Well then dear @Jimbo165, I wonder how it would feel to think about some more time off to recuperate? Imagine all that restorative time that your body and mind would have… Like @Erica says, what might you recommend to someone in your position?!
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My apologies @Erica, I had a wonderfully composed message, in my head, which failed to translate successfully and completely via my fingers to the screen! I had omitted the sentence with regard to speaking to any and all of us: I meant to say that we are here for anyone to “vent at” or simply as an audience for us to let our feelings out. That is what I do here and I find it helps me immensely.
I am probably the least qualified person on Planet Earth to give advice or recommendations of a medical nature, but if I did, the best course of action for the recipient would be to do the opposite!
As always everyone, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
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Hi @Jimbo165 I am really sorry I did not mean that you were giving advice or recommendations of a medical nature, it was just my ambiguous wording.
I really find your venting or or letting your feelings out really useful to me.
I was purely responding to your ‘I am very much in two minds as to whether I will be returning to work next week, or going back to my GP tomorrow (Friday) as I am still coughing a lot and feeling short of breath.’ pondering by saying I cannot tell you what to do, but perhaps what you want to say to one of us in your situation,
Please do let us know what you decide to do.
Really look after yourself, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourself and keep on smiling.
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@Duncan, I thank you for your comment! I really need to immerse myself in my Buddhism and go back to those quotes by Rumi that I like so much. I have also had major anxiety issues in my life. A bit of box breathing sometimes helps but I think that some sort of acceptance (however that is reached) is also fundamental to how I’m currently feeling. We simply cant go on forever, can we?
But for now, there’s the Winter Olympics to watch. Think I have a parallel life riding the half pipe in baggy trousers. At least I hope I do as I’m 40 years too late to do it in real time! xx
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Thankyou, @Jimbo165. I have just been for a run and feel a bit better. Am also letting myself sleep as much as I need, it feels quite an indulgence sometimes, but it really helps me.
I hope you are having a hopeful cough-free Friday 13th!! 
xx
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Good afternoon @Leigh65 and everyone else, I hope you are all as well as possible. I’m glad that you are feeling a bit better but what is this “run” thing that you speak of? Not to mention this other strange word you have used “sleep”?
You will all be pleased to learn that, having spoken with one of the team at my GP practice, I have been signed off again for another week of resting and recuperation from this coughing malarkey that I am still enduring. Interestingly, and on this occasion, the “fit note” has the words “complicated by bone marrow cancer” added to the diagnosis of a respiratory tract infection. It is interesting to see the different terminology that the medical profession uses to describe things.
As always everyone, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves, keep on smiling and, if you are lucky enough tomorrow, enjoy Saturday’s threatened dry and sunny weather.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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I love this dear @Leigh65, a bit of outside time stretching and some inside time ahead for a different kind of exercise! I wonder what’s been coming up in your writing? And now I fancy a hike and a good read 
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A whole other week off?! I’m very impressed @Jimbo165. Of course, I’d rather you weren’t poorly at all. Self-care can sometimes be difficult to let ourselves ‘indulge’ in can’t it, so I’m really chuffed you’re being so caring of yourself.
How was it seeing “bone marrow cancer” written down? I suppose that is accurate but to me it almost sounds worse than blood cancer. Good to have it recognised though, and as a potential reason for why your current illness has affected you as it has.
Hope you enjoy this extra time to yourself, you deserve it @Jimbo165!
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Good afternoon @Duncan, one of our “Overseas Correspondents”, I hope you are as well as can be. Seeing “bone marrow cancer” written down does cause a moments pause as you recalibrate your mind to a different set of words but I am fairly settled about all of the various terms that can used for our Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN')’s. Fortunately I have been very open with work and management about my “condition” and have answered any and all questions that people have asked me concerning my Essential thrombocythemia ('ET')/Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN') and, now bone marrow cancer. As you say, it is most definitely an accurate phrase, otherwise we wouldn’t have had to endure the BMB that we do, unless there are some sadists at work of course! 
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourself and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hi @Jimbo165 I am so glad that you have spoken to one of the team at your GP practice and that you have been signed off for another week.
I am also very interested by the wording on your sick note.
@Leigh65 I have heard sleep called the best medicine, but sometimes fresh air and appropriate exercise is what I need.
@Duncan interesting ponderings whether bone marrow cancer or blood cancer is worse. For me it still really hits me when I see my diagnosis (whatever wording is used) written down.
Really look after yourselves, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
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Thankyou @DuncanB, my poor DP is getting a bit of an earful these days, especially this week, am grateful that I have that sort of support. My friends are aware of my ‘health wonks’ but we try to do fun things together to take my mind off it, which generally works. And am always on here waffling away 
Hope you are having a hopeful week!
xx
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I’ll always be tickled by you calling me an overseas correspondent @Jimbo165! It does feel like it sometimes, which I love, like keeping attuned from here to what’s going on at home thanks to my forum family.
Just back from walking the hound beside our little estuary and was thinking about that terminology @Erica. I think because my first haematologist told me I didn’t have cancer, I sort of clung onto the overall diagnosis to guide me. No specialist ever said “bone marrow cancer” to me, just lots of Polycythaemia vera ('PV') this and Polycythaemia vera ('PV') that.
Don’t know if you recall but I had a bit of a phase of body horror initially at the thought of the big C being in my veins and all the bloodletting reminded me of this so often. But this subsided as I got used to how, in some ways, my treatment was pretty mechanical and routine. To acknowledge all that as coming from inside my bones somehow feels more intimate and vulnerable, like it’s even more a part of me than simply being extra blood flowing around.
Maybe it’s how I’ve desensitised to the body horror of it all, to tell myself it’s not as bad as my imagination made it seem? I know what you mean about it hitting you when you see it written down—my version of that is when someone else casually uses the terms around me before I’ve activated my sensitivity shield, as it were! Still clearly sensitive to it nearly 3 years on, but thank goodness that seems to be fading with time!
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Hi @Jimbo165 I just wondered how you are feeling now?
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourself and keep on smiling.
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Good afternoon dear @Erica and everyone else, I hope that you are as well as can be. Firstly, my apologies for the tardiness of my response: sadly I had a poor night’s (non!) sleep last night, finally dropping off around 05:00 this morning, but I have been resting for most of the day so far, slumped along the sofa. I would like to say that these “sleepless” nights are rare, but they seem to be occurring more frequently these days/nights, roughly once every 4 or 5 weeks. Something else to speak with the consultant about on my next visit due in 5 weeks time.
So other than even more tired than usual today, I’m not too bad and will be returning to work on Monday morning.
In all honesty, and with how my general health has been so far, I am not particularly enamoured of 2026!
Take care all, stay safe, keep smiling and be kind to yourselves.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Yes, @Jimbo 165 2026 has generally not started well for a number of reasons has it, but especially for your health.Also not being able to sleep really makes me feel so sluggish all day.
Look after yourself when you go back to work and try and take it steady, easier said than done with your job, I expect.
As always, take care, stay safe, be very kind to yourself and carry on smiling.
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Hi all on this link- I’ve been away from the forum for a while and feel as though I’ve missed so much when I read through everyone’s messages!
So glad @Jimbo165 that you are taking more recuperative time off work but sorry that you are still suffering with cough etc- knowing what I know of you it must be bad for you to take time off!!
Tiredness is the main thing about blood cancers isn’t it- it comes and goes but we all struggle with it at times. And itchiness- mine affects me straight after a shower - it luckily doesn’t last too long. Exercise is definitely the key to mental health, and getting outside/ it doesn’t do us any good staying indoors.
I also mark Left and Right in my calendar now as tend to forget otherwise.
well done @RA2000 for having a good cry- we all do that I’m sure- doesn’t matter if we’re male or female.
And how wonderful is this forum that we can discuss all these things without upsetting our loved ones.
Wishing everyone a good nights sleep ( can’t remember what that is)
Gillyj
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Good evening @Gillyj and everyone else on this thread, I hope that you are all as well as can be. My apologies for the “comms blackout” since my last post; it has been a very tiring week back at work!
I have also had a change of medication for my “dicky ticker” as the Nicardipine seems to be unavailable, for now, so I have started on Nicorandil tablets, twice a day. The most common side effect with this is a headache and, boy oh boy, is that a classic British understatement! First dose was at 8am last Sunday and by 8:30am my first headache had taken up residence within my, mostly empty, cranium, where it has remained ever since! Without pause or deviation but with constant repetition (for fans of “Just a Minute! ).
I must admit to feeling so very tired after a busy week back at work, but hope that the headache will ease and “do one” soon, although the medicine leaflet does say that the headaches usually last only for the first few weeks. Such a cheery thought!
As always everyone, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Oh @Jimbo165 I bet you have had a very tiring week going back to work and then you have also had a debilitating headache. Your wording ‘so very tired’ says it all.
Be ever so kind to yourself and I suspect you are not feeling much like smiling at the moment. Take it as steady as you can. x
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Oh dear @Jimbo165 i can’t believe you’ve got bad headaches again- you had them before for a long time didn’t you? I do hope they go after a while, it’s so debilitating isn’t it.
Try to take it easy at work
Gillyj
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