This time last year we were very much in the middle of the Melanoma Rollercoaster ride…..I had just had a CT scan for a suspiciously enlarged lymph node that sits right at the top of my femoral artery….and I was still traveling up & down from Oxford on a weekly basis for various tests in my quest to get onto that trial (the one I didn’t get on because of the Serrated Polyps in my colon).
Halloween was a subdued affair last year….
…Which quite frankly perturbed me.
I like a good party….I like “feeding” people….but most of all I enjoy surrounding myself with happy smiling faces – smiles are contagious – and the rush, the endorphins from smiles & laughter is my drug of choice.
Last year we did the standard “Trick of Treat” with the Little People…but there was little of the expected buoyance and exuberance….we were apprehensive…..and scared….and although scary is supposedly good at Halloween…it was the wrong sort of scary. My scars were too fresh….the physical scars as much as the mental ones.
We made a promise to the Little People that this year would be different….& thankfully we were able to deliver on that promise. The fact that I am still NED……still alive made it an even sweeter treat.
Time for a party!
The house was decorated from top to bottom…..I was actually encouraging spiders to move in and make cobwebs….which they tried…..but sadly not quickly enough so I needed to intervene.
I decided against scars and blood……as a general rule I quite like gore…but I think I have seen enough scars and blood in the last year so something more upbeat and less sinister was called for…..yet I still felt like obliterating my own skin from view completely…..paint!!!
It took about an hour to paint myself…legs….arms….chest….back….and finally face……I then had to put in contacts…cue disaster! I don’t wear contact lenses & have never put them in….perhaps a trial run might have been a good idea!
My face was covered in paint….as were my hands…..keeping my eyes open enough to insert a contact lens proved tricky…..and smudgy. Getting the contact lens in face paint free impossible….there were tears….lots…..and the paint on my face needed to be re-applied….through contact lenses that altered my vision.
We had so much fun, surrounded by brilliant friends and dozens of children in all sorts of costumes!
An amazing memorable night…and that is exactly what I hoped for!
Life in the last 16 months has thrown me…..and inadvertently the Little People so much uncertainty and fear and sadness that we needed a really good opportunity to let our hair down (in my case curl my hair)….and create a memory….a wonderful, magical, lasting memory!