My Diary – October 2009
Saturday
31st October 2009
Happy Halloween!
On Wednesday 14th I went to The Royal
Marsden Hospital to get my latest MRI scan results, and I’m very pleased to say
that I’m still 100% in remission! It’s
now been two years and eight and a half months… and counting! Before I got my results we met up with my
friend Cherry and her son, Jacob, who has recently started treatment for
leukaemia. Jacob is a year younger than
me and is having his treatment on an adult ward at the Marsden, but the good
news is that towards the end of his treatment, he’ll be able to benefit from
the new Teenage Cancer Trust unit that I’m fundraising towards. My oncologist took Mum to see the unit after
getting my results, which at the moment is basically still a building site, but
they’ve already built the three floors of the unit, so it’s looking good! It’s due to be opened in spring 2011, and I
can’t wait!
On Friday 16th Mum, Lee and I went to
Eastbourne and stayed in a lovely hotel, ready for the Rotary Club conference
the next morning. On Friday night we had
a meal with Rob and his wife, Christine.
Rob cycled around the world a few years ago, and he was also giving a
speech at the conference. Later that
night we all went to see the Merseybeats perform, who are a band who sing lots
of old songs like the Beatles. On
Saturday we went to the conference where there were about 500 Rotarians in the
audience. I took part in a presentation
with Eve, who showed a short DVD of footage from my documentary, and she asked
me questions about Nicole’s fund and my experiences of having cancer as a young
person. Afterwards I was given a £500
donation for my fund.
Last Tuesday I was tortured! I went to Guy’s Hospital in London to have the
injection in my spine, or what I thought was going to be ‘an’ injection, but it
turned out to be six of them! We arrived
in time for my appointment at 12pm, but I didn’t get seen until 2.30pm, so I
was getting quite anxious by that point.
I was taken through to a room to prepare for the injections. It was like having a proper operation. I had to have the hospital wristbands on and
wear the sexy gown, and Mum had to sign the consent form. At about 3.30pm we went to another room where
a nurse started tapping my hand to bring up a vein. I slightly freaked out because I didn’t know
I was having a cannula put in and I hadn’t had the ‘magic’ numbing cream
on. She said she was just looking for
later, and I tried to stay calm. I
hadn’t asked questions about what would happen that day because I didn’t want
to know, but I knew, like always, that whatever had to be done, had to be
done. I then had a mask put over my nose
and mouth to breathe in laughing gas - which is far from funny - and that
knocked me out for a couple of minutes.
As the gas was beginning to work, and the world was going all ‘funny’, I
could feel the nurse put the tight band round my wrist to bring my veins up and
I knew she was about to put the needle in, but I couldn’t move or do anything. I don’t remember it actually going in though,
as the gas had knocked me out by then, so when I woke up a couple of minutes
later, the cannula was in. I was quite
confused when I woke up and couldn’t remember where I was or what was
happening, then it all came back to me and I started to feel panicky. We then went to another room for the
injections, where I had to lie on a table on my stomach. The doctor started to draw on my back where
he was going to inject, and was prodding my spine to find the right places, and
I couldn’t help but start sobbing. Next
he stuck six needles in my lower back.
One straight after the other. I
was only expecting one, but soon realised that wasn’t the case. Some hurt more than others depending where
they went in my back, and as he was doing it, a nurse was putting local
anaesthetic in the cannula in my hand which really stung. The next thing I remember though is waking up
back in bed and it was all over. Again,
I cried. I couldn’t help it, the anaesthetic had made me feel quite emotional
and I hated what had just happened.
I had to stay in hospital for about an
hour afterwards, just to check I was ok, and then they took the cannula out and
let me go home. I was told to have three
days bed rest, and I’m still not sure yet if it’s actually worked. My back was very sore afterwards from where
the injections went in, and I can still feel the ‘puncture wounds’ – it’s
horrible! The injections put a slow
release painkiller in my back to try and help the pain I get, but I still need
to wait to see if it’s made any difference.
For the last week or so I’ve had a bad cold so have been feeling pretty
rough with that. It’s given me aches and
pains so that’s why it’s still difficult to tell if the injections have worked
or not. The cold seems to be going now
though, which is good, so hopefully I’ll feel better soon.
To end, I’d just like to tell you about
something you may be interested in - at my chocolate ball last month, a friend
filmed the night and has made it into a 30 minute DVD, which I’m selling for £5
each with all proceeds going to Nicole’s fund.
There are a limited number of copies available, so if you’d like one
then please email me on:
Nicole.dryburgh@teenagecancertrust.org
Thank you!
Love Nicole xxx
*************************************
Sunday
11th October 2009
I’ve been so, so busy for the last
month, this is actually the first chance I’ve had to update my diary. I now have to try and remember everything
I’ve been up to!
Well first of all - my chocolate
ball! It was on 12th September, and I’m
pleased to say that it was a great success.
The week leading up to it was very busy and pretty stressful. I spent quite a bit of time at the venue -
the Pavilion in Broadstairs - sorting out final details and getting everything
ready. I had over 30 people drop out of
coming in the last few days before the ball, which was really disappointing. I tried not to let it spoil the event though,
and over 100 people still came along and we had a great time!
I arrived at the Pavilion in a white
limo covered in pink bows. This was a
surprise organised by a friend. I didn’t
know that was how I was getting there until I got to my friend’s house and it
was there! It was going to be a pink
limo, but the day before it had a crash, so was off the road. That was the reason for all the pink bows on
the white limo! The hall was decorated
beautifully. There were lots of pink
balloons, including a balloon arch over the stage. There was a pink carpet for people to arrive
along, and it went through the marquee, which was covered in white silk drapes
and had a gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling! This was where the drinks reception took
place. The tables were covered in white
cloths with a pink shimmery net over them.
In the middle was either a tall vase of pink flowers or a glass vase
filled with maltesers and marshmallows, with a pink candle sticking out of the
middle! There were pink charms on the
wine glasses, and the chairs were covered in white silky covers with a big pink
bow on them. I had arranged for special
pink chocolates to be made that said ‘Nicole’s Fund’ in milk chocolate. We also
had some mini chocolate jengas!
Flava, a brilliant dance group who made
the semi-finals of last year’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, started the night off
with a fab performance. Then we had a
three course meal, and Flava performed again in between each course. After the meal I gave a speech, then showed a
special DVD that I’d had made for the night.
When I relapsed from my cancer three years ago, I filmed my journey
through chemo, so that I could show what it’s really like. My friend Nick kindly edited this footage
into a ten minute DVD, which we showed at the ball. It made many people cry as it’s a very moving
film, but I think that just shows that it did the job well of showing what
young people are going through, and what the night was all about.
After the DVD, we had an auction of original
artwork by some of Hodder Children’s Books finest illustrators, including the
illustrator of the cute Kipper books.
They kindly drew a picture specially for my ball, and that auction
raised over £1,000. It was then time for
the chocolate fountains to start. I had
booked two - one milk chocolate fountain and one pink chocolate fountain! The tree of wishes was also started then too,
which was a lovely white tree covered in twinkly fairy lights. Baby pink, baby blue and silver (the colour
theme for the ball) envelopes were pegged on the tree, and inside each envelope
was a piece of paper with a prize written on it. People made a donation then
picked an envelope, and won whatever the piece of paper said.
After that, there was a great
performance from Thanet Stage School.
Lots of sparkly dancers and a fab singer. And then we had the main auction. We had some amazing prizes donated including
a voucher for VIP entry to Clouds nightclub in Leicester Square which included
free sushi and cocktails, two lovely dresses from Holly Willoughby, plus signed
cards from her, Ant ‘n’ Dec, Andi Peters, Reggie Yates and Jenny Faulkner. Orlando Bloom donated one of his T-shirts,
and Jimmy Choo (the legend shoe maker!), donated a voucher for a pair of custom
made shoes - which a group of people bid for and won for me!! A great rock band called Blow then performed,
and the night ended with a DJ, who played the conga specially for me - and the
whole place joined in!
I think that pretty much sums the ball
up in a nutshell. The night raised
approximately £5,999, which I’m pleased with.
We’re still finalising the exact total, but it’s going to help boost my
fund and get me further towards reaching my £100,000 target. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone
who helped make the night such a success - Mac, Amanda and everyone at the
Pavilion, Peter Jay, Philip Thorley, Nadya, Maria, Emma, Flava, Hodder
Children’s Books and the illustrators who donated artwork, Thanet Stage School,
Nick Mavroidakis, Andy S, Blow, Food is Art, Elite Limos, and everyone who came
along to support the night.
Since the ball, I’ve been trying to
catch up with everything I got behind with while I was organising it. The main thing I’ve been doing is finishing
my new book ‘Talk to the Hand’ and it’s now all done! It’s been hard work, but I’ve enjoyed
it. There’s less than four months now
until it comes out! 116 days to be precise! I’m really hoping people enjoy this book as
much as my first one. Don’t forget that
‘Talk to the Hand’ is now available to pre-order from Amazon, and you can check
out the front cover there too!
Back to normal life - on14th September I
went to St Thomas’ Hospital for another appointment about my hearing. The results from the test I had done at the
previous meeting showed that the nerve in my ear is damaged (by the tumour),
but the cochclear isn’t, so it’s been decided that I’ll have a cochclear
implant fitted to see if that helps me. It’s a bit confusing to explain how it
all works, but it won’t be done this year, so when things are more definite and
I have more info, I’ll explain it all then.
On 23rd I went to the Marsden for my
latest MRI scan. It went fine, even the
cannula was ok, although I did have my usual ‘funny moment’ after it was
done. I was fine while it was being put
in (I asked to go to the IV unit for it again instead of the children’s
ward. You may remember that story from
the last scan. God knows I certainly
do!), but the relief after it’s put in affects me quite badly these days and I
can’t help but go all woozy and faint.
Anyway, I get my results this week, so hopefully they’re ok.
On Saturday 26th I went to Norfolk to
speak at a Rotary Club conference. I had
been invited along to take part in a presentation with Eve, who works at the
BBC and filmed my documentary, and is a member of the Rotary Club. I received a £500 donation for my fund which
I was really pleased with, and I’m going to another Rotary Club conference next
weekend where they’ll also donate £500 to Nicole’s fund.
At the beginning of September I stopped
having physio with my physiotherapists from school as I’m being moved onto
adult services. For the last couple of
weeks I’ve seen a new physiotherapist called Pam, who is trying to work out why
I’m getting so much pain in my back. She
has felt my spine and thinks it’s to do with my scoliosis. Because my spine is twisted, it’s squashing
the nerves on one side, and pulling the nerves on the other. It could also be the reason why I’ve been
getting pain in my knee because it’s all connected. I’ve got exercises to do to try and build up
the muscles in my back, and on the 20th I’m having an injection in my spine
which might help with the pain. I don’t
really know how it works as I haven’t asked - I don’t want to know - but if it
does work then it only lasts three to six months, so I’ll probably have to keep
having it done. The days when
paracetamol helped me are long gone, and I now need to take strong painkillers
which still don’t help some days.
Hopefully the injection will help, but I’m really not looking forward to
it. I’ll update again in a couple of weeks
time to let you know how it went…
On a final note - it’s only 75 days ‘til
Christmas!
Love Nicole xxx
