If The World Were A Village

       I stumbled across this site somewhere along my internet travels and thought it was really interesting. As I have said in my first post, I LOVE statistics. It's about the only time I enjoy numbers. Below are some 'postcards' that sum up our world, imagining that it only consisted of 100 people in a village. The statistics are actually quite surprising, and made me think again how lucky I am.

       The source is Toby-Ng - Graphic Design

 

Crafternoon

       Tuesday afternoons were once a regular 'crafternoon' for me and my friends Nikita and Alex. For awhile there work and uni got in the way, but we bought back the tradition this Tuesday!

       It was a bit spontaneous, and we didn't organise too much, so we ended up painting our own wooden bangles. I bought these ones from spotlight for only a couple of dollars each. See the shenanigans below.

So I went a little nuts tonight...

     
       I don't know what came over me. Maybe it was the storm brewing outside. Maybe it was the storm brewing inside my head. Who knows. Whatever it was, it made me want to pelt some paint at a canvas. People who know me know that this is not my normal style of painting, hence the reason it looks like a pre-schooler has been let loose in the room. But I had fun. Alone in the house, music up loud, getting paint all over the canvas, my face, and luckily the tarp I had laid on the carpet.

       Well the last week has absolutely flown by! It's been a busy one too.

       On Wednesday I had my PET scan down at RPA in Sydney. I didn't really know what to expect for this scan, but it was actually pretty breezy. I got a little room all to myself with a comfy electric recliner and warm blankets, and then they injected me with radioactive glucose. I then had to sit there alone for one hour doing nothing at all so the glucose could travel around my body. It was actually quite relaxing. I had a little nap.
   
       After that hour passed I had what looked like a CT scan. The scan took about 15 minutes, and they strap your hands and head down on the bed so you won't move. But the annoying thing was that all of a sudden I got a super itchy nose, and there was no way I could scratch it. Typical.

       And that was it! Probably one of the easiest tests I've had so far, and most relaxing. PET scans search the body for any metabolic activity. Certain areas light up, like the brain, other organs, and tumours light up too. But the one thing that PET scans really detect is the beginning of a tumour, before it has had the chance to grow.

      I was sort of hoping that I'd glow or have some magical superpowers because of the radioactive material in my body, but sadly, no.

(This is one of the more modest pictures of Radioactive Girl. 

She's actually a little slutty)      

       Thursday we went to see the specialist, hopefully to get the exact diagnosis, after the results from the surgery biopsy. However, the report was not finalised, so we still don't have the diagnosis. The Dr read a bit of the report that was available and said he is pretty certain it is Hodgkins Lymphoma, but they can't say that it definitely is until the pathologist has finalised the report. So now we have to wait two more weeks to find out. Prrreetty annoying. But the good news is that it isn't an aggressive cancer, and my PET scan came back all clear, apart from the lumps on my neck.

      So now we just wait...

Off With The Fairies

 Hello,

       Well on Monday I had my surgery. An incision biopsy of my Subclavicular Mass. Fancy doctor terms for 'taking the lump out beneath my collarbone'.

       I was pretty nervous. It is pretty stupid, but I was most concerned about being sick after the surgery. The Anaesthetist told me I had a one in four chance of being sick afterwards. I am never sick! I am well known for my record, my vomit-free record, 13 years!

       So anyway, at about 9am we arrived at the hospital and before long I was gowned up, climbing on the hospital bed and being wheeled into theatre.

        They put a canula in my hand and injected the drugs to make me sleepy. I felt like they weren't working, and I remember looking up at the funny lights they have in the operating theatre wondering I  wonder when I will start to feel sleepy and BAM! I woke up in the recovery ward. Well it wasn't such a BAM! wakeup, I was very dopey. I felt like I'd just woken from the best sleep ever.

        I got to go home not long after, and I have two little bandages where they took the biopsies. It turns out they couldn't really get to the one on my chest very easily, so they took a bit of the one out from my neck. So it all went well and I was completely fine after the operation, apart from a sore neck I felt fine. I even had McDonalds on the way home because I was starving.

         We are hoping to get the results soon, but the surgeon said it could be up to three weeks. 

What's playing on repeat today:

Can't stop listening to this song today

The Lumineers, 'Submarines'

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time - Dean Acheson

Hello,

         I'm Jill. I love music, laughing, cats, family and the colour yellow, among many other things.

         I've decided to do this little blog as a type of diary, journal...something like that. In my tween-age years I used to write in my diary every single night. I usually filled one to two pages! Every night! That's like...a lot of words! Goodness knows what I thought was so interesting about my days.
        I imagine if I tried to write a diary everyday now, at 23 years old, it would be something like..."Dear diary, so I got out of bed today...went to work. it was ok. I had sausages for dinner. I can't remember what happened in between."

        So you'll be happy to read that I am not going to write everyday when I have nothing to say on this blog!

        Anyway, so just over one year ago, I got married to my best friend and it was awesome. 2012 was a crazy year for us and our families. There were good things and bad things, there were awesome things and horrible things. It was an emotional roller-coaster of a year for all of us. But we started 2013 with high hopes. "This is going to be a good year" we all said. 

       It started off well. 

       My husband, Jacob, was almost finished his first year of being a Probationer Paramedic, and he was stationed less than one minute away from our house. Very handy. However in Jacob's second year as an Ambo, we would most likely be sent out country. So we started looking around at all the country stations in NSW. We made lists, gathered statistics (Statistics is another thing I love by the way), looked at houses, prepared our families that we may be moving 6+ hours away, and started imagining our new country life!

       Our imaginary country life was forming up to be pretty sweet. We had a dog, a cat, chickens, a cute old house, we would have a little Bed and Breakfast for our families. I'd do more art and craft. Some DIY around the little cottage. 

       Yes, something like that, throwing a few chickens in the mix. (yes, I was very optimistic)

       This is when I thought I should make a blog. I'll have so much time to do stuff! 

       However, six days before we had to hand Jacob's preferences into the placement people at Jacob's work, I went to the doctors about some little lump on my neck, and this is where our plans got flipped, squished and thrown right out the window.

        After being sent for a blood test and an ultrasound on my neck lump I got the phone call I'd never really expected. I was standing in the kitchen holding my bowl of 2 minute noodles when I answered the phone. The doctor told me "It looks as if you have a tumour". 

        It is quite startling hearing those words about yourself in real life, and not just in the movies. I didn't know whether to say "It's not a tumour!" in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, or simply smash my bowl of noodles on the floor. Instead I went to my husband and had a little cry on the bed.

       Now it is about three weeks later and I have had many tests: core biopsies, CT scans, bone marrow biopsies and numerous blood tests. The doctors are fairly certain I have Hodgkins Lymphoma, but we are still awaiting more tests I am yet to have, such as surgery in two days to take out a lump and study it (not that excited about that). Anyway we are hoping to find out the exact diagnoses next Thursday (fingers crossed).

        So now our plans have significantly changed. I'll be most likely needing treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as organising IVF stuff to preserve some of my eggs (ew) just incase the chemotherapy leaves me infertile. This means that we won't be moving out country for the mean time. We won't have chickens and dogs and cats and our own little cottage, but that's ok because things change.

         I figured that I might as well start this blog anyway. I was always waiting for something a little different and interesting to happen to me so I would have something to write about, but never really expected it would be this.

        While I will be writing about my health on here, the main purpose for this blog is for me to try new things, get off the couch and start painting, start sewing, start cooking and crafting. 

        So here I go.... x