Friday 27 December 2013

The next bit.

Some things I need to catch up on.....

Had the staples taken out on 6th December.....surprisingly pain free!



Then a couple of appointments with oncologists to talk about what's coming next; firstly with a registrar and then on 16th with the top man, Dr Hwang.

They described my cancer as "small but aggressive" so they need to throw the kitchen sink at it....seven weeks of radiotherapy and three lots of chemo (added because it increases the success rate of the radio by about 5%) starting second or third week of January. Talked about the side effects and I've since joined an online support group of people who have been through/are going through the same thing and to be honest it sounds horrific. Will have a feeding tube fitted in my stomach because it becomes increasingly difficult to eat, late on even sipping water is impossible due to the level of pain. Lots of morphine and other pain relief will help. Skin on your neck becomes increasingly burnt and can crack. Constant tiredness. Low immune system from the chemo so any infection could be "life threatening".

After all that they think the "most likely" outcome will be that the cancer will be gone and I'll be "cured" (put it in inverted commas because as I understand it cured in cancer terms means you're still clear in five years), but I'll need frequent checks to make sure it doesn't come back and hasn't spread anywhere else....monthly at first.

December 18th I was fitted for a radiotherapy mask which looks like this...

Radiotherapy mask

....holds you in place during treatment. Extremely claustrophobic and so tight that you literally can't move a muscle and you're bolted to the table but fortunately only needs to be worn for five/ten minutes at a time; had it on for about half an hour as they did a CT scan after the fitting so that'll be the longest I have to cope with.

Wow.....just read this one back and my sense of humour seems to have done a bunk...people will be putting a side bet on the yeast extract if I'm not careful!

In happy news (just for a bit of balance) our only childless daughter gave birth on the 23rd. I've mentioned Jess earlier in this blog I'm sure, but to reiterate she's been with us virtually every step of this journey so far, despite coping with the hugely stressful complications of having a baby while diabetic. She's been a rock and a diamond (actually as diamonds are rocks I probably didn't need to use both there but it was for emphasis so forgive me) and the joy of little Marcin's arrival was a huge boost. It was an emergency caesarean sadly so not what she'd hoped but the result is magical. On top of that she and her partner asked me the day before the birth (he was induced so they knew he was coming) to be his godfather; and said they'd wait until I was better for the christening. I've not (yet) shed any tears over the cancer but that had me in bits I'm not ashamed to say. It's a big thing in Poland, where his dad's from, and I'm so happy about it!

That's better eh? Bit of positivity.

This is all so strange.

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