My Honey

I saw an 'oops' show  on TV once where a British news reporter said 'Hypodeemic Nerdle', (trust me, it was hilarious) and it has stuck with me to the point where it sounds more right to me than the right way. I have to carefully think phonetically about Hypodermic needle, but deemic nerdle - natural.


But I digress. I hate needles. Massive needle phobe. I'm not a fainter, but I'm a no sleep beforehand, ridiculously proud of myself afterwards, 'ooh look at my cotton pad bandage, poor me' type.


So imagine my delight at the news that one of us would have to inject me with Granocyte white blood cells for five days every time I had chemo. And its not a little gentle EpiPen either, its a full on, prepare it yourself, draw up mixture, discard needle, proper job. If you're interested I need it because chemo depletes my white blood cells for about a week, so I have no immune system basically. I become a slave to anti-bacterial gel, taxi's and air kissing.


 Poor DadJokes drew the short straw after I refused (to me injecting myself is about as possible as punching myself in the face), and my mum nearly passed out practicing on a polystyrene cup. "I'll do it" he insisted at that point.


Turns out its completely fine, he's really very good, and I like the comforting 'OK' lullaby we get into every time. "ok, ready? its going in, you ok? I'm going to do it now. ok? that ok? feeling ok?"

.

The funny thing is, in my first low week (that's what I call it), I was home for Christmas, and my entire family, who rarely get sick, all got sick. Except me, who was supposed to.


At the risk of sounding like an internet educated nutritionist, I'm going to attribute this to a little pot of honey. 
Shabir Daya, MR Pharms and co-founder of Victoriahealth.com sent me Life Mel honey when I was first diagnosed, told me to have a teaspoon a day on an empty stomach, and although I didn't even know why, and to be honest raised an eyebrow, I did it like he said. Anything to help at that point.


Now that I finally have asked, it does make spookily good sense. 


Shabir says

'LifeMel Honey is derived from bees who are fed on a specially prepared mixture of herbs including Echinacea and Cat’s Claw, which are immune enhancing plants.  This provides the honey with a unique benefit that works rather like a vaccine helping to protect the immune system' 

And it's a lot nicer than sticking a nerdle in my stomach let me tell you. 

Its not the cheapest, at £37.50 per little pot, but it will last you a good month and I hereby solemnly swear by it. I was without it for a few days at my mums and I felt noticeably ropier for longer after chemo. You can find LifeMel here