Moving on and Staying Strong........................

I have entered this after reading John Stapletons column in tonights Manchester Evening News, see his Wife Lynn's site and please join in; http://bowelcancer.tv/cgi-bin/page.pl


'The Christie' Hospital came up with all sorts of twists and turns this week. All down to a meeting with a registrar.

It looks like I am yet to be confirmed but it appears I am responding well to treatment. I am not fully clear on what it all means but know that, what it is, I have been told, is positive. My chemo is to continue past the 6th visit and my next visit is on the 12th of November 2009.

I was informed that a protein is given off by the tumours, the registrar way open and honest with me. I had started off with a protein trace of 7, she pointed out that they see patients that have trace elements in the thousands. My trace element is now down to three, yes three and normal is four, so I am below normal, I take this as a normal for people with cancer, so things are somewhat positive, I know it is not, me out of the clear but it is the best and only news that I have had to pass on for a while.

On the 9th of November, it is time for me to go up to North Manchester General Hospital to re-visit the MRI scanner, I go back to this scanner as it is one that has been calibrated to me, sensible I suppose. Within two weeks I will be given feed back.This is also a day I return to my GP for the first time, in a long time after receiving the badly delivered news about my cancer, they are not the only ones who delivered news poorly and I genuinely feel sorry for the Dr's but they should first ask how much do I or Norma understand. Norma has difficulty at times and needs to get a full understanding of situations. I am enough to handle at times, especially when I have given my all at work, I come home very tired and go very quiet,sleep,dizzy etc things that I do not have to hide at home. Norma does not need things from her. I am now struggling to get the swine flu jabs that I require from my LOCAL GP who say they are not getting the vaccine yet, 'The Christie' can only do so much , I think that this is not entirely true, given the press that I have seen and will ask to be referred to another practice, I do not need all this mucking about, I need this jab on Monday the 9th of November before 11:00am to enable me to continue with my MRI scan and Chemo, my life is tough enough without my local group practice prating about.Getting from Didsbury to Cheetham in a short time is impossible by public transport

It appears that as earlier in the blog about 3 months ago I informed you that I had three areas of cancer where detected, Being the primary cancer in my colon, secondary is my Liver both of these are operable, my third area as informed this week a bit clearer this time is my lymph nodes in the back of my stomach.

Here is a piece from a web site; I do not know how early I have been caught, but with the trace proteins I am hopeful;


What is the prognosis (outlook)?

Without treatment, a stomach cancer is likely get larger, and spread to other parts of the body. If it is diagnosed and treated at an early stage (before growing through the wall of the stomach or spreading to lymph nodes or other areas of the body) then there is a good chance of a cure with surgery.

Unfortunately, most cases in the UK are not diagnosed at an early stage.

If the cancer is diagnosed when it has grown through the wall of the stomach, or spread to other parts of the body, a cure is less likely. However, treatment can often slow down the progression of the cancer.The treatment of cancer is a developing area of medicine.

New treatments continue to be developed and the information on outlook above is very general. The specialist who knows your case can give more accurate information about your particular outlook, and how well your type and stage of cancer is likely to respond to treatment.

Traa dy Liooar