'Engaging the Enemy'

  " It's a short respite for me, but my poor body screams for it" .... Aidan Murphy.  With self proclaimed 'Toxic Tuesday' scheduled in one weeks time, my body (and mind) is enjoying its time off my daily chemotherapy tablets. In aviation terms, it's all to do with 'weight and balance'. As for Oscar my Oncologist, it's his way of ensuring my blood cell levels are up. If they are not, the Chemo must wait, as it has done before.  With the toxins down, the exhaustion I usually get afternoon walloped with is about 20% of what my body usually faces. As I said before, the trick here is to save and store that credit of energy. Why ? Because my blood cells will be screaming for it next week and I need to be in a position to put my hand on it, well my heart actually and then duly deliver it.  I've spent the last week fine-tuning my INSIDE OUT talk. Taking feedback from recent talks I have done is of immense help. When we get to the end and it's qu...

  I'm hearing the word 'Inspire' said to me a lot this week. A word I'm not comfortable with when I'm told I'm the 'inspirer', but oddly enough, I've no problem using that word myself when I consider 'moi' to being the one inspired. So I'm going to be hypocritical here and tell you who my collection of inspirers are. In no particular order (jeez, I sound like an M.C in the thick of it all)... It's no big secret that I'd like to have a quiet pint with Richard Branson, and I'm paying. Having being so lucky to receive a gift from him in the guise of his latest book, wrapped up with a personal message to me, this idea of that happening has moved a lot closer. Let's keep an eye on this, no pressure either lol.  Then from the widely known to the lesser known wheelchair friendships. Arizona based Wheelchair Balloon Pilot 'Michael Glen' (Worlds first licensed paraplegic Balloon Pilot), to fellow Dunshaughlinite  Jack Kav...

  The Sun Shines on the Righteous.  With my cancer tumour in my gut now for 24 weeks, I figured it was time to introduce it to another positive force, namely the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre. I have only heard nothing but beautiful things about this entity, so why leave it so long to visit? That's an excellent question (I just asked myself) and to be frank (as I am), I have no definitive answer. If I push deep enough, I'm feeling that I want to walk in the opposite direction of my cancer. Perhaps my mind was putting it in the same box as a hospital ? Quiet possible.  The Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre is situated in Georges Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth. It is a support centre for people living with cancer, their families and thoses who care for them. The centre offers holistic and complementary therapies, education and psychological support which is nowadays regarded as part of standard support for people with cancer. The centre is open to people on the island of Ir...

  'INSIDE OUT' We have all heard that saying, 'it's good to talk'. Now with 6 months of fighting my inoperable Cancer and what I have been thru during this time, I am now doing just  that...TALKING.  As my wife Alison tells me, I don't have any issues in that department. Apparently, shutting me up is the problem 😂😂.  Sprinkled in between some of my blogs to date, you will notice I allude to a somewhat unusual pattern that I have noticed following me since my cancer diagnosis. That being various items, skill sets, processes, practices or procedures that I somehow  unwittingly picked up over the course of the past number of years, but just parked them up since that time. Now, during this most metamorphic period in my life, I find I have a most definite and wanting requirement for each and every piece of my somewhat  unusual collection.  I'm not going to bore you here with a list of what I'm referring to, but rather just distinguish one that is appropri...

  If I can say so myself, these last 3-4 weeks have been pretty good to both my body and indeed mind. But yesterday and today, the cracks came in the carefully plastered wall. Yes, the wall is made of solid brick, that I can personally vouch for. But I can equally vouch for the plasterwork. A crack here, a crack there and then this evening, I think some of the plaster fell off. For Me: It's NOT normal for me to be sick (with any illness). It's NOT normal for this illness to be with me non-stop for over the 6 months now. It's NOT normal for me to out from employment on sick leave. It's NOT normal for me to be constantly tired and then get flattened further with an instant and total 'attack' of exhaustion. It's NOT normal for me to having to be reminded to take 15 tablets a day at various times. It's NOT normal for me to remind myself every morning then go and  stab myself in the stomach or upper leg with a sharp syringe. It's NOT normal for me having ...

  I think we can all resonate with the  terrible news of that dreadful accident that occurred earlier this week off the coast of Mayo involving the Dublin based Coast Guard Search and Rescue Helicopter, Rescue 116. Over the past number of years, I have struck up a friendly relationship with this unit, or with one of it's pilots and his family to be more percise. Living in Dunshaughlin, just a few nautical miles west of R116 base, it's not unusual for us here, anytime of day or night to hear the heavy 'whop-whop' of the S92's giant rotor blades beating against the air as both crew and machine race to the assistance of an aircraft, vessel or being that is in trouble. Two years ago I was very fortunate to secure a visit by R116 to Aoife's School 'St. Seachnalls" here in the village. They spent over 2 hours on the ground and made sure every kid got a tour of the aircraft where every inquisitive question was competently answered. This is the exact measure an...

  A Sunday afternoon at 1000ft over County Meath, Ireland.  It's just gone teatime on Saturday evening. I've just woken up from a 2 hour deep sleep, you  the know the one, aye, brought to you by Mr. Chemo, my new afternoon sponsor. "How are you feeling"  is the opening line of the text. I just then fired back a  reply with a 👍. Seconds later and a follow up text from the same person:   "Fancy coming for a flight in the helicopter in the morning?" . It's these type of inviting texts that, in their reply, can and indeed do break world record timeline and reflex actions in the speed of their reply.  "YES, Wow, Thanks ", I think it took about 3 nanoseconds for that reply of mine to be both written and sent. With the offer of being picked up in the machine from outside my house (what an offer !), I decided I would drive to the hanger, just 30 mins drive away. It wasn't long before our preflight checks were complete and we had our radio call put...

  Can I live with it, kill it, fight it, talk about it,  then try kill it again, ....all in a day?  It is now exactly 6 months since I wrote my first ever legitimised albeit horrific email. Who ever knew it would be addressed to my own employer? Never in my wildest dreams did I ever consider such a notion.  I had this  text sitting on  my email app in my smartphone for over an hour, yes, for 60 minutes after the no-warning shock news that  was delivered coldly and clinicaly to my hospital bedside. That dreadful, costic infused, confidence filled and  arrogantly delivered 'chat'  that Aidan Murphy has  Pancreatic Cancer- I DO NOT !! I have Gastro Cancer   (tumour in my stomach). I lost 2 stone of my body weight in the following 14 days after this muck-up. I was discharged from hospital just 2 days into this fiasco.  I fretted, panted and cried  the following two weeks at home in bed, trying desperately to grasp this (unk...

  Murf, all hooked up for his Chemotherapy  This week was my 'Toxic Tuesday', all deferred from last week, so glad I'm now on the back foot of this.  The little things, of being in a very pleasant atmosphere (within the day Oncology unit) in the Bon Secour hospital can and of course does mean a lot. Yes, it's an every day occurrence to all the staff here, but the trick is, they treat me and all the other patients there as if it's our special day, which now that I think of it, it is ! That extra week (no 4) of a break at the Chemotherapy (infusion) worked and my bloods were back up. A pleasent chat with my Oncologist, Dr. Breathnach and I feel he's really only getting to know me now which is good. I think at this stage of our relationship, we both see a decent dose of common sense within each other's mindset. And we all know that common sense ain't that common, right ? Myra (the esteemed Oncology day unit health care assistant) was of course there and in ...