Today I travelled by public transport from Ryde to the hospital. It took me three and a quarter hours but I am well into Captain Corelli's Mandolin and so I didn't really notice the time. David was looking good and less anxious than when I left him last evening. Almost immediately a doctor appeared so I eat my words about not holding my breath! He said that the biopsy had not shown up any cancer cells but that he could not guarantee that in a years time things might be different. Really they have to say that so we did not read anything sinister into it. He said that when David sees the Oncologist in September she will probably discharge him which means no more chemotherapy. Obviously David is delighted about this. The Doctor then went on to explain his understanding of what had taken place and that corresponds with the first impression we were given where the stomach is connected to the remaining oesophagus so it becomes a long tube. There is no cavity at the end of it so food would travel straight through which is the main reason that there will be a significant weight loss. He siad that it is normal, when the stomach is full the brain sends message to stop eating. As there is no longer a cavity the brain does not send a message and that is why after two or three mouthfuls of food it sticks in the throat and this is the new message to stop eating. It will take some getting used to.
The Dietician also came to see us and gave some very useful information about our new life. There is a lot of adjustment to be made.
After that we took a longer stroll along the corridors and when we got back David managed to drink a whole cup of tea. Today he had also managed to eat some sloppy food.
It now seems that he will come home on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. By this time he should be fairly confident and it will be me who will be worrying about looking after him. We are both looking forward to getting back to some sort of normality.
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