outpatient news

have had my first appointment at Marsden as an outpatient. It was a hell of an effort to get there in the snow but we found some good taxis prepared to weave their way to Fulham (for a price) in the sliding icy roads. It made me get dressed and behave almost like a normal person though and i haven't looked back- goodbye pj's in the day! We were told that Dirk had gone off to Australia on holiday and so we were seen by the head of clinic Mr Thomas as well as visits from the specialist nurses and one by one the other doctors who were involved in the operation and post operative care- it really is a special place.

The news is good- they assured us they got all of the tumour out even though there were added complications such as it being attached to my diaphram as well as everywhere else which made the operation take considerably longer. Because an operation is the only means of getting rid of this type of cancer they explained the chances of it coming back where based on the success of removing every bit and they had done this successfully. Having said that i asked what would be done if it did come back and Mr Thomas stated "well, then we'll have another go at it!" .
He explained further that the investigation carried out on the tumour meant it was a low grade tumour but that had they not caught it at this time then it would have turned into a higher grade- ffffphew!!! He said they were very pleased with my recovery to date - as i sat there skinny and crouched, complaining about being very weak and not eating and feeling like i was going to keel over- his advice to do anything it took to speed up a sense of normality by doing a little more each day and even using alcohol if thats what i needed!!?? I questioned the need to take the antibiotics each day for the rest of my life and Mr Thomas explained that this was a controversial subject- he explained that some countries didn't feel the need to play it this way and preferred to treat an infection crisis as and if it happened- then he asked me " are you around children very often?"- nough said!!!