Just a short update.

Following all the recent events, I contacted the specialist clinical nurse at Southampton who felt I should see the Oncologist sooner rather than May. As a result I am having a CT Scan at the Hospital on 31 March with results to come the following week.

First of all I must apologise for no entry for a couple of weeks. I had my fifth chest x ray last Thursday and was due to see my GP to get results today(Friday). I thought I would wait until I has seen her so that I could give you an up to date report.

The good news is that the second lot of blood tests showed that the infection had cleared. Apparently though in the earlier tests some evidence of anaemia was found. The GP did apologise for not mentioning this before. It might have explained why I had been feeling a little tired during the day. Anyway that's behind me.

The chest x rays(there were two taken one from the front and one from the side) showed that there was still some infection in the left lung caused apparently by some sticking in the diaphragm. She has given me some more anti biotics in the hope that they will clear the infection.

We then went on to discuss whether there was a more fundamental problem. She asked me whether I was more worried that the cancer might be back or whether I was concerned that I might have another attack of violent coughing. I tend towards the latter view. I am not losing weight and I am eating much better than say 3 months ago. As I have said here though I don't believe that amount of coughing will do me any good. There is also the fact that my voice has still not returned to normal. I am being referred to the chest clinic at the Hospital. This may take a few weeks but if they can suggest anything that would help it will be worth the wait. As far as the cancer side of things is concerned, I am still being seen every 3 months by the Oncologist.

Last weekend was a special birthday for Ev. We all went up to Christopher and Gillian's to celebrate the occasion. It would be remiss of me not to thank both Christopher and Andrea in assembling some friends from both the North East and Shropshire for a very pleasant evening. Ev was surrounded by all five Grandchildren.

Later today I am going to a meeting of the Patient's support group, which is always worth supporting.

More hopefully next week.

Days 644 to 651

I've deliberately held off making an entry until after I had seen my GP.

To go back to where we were when I made my last entry. I started to take the anti biotics and went into Angel Radio last Thursday. I had wanted to do this as I was talking to someone who was organising a sponsored kayak trip from Penzance to Cowes in April. As things turned out the event has been postponed until August but as someone once said that's showbiz.

By Saturday at least I was able to sleep in bed as distinct from an armchair. The coughing if not stopped altogether is now under control but the voice is still a bit croaky.

The importance of the latest chest x ray was that unlike the others it was taken whilst I still had the bad cough. It detected an infection in my left lung. The Hospital have recommended having another x ray in a week's time in which they will take two pictures one front on and one from the side. It normally takes a week for the results to come back to the GP so I have booked an appointment for a fortnight today(Friday) to discuss the results.

I asked the GP what she thought was causing this recurring problem. She gave three possible causes. One is that the operation has weakened my resistance to germs. The second is that some of the acid has got into the lungs and third there's cancer cells. On this last point neither she nor I think this likely. In the last month I have put 4 pounds on so that should knock that on the head.

I feel okay both physically and mentally so we push onward and upward. More next week.