13/06/2026
Saturday, 13th June, 2026
I have been receiving a couple of calls about hedgehogs or birds each day over the last few days so I am of some use even though we are temporarily closed. I can help find other rescues as local as possible and give initial advice on basic care until a rescue or vet is found. Last night was a house/or hedge sparrow in Hartlepool and the day before Laura found a hedgehog in Great Ayton, which I believe then went to a satellite lady from the Cleveland Hedgehog Preservation Group and I had a hedgehog 'out in the day' from Billingham the day before whose finder did a great job with her own heatpad and had plenty of contacts to ring. Its good to find out their outcomes.
My Chemo Diary:-
Yesterday was my first chemotherapy session at the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre, the proper start to my treatment. This was one of those days when sometimes words don't do justice to our feelings do they? My daughter and the Oncology nurses turned this daunting day for me into a completely positive experience and I am so very lucky and grateful.
Jenny arrived with everything a person would ever need who is about to start chemo, from a thermometer, special teas, drinks and sweets for nausea, meals, lip balm, soft toothbrush and toothpaste for downstairs (I need to brush following every meal) you name it, she brought it!! She drove over from York to take me to Northallerton and sat by me for the day. Oh my goodness she is a force for good.
Simon, Jennys husband, bought me 2 lovely head caps from an event at York Against Cancer, they were made by Mary, a York Learning Volunteer and are beautiful cool fabric. Jenny is going to shave my head when the time is right but I am looking for someone to give my wig a fringe a choppy trim, if you know anyone local please could you let me know?
I had quite a zingy stingy Phesgo injection in my thigh prior to the chemo, the nurse brought out a 20ml syringe with a huge needle on the end and I gulped slightly but then she took off the needle and reinserted a much smaller 24 gauge one (phew)😅. I will need these through the treatment and ongoing following the surgery too, I think for 6 months. I also need to inject my stomach fold fat with a drug for the next 6 days starring tomorrow and they only had a stock of 2 left to give me but James my son is going to pick the rest up from James Cook and give me them, thankyou James (I think!)
The infusion was then set up and is timed and alarmed with the other drugs which are punctuated with small bags of fluids/electrolytes as this has been proven to support distribution in the body.
I have been given a chemo diary book where I must plot temperature, any symptoms and which has a traffic light symptoms checker for who and when to ring.
I have tablets for anti sickness and I'm finishing up the steroids I've been given. So far, my only side-effect symptom are that any aches or pains I had, including my shoulder pain (which I keep reading is common in breast cancer) have disappeared which is nice. But this is day 1 and I anticipate days 3 or 4 may be very different. I just don't know at this stage 😕
So #1 down and 6 to go (every 3 weeks). I was given fresh soup and sandwiches, dessert, lovely drinks and I want to thank Helen my nurse who cared for me perfectly. I have found that when I have a procedure which involves any sort of pain I start talking about a subject to get me through it, today it was 'what we do with hedgehogs who have internal parasites' during my Phesgo injection, I'm sure Helen found it fascinating. She stopped the injection at each 5ml section to give me a break.
The atmosphere in the unit is one of calm, friendliness and support, on the warm days you can go and sit in the garden. If I'm honest it was just so lovely to have time with my daughter for a little while, when your daughter's leave home they become wives, mothers and busy workers, today was a rare chance to be with her on our own. So, there can be positives to receiving a breast cancer diagnosis after all 😊
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