. BTW it's natural for our experiences with loved ones and their conditions to feed into our anxieties - as that's our lived experience but the reality is we are all different, in how we respond and how we recover. good luck.
Hi again YellowBirdLady
i've just replied on your other post about my husband's experience. He didn't stop working (obviously took time to recover with the chemo!) but has worked all through the immuno treatments. He's also really active and has continued to do lots of exercise all through. xx
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How do you live with terminal lung cancer?
New Year..here's to you!
