The Path Ahead....

At long last I saw the orthopedic doctors. As I mentioned in my previous post, time is almost up to resect the tumour to gain maximum benefit from radiation therapy. The doctor soon realised that, and now it's all rush organise surgery, which I was told will either be next Thursday (18 Oct) or the following Tuesday (23 Oct). They have to organise a plastic surgeon too, as the resection of the tumour will leave a massive hole in my thigh. I face an 8 week recovery period following surgery. So I will be out of the loop for a while.

I'll have quickly carry out a bit of preparation too. This time I was told I would be in hospital a week and 8 weeks before I can drive. Thus I'll have to organise a few things such as deciding about care for my cat. If I'm only in hospital a week, a neighbour can probably feed him. Knowing the hospital I could be in hospital any amount of time from a few days up to 3 weeks. In my experience of them they never plan anything before hand. The hospital will only plan my after care the day before discharge, community health services etc. Living by myself has caused problems with aftercare in the past, e.g. I should have had community ambulance transport home after my biopsy, they didn't think to ask or plan before hand. I made it home awkwardly & painfully by public transport on that occasion. I've been raising these issues every time I have spoken to a nurse, social worker or doctor. It's difficult to organise oneself if one cannot get some clear answers about what confronts one. We'll see. Hopefully things will turn out better than they seem at present.

Earlier this week one of the radio-oncology doctors called and told me that my post treatment MRI results revealed the treatment had been moderately successful but the bad news was that I appeared to have a blood clot. A vein ultrascan was organised and thankfully was clear.

It's a great pity I have to go through with all this. Radiotherapy combined with resection does seem to be the standard treatment. In a small number of cases amputation transpires. That had been my main concern.

Anyway it's dinner time for me... I'm running late & this time around hopefully I'll follow up with more posts on the weekend.

cheers

Rob.