On the train yesterday, when I realised the girl opposite was drinking something that smelled just like the sugary sweet pee created by injecting Docetaxel into your veins, it suddenly hit me. Life will forever be filled with both obvious and surprising triggers waiting to transport me back to cancer in a heartbeat.

Joining this turquoise-coloured soft drink (goodness knows what it was but I hope I never smell it again) is the smell of mouldy oranges. For me, I will now always associate that not-so-fragrant odour with the smell of saline. For anyone who has their PICC line flushed weekly, my thoughts are with you when that little solution goes in. I can taste it and I hope, once the line comes out in a month’s time, to never taste it again. I certainly won’t be going anywhere near a mouldy orange, that’s for sure.

Of course, it’s not just smells. Then we have sounds. I can no longer look at my fridge in the same way. Leave the door open just a second too long and it beeps like a chemo pump when the drug bag is empty. For anyone who has visited a chemo unit, the sound of pumps beeping (always at slightly different times and never in unison) is something that stays with you long after the PICC line valve has been closed. And don’t get me started about my cancer anthem. I love Pharrell William’s Happy, but why do I have to hear it (other than through my iPod) on important cancer days (diagnosis day being the first). Don’t get me wrong, as anthems go, it’s a goodie. I am certainly grateful it’s nothing morbid, like Hurt or Sister Morphine. 

And what about those sights? The Shard, The Houses of Parliament, Southbank, the Thames Clipper (a commuter boat on the river) and the lamppost opposite our house. Once just London landmarks (ok I appreciate the lamppost won’t be making it onto a city tour any time soon), they are now markers in my cancer journey. Even Big Ben is no longer just a bell (yes, folks not a clock or a clock tower, a bell). It’s the bell that kept me company on those long nights after DIEP surgery.

Cancer has even given activities, such as painting my nails, a purpose. How will I ever paint them again without reminding myself of the darkened and brittle nails I was once trying to cover up.

Maybe it’s no bad thing. Maybe, instead of fearing the smells or launching at the fridge when I am unloading the grocery shopping, I should embrace them, safe in the knowledge that the everyday is still the everyday and I am lucky enough to be here to enjoy it. Maybe I should hug the freezer rather than shutting it, reminding me every day to keep embracing the little details of my life, knowing how quickly and how silently they can be taken away. 

A sound many trigger a memory of cancer, but a memory is all it will be.