As we said last time, Colin's appointment with the Oncologist at Cheltenham was late yesterday - although not as late as it might have been! It was a bit like a bear garden in the waiting room - some had been waiting over an hour for their slot! We were rather luckier - it was only a 40 minute wait! Having been ushered into one of the small consulting rooms - hardly larger than an examination bed and a couple of chairs - the chief man and his entourage entered. This was a little alarming to say the least! But....having exchanged the usual pleasantries it became clear that the Oncologist was rather pleased and surprised. His words to Colin were "you're breaking all the rules!" and "I shall stop making any further predictions!". What this meant was the Oncologist had been fairly sure back in the Spring of 2013 (prior to the radiotherapy) that Colin wasn't likely to be around by now or certainly not well within 12 months of the treatment! Jane queried the scan a little more - trying to find out what could really be seen. Apparently there is little or no scarring and what can be seen is normal brain (and as the Oncologist put it - rather like any male's brain of your age pulled off the street). There was no sign of progressive disease (bearing in mind that the scan was taken three and a half weeks ago - so the results are timestamped then of course). The Oncologist added that the scans are now quite detailed - almost down to the micron level, which is rather interesting. A conversation about the folding and unfolding of a sheet of A4 paper and the size of the universe and of the distance to sub-atomic particles ensued! And so we went home - rather tired by now and having to get through the awful rush-hour traffic, it took us ages.
The rest of the last three weeks has been a combination of more visits to Worcester Royal, to the Psychologist, the Cheltenham Brain Tumour Support meeting, having even more 'blokes' around measuring up windows/doors/roofline and having a rather clever, engineering friend sort out our back garden screening - well rebuilding it actually after the original gave up the ghost after about 13 years following many winter gales!
Rather irritatingly, the Worcestershire Audiology Dept is a much sadder affair - having cancelled two of Colin's appointments in as many weeks! So these, having been rescheduled, are coming up next week and the week after. And there is the Cheltenham Brain Tumour Support group Christmas meal to look forward to ...we'll keep you posted.
Now a plea - would J2 PLEASE make contact with an address!!!! Don't use our old email addresses - they no longer work! If in doubt, contact through this page.
Many thanks......
Colin and Jane.