Rachel's Bouncing Back

I just received the best email EVER! In a particularly good mood today for three reasons. 1) I just woke up from a lush nap and full of energy so have been listening to the music channels for the past hour...no dancing was going on or anything... 2) Charlie Millers son is coming round today to let me try out some wigs, strange thing to be excited about I know but I am buzzing to get a new hair style. As most of my friend know I change my hair style/colour/length on almost a daily basis. At around this time last year I had black hair and had made the decision to go blonde. In my old school it was almost a trend for a vast majority of the girls to get the bleach out and have competitions on who's hair was blonder. Here is my hair over the past year. I am addicted to changing my hair, the picture above is just a miniature spectrum of colours from brown to red to purple to black to blonde to gone. I grew my hair all by myself for 17 years. Hair you will be well and truly missed

I do sat for a whole minute trying to thing what to call this blog, but nothing special comes to mind so I am going to write about everything thats been going on recently. Yesterday was fun! I spoke on Radio 1, which I have wanted to do for ages. I was on Aled's Surgery show which is a Social Action show and I spoke on the topic "Living With Leukaemia" and the response I got for just talking for a few minutes was amazing! Before the show I was nervous, but with millions of listeners who wouldn't be! The main thing I was worried about was the fact that I would be answering questions on something I've only known about for two weeks, I am no expert! But Emma, the shows producer, called me up before hand and I went over the questions with Aled which made me slightly less nervous. Anyway Aled and his whole team were lovely and I think it was a good wee idea to talk on their show. Now on my 5th day of chemo, feeling normal still. My only complaint is that my mouth i

First injection of chemo started today. Not what I expected at all. The nurse walked in with these big syringes that looked like they had been pulled out of the telly from Dexters Laboratory or the Power Puff Girls (cartoons). These pictures DO NOT do the actual size justice. I kid you not thats how big they were! This was literally my face when she walked into my room. I have 11 days of treatment. The red one that I had today is every three to four days, and this is the one that attacks hair cells however this this actually takes about a couple of weeks to before you actually see any hair loss. Charlie Miller popped in today to discuss my wig plans which was pretty cool. The wigs that they provide are made from real hair, bought in from asian woman that sell their hair (thanks guys!).  This is the confusing part, bare with me. Before doing chemo you have to sign away three big forms. I was given the option to take part in a trial called AML 17 or just

My doctor just came in and told me I won't be able to leave this room for the next three to four weeks. "Boredom, a state of being bored" Jeez, even the explanation is boring. Boredom is something that I often struggled with if I stayed in one place for more than a day, home for example. I am not the kind of person who enjoys sitting inside all day. But a good way round this is having a wee daily routine for myself.  I often find myself just standing looking out the window like an old woman. I look in my snazzy fridge a lot.  I enjoy going up and down on my bed, thats fun.  I sometimes sit on youtube for hours and end up watching videos of cats pawing at printers.  I wonder if I should read a book. There is a really annoying air conditioning noise in my room, sometimes I listen to that.  I eat too much chocolate, and not enough healthy foods. Slap me on the back of the hand if you wish.  I laugh way too hard at pictures like these. Courtesy of Hannah Jones

Sorry, I am warning you now, this blog is not completely cancer related, well it is but its not.  As a lot of my friends know, I am a radio freak, obsessed. Even more so, I think I am a Radio 1 fanatic. Ooo Hiya! You probably find this hard to understand. "Why the fudge is she so obsessed!?" Don't ask, I really don't know, all I know is that since I was about 13 I've wanted to be somehow incorporated with Radio 1. Whether it being a presenter (Yes pur-lease) or a producer.  Over the past few years, I've done nothing but try and get together as much work experience as possible. I'm not going to sit her and write you out my CV but I am pretty proud of how much I have gained and learned so far. I knew it wouldn't be easy to get there and I am looking at this illness I have as a minor setback and inconvenience.  Before being diagnosed I was meant to be going down to London to meet with Jason Carter (Event Director, Radio 1, and Radio 1Xtra, Hea

I cannot tell a word of a lie. Ouch. This hurt. A Hickman line is a tube that goes into the main blood vessel above the heart. The central line is tunnelled under the skin of your chest and into the vein. Here is a picture to give you a better idea.  The central line can be used for my  c hemotherap y, blood transfusions , antibiotics and intravenous (IV) fluids. It may sound like something that you wouldn't want, and although the procedure (for me) was not a pleasant experience, the outcome is much more convenient. It means that I no longer have to be jabbed at with needles. I have very bad veins which makes it so much more difficult. The procedure consists of two local anesthetics in the neck and chest area. A surgical sheet over my head, mainly to make it more sterile, but it also means I didn't have to watch them cut, dig and pull at my skin, oh yeah and those stitches! It took 30 minutes overall. The slight problem that occurred was the pain about 3/4 of the way thr

I was considering writing a blog, but now it seems like a silly idea as Ive just taken a sleeping tablet...a  very strong one its seems as it begins to take its affects. I love people visiting me, Laurie and Billy,Ben and Lindsay and Hannah and Emily and of course Isla, Rose and Nonni, oh yeah and my whole family! If you can make me laugh properly (double chin, clapping like a seal in my bed, and giggling non stop) then your on to a winner.  (typical bantré that I get up to in my room, I do this bed rising thing to every visitor) Laurie and Billy, I would love you to buy a fish for my ward and call it Laully (combo of the names) but unfortunately, once I asked my nurse if I could have a fish she gave me a look like "this guurl has issues".... yes I do, NOW LEMME HAE A FISH M8. Next time please bring EMC, I'm his no. 1 fan and you know dis. For those who don't know EMC, he is an up and coming rapper "Fresh Outta Leith". Oh and also bring Jason T

I got my hair cut today (at Charlie Miller BTW - never been there before, was very posh). My mum handed me a tissue whilst a good half of my hair got cut off. I didn't cry though. Here is a before and after picture, I look like I've just woken up in the first one? Anyway, thats ALOT of hair, and was no where near as bad as I thought it would be, intact I quite like it, my head feels about 10 stone lighter. Some of you reading this may watch the MTV show "The Valleys", well I'm going to admit it, I watch it too. Mainly because I enjoy watching them as they embarrass themselves in front of the nation. The girl who has her hair as long as the country refused to cut it off and made the biggest deal including crying for about 8 hours and calling her mum who also went mental - in the end she got her way and didn't cut it off. Anyway, her outburst made me feel very good about myself. If your a guy you probably won't understand this. The reason behind doi

Cancer is a hard thing to cope with and a very hard thing to get your head around. Over the past three days I have had more emotions than I have had in my whole life. From feeling pissed off, upset, lucky, happy and so on. One that I haven't felt is loneliness.  The support Ive had in the past few days has been absolutely incredible. Thank you to everyone who has spoken with me and visited with me so far. In this blog I am going to let you know what I get up to (not much, I play The Sims 3 a lot) but mostly to raise awareness for stuff like this. Cancer is just a word associated mainly with bad things, but I feel that once I get through this treatment I will become a better person, cheesy as it sounds. The strange thing is, and everyone that has visited me has said this, I feel and look completely normal. Infact I've not felt this well in months! This is why I feel extremely lucky to have found out about it when I did. I know I've already said this but I really do

I don't usually find writing a difficult subject, infact I normally love writing. This is something that is very hard to tell family and friends.  Most of you don't know this, but on the 16th of October at around 13:15 I was diagnosed with Leukaemia, which I am sure most of you know is a type of cancer.  When my doctor told me my reaction could only be described as a "greek woman crying in the street" - not my own words. I was devistated, and still am.  BUT  Here are the plus sides! My cancer is at a very early stage known as "pre-leukaemia" which means it is much easier to treat I have baffled every blood specialist doctor in the land, as all my blood counts have continued to rise over the past few months which means my body seems to want to  fight against the disease.  I have the best support from friends and family I could ever ask for. I have my own hospital room with a tv, fridge and en suite awfully fancy. I was given a choice of putting