The word cancer

Hello

I've always held off having my own blog not least because I have never thought my life interesting enough to warrant it. Yes I do have some opinions on a variety of topics but then so have lots of others and I kid myself if I think my thoughts are more important than anyone else's.

What has changed is the discovery of a malignant tumour in my oesphogus. On 28 April I begin chemotherapy a not very pleasant thought but I have been tremendously heartened by the number of messages of support from all sorts of people. That is very humbling so a big thank you to you all. So this is intended to give you an idea of how treatment is progressing as well as some observations on how the NHS looks from the point of view of a patient.

To go back to the start of all this, whilst away in New Zealand I noticed I was having difficulty not so much in swallowing as digesting food. I started losing my apetite and it became apparent weight. Not that the latter was too much of a difficulty since my 5 feet 8 inch frame weighed in at 17 Stone(I'm down to 15/7 since you ask). Thus I was persuaded by wiser voices(alright Ev) to go to the Doctor.

Dr. Legg was very business like and said my case would be classified as urgent under NHS target rules. This was on Thursday 12 February. Sure enough I got a call from the Gastroscopy Department asking me to come in on 16 February. Unfortunately even with a sedation drug they couldn't do the test as apparently I fought with them trying to stop a tube being stuck down my throat.

Now at this point dear reader you would have thought a case referred to the Hospital as a priority would initially go to a person to monitor progress but no. Gastroscopy had achieved their target time of dealing within 3 weeks of a referral. So they sent the papers back to the GP Surgery. The fact that I had no idea what was wrong with me didn't really count. Nothing daunted the surgery referred me to x Ray for a Barium Swallow. This I had on 11 March.

The swallow showed up a bulge and some liquid which the Doctor told me could be an inflammation or it could be something a lot worse. He said I would need a Gastroscopy to determine what it was. It would be referred back to my GP. Yes the x Ray people had achieved their target.

It was at this point that I decided to rebel. Here I was 6 weeks on with the Hospital meeting their targets and I was no nearer finding out what was wrong. Thanks to the persistance of Polly the Health Centre Manager and our GP Dr. Hudson we got an appointment to see a Consultant on 18 March. He clearly suspected something was wrong and arranged for me to be given a Gastroscopy under General Anasthetic a week later.

This was done and it was confirmed I had a tumour. At the same time I had a Biopsy. The following day I had a CT Scan and a week later(1 April) I was referred to the Oncology Department at Southampton. We were also introduced to Joya who is a MacMillan Nurse whose job is to co ordinate things between the Island and Southampton. Unfortunately she was due to go on leave. Her opposite number in Southampton rang a week later to tell me the plan for me and indicated I would need to come to the town for a Pet Scan. Due to Easter I couldn't get this done until 17 April.

On 20 April got a call from the Hospital saying where are you? An appointment had been made for us to see the Oncologist at 2 PM. We had been sent a letter. That letter didn't turn up at the house until 22 April. We went straight to the Hospital on the Monday and met Dr. Caves who guided us through the process. We noted that under targets treatment has to start within 4 weeks of referral. Referral would be 1 April and treatment is to start on 28 April i.e. just within the time limit. The final piece of the jigsaw came when we were told that the Pet Scan showed no additional cancer cells had ben found.

From all of this you will gather that waiting and being referred hither and yon has proved to be very stressful. The key for us was that when the initial gastroscopy didn't work someone at the Hospital should have been co ordinating what was going on. In common with many other people I have found that once you get to the right folk in the right place you are okay, but the trouble is getting there.

So here we are as I write this on 27 April evening waiting for the chemotherapy to start at 930AM tomorrow. Today has been an education day. We were very impressed with the layout of the chemotherapy unit at St. Mary's. It's all easy chairs, bright colours etc. They also welcome spouses, relatives etc. to come along. What will happen is that I shall be given 2 drugs introvenously one after the other in a process that will take roughly 3 to 4 hours. I shall then be given a third drug which is in tablet form to be taken twice a day for 2 weeks. I then have a week off, then back to the hospital to repeat the process, then another 2 weeks of tablets, then a week off and then back again for a third cycle. All being well that process will finish at the end of June. I would then have another scan to see if the tumour has reduced. Having said that we were given a list of conditions which if any applied I would have to stop taking the tablets and that would delay the finish of the course.

Once the Chemo is finished and if tests are okay I shall have an operation. We are due to visit the Consultant in Southampton on 13 May to find out what is involved in that.

Thus far I have tried to be as positive as I can. My attitude has been and is one of this is curable unless and until somebody tells me it isn't.

Part of the idea of this blog is to say thank you to everyone for their support and partly to record how the process goes.

Thank you for your attention thus far.