Onto the next stage

The Friday trip to the hospital went reasonably well. They are pleased with the way the op has gone. The tumour proved smaller than thought so there was a much larger area of healthy tissue removed than they’d expected. The lymph gland that was removed showed no sign of cancer cells so clearly nothing can have spread to the rest of my body.

The next stage is a visit to oncology to discuss the possibility of chemotherapy. There are possible complications with this as I have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) & have had a problems with my pancreas, all organs that can be adversely affected by chemotherapy.

I’ve more or less come to the conclusion any short-term adverse side effects, may be worth enduring for the long term gain. However, if there are going to be long term side-effects I may have to think again.

I gather at the meeting they fill in an on-line form with my various medical conditions, medications, medical history etc., & then they get back the probabilities of advantage from the various chemo treatments.

I gather from my breast specialist that the whole process of chemo, then radiotherapy is likely to take another 6-9 months, during which I’ll be making frequent trips to hospital & possibly suffering various adverse side-effects e.g. nausea, fatigue. Holidays will have to be put on hold until then. We may just manage a few days away in Britain if I’m feeling not too bad. It seems a long period of treatment stretching ahead.

Meanwhile we’re still impressed by the difference the new Bay Gateway has made to the trip into Lancaster. Even going in for 9am, & passing several schools on the way, we made the trip to the hospital in about 20 minutes, rather than the usual hour it has been for years. We’re even thinking of allowing just 30 minutes next week for the trip. Thank goodness the new road has opened up if it means the trip is going to continue to be so much easier, especially now we seem to be having to do so many more trips in.