Memory Lane, Ten Thousand Books, a Taxi and Four Bananas

On the Number 63 Mum entertains me with a chirpy trip down Memory Lane, the snippets slip into the ears of the people behind us too.

...the craft shop used to be on the left but now it's on the right...I used to go to Sainsburys here and catch the bus straight back with my bags...your Dad's Cousin's Wife's family used to own the Pins and Needles shop, look on the right, oh it's closed down now...

Oh look I add when I find a chatter gap, the Gunmakers Arms is boarded up, that's where I tasted my first glass of cider and black; but my comments disappear in the back of the bus, Mum has forgotten to put her hearing aid in!

We meander along the pavements I trod on my way to and from nightclubs...

The Council House

I click my camera as once familiar sights now stop me in my tracks.

Town Hall

Meet the Floosie in the Jacuzzi!

Then the Mecanoo Library shouts it's welcome...

Inside we fly from floor to floor on sky blue escalators, each one sharing it's 1000 books.

Secret gardens lead us to the Memorial Library where grey haired books fill glass covered shelves while Shakespeare looks on bemused.

The Memorial Room has been relocated from the original Library

The  ceiling carvings mingle with the light

Mum gazes in as Shakespeare looks out

Ten floors of a thousand books make our excited legs falter so we treat ourselves to lunch amidst the Symphony Hall musicians next door.

Mums blue eyed gaze drills into mine as she says:

Let's get a Taxi home, you look tired and I am pretty worn out too; but when we get back I must buy more bananas (Mum always buys a couple of bananas for me as I nibble on one to ease the nausea when a seizure creeps in)...

I grin and suggest we go wild and buy four....

Impressions of my Brain Tumour sixth year scan...

The results of my sixth annual brain scan got lost in the midst of my recent breast cancer fuss...There were no signs of any growth...all was the same as last year. 

But I didn't whoop or go out for a celebratory meal, I pondered on how a single moment changed my life:

The bulb in my head had bulked out over a period of ten to fifteen years.

My first symptom to trigger the alarm was the Tonic Clonic (Grand Mal) Seizure which woke me from my sleep at 01.00hrs on November 18th 2008.

The seed of hindsight revealed the blighter had been trying to warn me of its presence for a while:

1. Regular headaches took a couple of days to 'crack' Paracetamol then Brufen every 4-6 hours eventually shook them off. Back at home after the surgery I discovered I ran a paracetamol store; half used packets hid in every handbag, in drawers by the bed, in the car,  in my office drawers, drawers in the kitchen..EVERYWHERE...I blamed the headaches on driving and female things!
2. Mr H would gently pull my hair away from my scalp as I sat on a stool in front of him in the evenings when my headaches persisted, the spot I asked him to pull was where the tumour was growing!....blamed that on stress of the job.
3. I kept tripping up in 2008 when I walked from the train station to the office in my new summer scandals... blamed it on the new scandals obviously!
4. Nausea welcomed each day...blamed that on hormone imbalance.

The raised intra-cranial (inside my skull) pressure as a result of my slow growing tumour caused these symptoms which I managed and generally ignored.




My tumour had spread like icing on a cake across my head onto the left side of my brain

R - L    Tumour on the right

The bulk of my tumour was located in the The right frontal lobe of the brain 

I was 'lucky', I presented at my local hospital which is a regional neurosurgery unit, the tumour was discovered on a CT scan in the middle of the night and I underwent life saving surgery the following day. 

An anxious weeks wait to find that my tumour was a Grade One Meningioma was filled with hope that I would be able to walk again.

Facts

• Currently there is NO cure for my brain tumour which could not be completely removed by surgery. Radiotherapy and possibly more surgery may follow if it starts to grow again
• Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and young adults under 40
• Over 8,500 people each year in the UK are diagnosed with a primary (starts in the brain) brain tumour.  
• That's 25 people diagnosed a day but the actual figure could be much higher..
• Ten children or teenagers a week are diagnosed with a Brain Tumour
• The Head Start: Be Brain Tumour Aware Campaign is raising the profile of this condition in children and young adults with the aim of reducing delays in diagnosis and treatment
• 3500 people loose their life to a brain tumour each year
• Less than 2% of cancer funding is spent on Brain Tumour research

The Brain Tumour Charity is the largest dedicated funder of brain tumour research in the UK.  They fund at least £1 million of research every year; all through donations. 

Please support research into brain tumours. I would like to know why my meningioma tumour grew and how future growth can be stopped.

Fish Fingers for tea...

I have been scatty this week, the most important job I had to do was an on-line food shop. I forgot. The cupboards are bare, Mr H fears starvation, I have hidden the biscuits for me!

I adore on line grocery shopping, I sit in my rocking chair while I choose from my favourites, then my laptop checkout seals the deal. The whole process takes me ten minutes. The delivery arrives the next day and a handsome man brings the crates into the kitchen and plonks them down on my arm level work surface.Ten minutes later it is all in the cupboards, the kettle is on and I am sitting down again munching biscuits. 

I have considered opening cupboards, fluttering my eyelashes and pointing to where it all goes...but time is of the essence he has other deliveries to make.

I hide all the treats from Mr H. He loves me when I drip feed him the odd chocolate or biscuit. He will never know that he only sees a tiny proportion of the treats I buy, I trust you with my secret!

...But today I have to go to the shops. When Mr H arrives home from work I have the bags and list ready. At the supermarket Mr H pushes the trolley, I have tried to push but people stare when like a petulant child my left leg constantly kicks the wheel.

I read out the items we need and Mr H walks up and down the aisles while I, like a dog needing a wee, lean against displays. I spot the Fish Fingers, they are reduced, I drop a box of 20 into the trolley, that will cover several meals,  I am not known for my culinary prowess. 

By the fourth aisle my huffs and puffs alert Mr H that I am flagging,  I feel sick, a sure sign that a seizure hovers  We aim for the checkouts, my rocking chair is replaced by the hard plastic seats as I wait for Mr H to pack. I pay.

At home I start my Dawn, Nigella Lawson special; Fish Fingers, oven chips and peas. Heaven...