Sunday 5 July 2009

Last Friday and the weekend.

Friday; Norma and I arrived at the hospital early, anticipation for me of the forthcoming dreaded news. It took some time to be invited in to the consultation room about 1 hour after our appointed time.

Consultant arrived and was delivering our news (our being Norma and I) A power failure and no printer to give us the information required, exciting times. I will point out the Consultant is very calm and gives use confidence.

Eventually the consultant gathers all the information then delivers the news;

  • Cancer in my colon, as known.
  • Spots on my lungs, nothing to be concerned about and to be honest no surprise to me as I had double pneumonia in the eighties and I would have been surprised if they were not damaged.
  • Shadow showing on my liver, that is not clear as to what it is, so I have to have another CT scan to get better clarity and so asses what is required to be done.

The consultant seemed surprised the Christies Hospital http://www.christie.nhs.uk/ had not been in contact with me but he assured me that this is due to happen very soon and we are not talking weeks.

Christies Hospital is recognised as being one of the leading specialist Cancer Hospitals in Europe and I am sure that I will be in as safe as hands as possible. I understand that my Christies Specialists will take control of my therapies and that my Consultant will do at least part of my operation.

Part of my operation, yes the likelihood is that I will have two operations in one go, Both of these operations are likely to be carried out by key hole surgery. http://www.keyholesurgery.co.uk/index.htm Hopefully as long as the Specialist who is trained to work on livers and is also a key hole specialist surgeon is available a small incision will be made, they will first remove part of my colon then stitch the tube together, then the liver specialist will take over and remove part of my liver, then close me up and away I go.

Prior to that I will have to have radio therapy and this is where Christies comes in, these are the guys who will do this part of my treatment. As yet and I do not know what the answer is yet as to how long my treatment is going to be it may be a short as a week or as long as six weeks. My Consultant has informed me that evidence shows that radio therapy is very beneficial and helps prevent the cancer from returning, so this is a very important process. http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Radiotherapy/Generalinformation/Whatisit

I am also waiting to be given an emergency appointment for another CT scan http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/QAs/1159 A CT scan is one of the easiest of the tests, just drink a lot of a special mixture that tastes like Pernod, lovely stuff, lovely.

My expectation is that I would like to have the radio therapy in the next 15 days then be operated on within the next 22 days and everything over bar a bit more therapy done in 30 or so days.

It is 39 days till we are due to go on holiday and I would love this to be our reward, along with a longer life that is. This though is joust one plan it may be 30 days of radio therapy then god knows what.......................

Anyway, after our visit to the hospital we jumped in the car full of hope from our consultant and headed north through wind and rain we battled on and on till we hit the sunshine of Carlisle and a wonderful time we have had, lots of family around and a agricultural fair, full of Cumberland Wrestlers etc.......

Traa dy liooar as it is time for my bed.

1 comment:

Angus Forbes said...

I am so pleased that the outlook looks positive and you seem very positive. It must be a terrible time for you both but the news seems good. I have a friend that had the same sort of cancer, although his lungs were quite badly damaged too. After 9 years he's still as fit as a fiddle - there is hope.

If you can't manage your holiday in Spain, don;t worry we'll just move the weeks on in the diary until you are well enough to take them.

Best wishes
Angus