Author Archives: Dani Akrigg

A significant number of oropharyngeal tumours are in difficult to reach places and have conservatively been operated on by splitting the lower jaw and prizing the two parts apart (a bit of an oversimplification here, but humour me). As you can imagine this causes much post operative pain and disfigurement and results in longer recoveryContinue reading “Robot Surgery”

Today I had another session of Acupuncture so I thought I would add some pictures. Excuse the ragged gardener’s nails! This type of Acupuncture is called Auricular Acupuncture and there is lots of data on how well it works for salivary function. It is designed to stimulate those minor salivary glands that are often largelyContinue reading “Acupuncture Update”

This from CRUK’s Twitter feed made me smile and just had to share it With profuse apologies to my two lovely doctors from Oncology and MaxFac

February 4th was World Cancer Day and Radiotherapy for Life were at an event at the House of Commons trying to raise the awareness of the importance of Radiotherapy in the successful treatment of cancer. RT is severely underfunded and understaffed in the UK (what part of the NHS isn’t, come to that?) and manyContinue reading “World Cancer Day”

It’s the beginning of February and our mild winter is morphing into proper winter. We have storm warnings that we should actually expect for this time of year. Even so the newspapers are full of apocalyptic warning. Batten down the hatches and prepare for Armageddon. I’ve had a bit of a storm myself. Episode 1Continue reading “The calm before the storm Ciara”

One year, one whole year has passed since I scrambled off the linear accelerator treatment table at the Singleton for the last time. I have had a year of incredible ups and downs, of pain and joy, of delight and horror but I’m still here and more or less in one piece. I am notContinue reading “First Anniversary”

A couple of weeks ago I had my first appointment with Alison. She is a lovely lady and we hit it off straight away, swapping tales of CND experiences of our youth; my one Aldermaston march (cheating by just doing the Trafalgar Square beano) and her chaining herself to fences and getting arrested at Greenham.Continue reading “Acupuncture The experiment has started”

Honey is good for you, miles better than sugar. Naturally produced, raw unheated, unrefined honey with the pollen unfiltered has vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants aplenty. Most honey is significantly antibacterial.Some people swear by it to help them with seasonal allergies. It tastes good. Take your pick from any of that I’d like to mention Manuka HoneyContinue reading “Honey”

Yesterday was my 10month anniversary, or to be more precise 43 weeks and 3 days since my last radio session. While my general fitness marches on I am still working hard on the saliva front. I can manage most foods, needing a drink with only the driest but I am getting quite frustrated with myContinue reading “10 Months on”

This last couple of days I have been wrapping presents for the Radiographers on LINAC 1 and the Head and Neck Nurse Support Team at The Singleton Hospital There’s a bottle of Prosecco and a jar of our honey and I might add some chocolates too. Last year I was getting zapped daily and IContinue reading “Christmas is Coming”