Grumbles? What grumbles?

I closed my last post by saying 'more on my grumbles on the weekend'. Well a bit more time than the weekend has elapsed and I don't want to get too negative just yet. That can wait LOL.

The radiation burns are greatly improved. The leg does still sting & itch at times and does get heated during the night. The lymphedema is greatly improved though does still build considerably from time to time. I can now walk around without limping. Today I went across to the mainland to do a bit of shopping, the first day of commuting since my last outpatients visit to the hospital. The leg did become a bit stiff & swollen behind the knee.

The hospital gives patients undergoing radiation therapy an aqueous cream to apply to the area being irradiated. During the worst of the post treatment burns I found it to be generally ineffective. Fortunately I found some unused skin creams that belonged to my late mother which I did not throw out after she passed away. Both of them were natural care products. One was based on macadamia nut oil as its primary component and the other on Calendula oil from the marigold plant. The macadamia nut product was really soothing and both of these combined with the aqueous cream really worked well. I've since added vitamin E cream and Tea Tree oil to the mix. I take a couple of applications of each staggered at different times of the day.

Today I was disappointed to receive an outpatients department letter re-scheduling my appointment with orthopedic oncology until 19th October (originally on the 12th of Oct). The whole point of the outpatient's consultation is to plan surgery. The five week's radiotherapy was to make the tumour easier for the surgeon's to remove. I was told that surgery usually has to be carried out 4 weeks after the end of radiotherapy but six weeks is ok. Given that RT finished on 12 Sept, 4 weeks is the 10th of October and 6 weeks is 24 October, an OP consultation on 19 October leaves little room for planning both for myself & the surgeons if the resection has to be carried out in an optimal time frame. I am starting to become concerned about this.

I see my GP on Monday. The letter from the OP department advised my to discuss any concerns I may with my GP and I will do so.

As to whether the radiation therapy reduced the size of the tumour is difficult to say from my perspective. I would say yes it has shrunk a bit. However the very variable fluid swelling on my leg makes it difficult to say exactly how much. It certainly is much softer & has changed shape. It has definitely shrunk on the outside of the thigh. However as it continued to grow on the inside of my thigh between diagnosis & treatment it's difficult to say whether it has shrunk as there is much fluid swelling there and it still burns from time to time. The largest dimension mentioned in any of my medical reports was 15cm on its longest axis.

I'll blog a bit more on my concerns or what I term breakdowns in communication, in coming posts. I've also read a fair bit on liposarcoma and its treaments and I intend to write a bit about that too. I've been intending to post a few links to pages of interest too.

As usual my hobbies & reading greatly help my morale & well being.

cheers

Rob