It's been another lengthy interval since my last post. My old friend Gerhard from the beautiful city of Heidelberg asks whether my feelings about the blog have changed. It's not that I've lost interest or questioned its usefulness. The reason for the 'silence' has everything to do with the ongoing discomfort/pain I continue to experience when I sit for any length of time.
So the update on my condition is a mixed one. I continue to make progress in terms of the wound and the surgery but the leg/back sciatica-type pain persists and sometimes causes despair.
I have had two recent consultations at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; the first with the urology surgeon, Mr Patel, who expressed some justifiable pride on examining my scar. He gave us the mathematical expression in the title. Succinctly it means that I have renal cell carcinoma (RCC); p stands for pathology (the condition of the organ), T3a means 'the cancer extends into the renal vein or the fat around the kidneys but not the fibrous tissues (Gerota's fascia)', Nx means that the lymph nodes were not examined (unnecessary as they already knew that cancer had spread which is what the M1 denotes, M meaning metastases.)
Fuhrman grade 4 means that the cancer is aggressive, 4 being the highest grading.
So, that didn't appear so good........ we didn't stay long. Some weeks ago we had taken out membership of the University of Birmingham's, Winterbourne Gardens, which lie close by. It has become our custom after every hospital visit to spend some 'recovery' time amid the trees and flowers. We drove there directly.
The follow-up meeting with the oncologist took place two days later. We had more time with Doctor Karina to talk through the treatment programme that would now follow from the histology results. She had some further bad news when she explained that the metastases had spread to both lungs and numbered 4 or 5, rather than 2, as we had been previously informed.
However she was upbeat about my longevity - though there are of course no guarantees. She explained that aggressive RCC responds well to the oral medication I would start in a few weeks time. She also added that this was a drug I would be on for the remainder of my life. The cancer would eventually find a way 'round' the medication; the treatment was palliative and not a cure.
I have another CT scan in a couple of weeks and the drug treatment commences a few weeks later - the delay is to give my body a chance to recover from the surgery.
Meanwhile these damn back/leg symptons continue - I have been re-referred to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and see the consultant in October. I'm still being 'twin tracked' though Dr Karina has raised a new linkage possibility - that the neurological condition stems from some, as yet undiscovered, tumour.
I've more than used up my tolerance-at-the-computer time and your capacity to absorb medical information.
I hope to blog more discursively in the near future................
Wednesday 24 August 2011
Saturday 6 August 2011
The week of widening circles
This has been a week in which many of the footholds, along the rocky road to recovery, have proved to be pretty secure.
Following deliverance from the dreaded d and v I have spent much time during the last week in the company of Diana. At the start we ventured forth in my second post-operative car journey. Suffice it to say it proved to be a case of my wound having healed somewhat - or Di's driving technique having improved since the day of discharge nearly two weeks earlier. We visited two country parks and completed two modest walks all the while ensuring that we were never too far from my new favourite permitted food - ice lollies.
The second walk was interrupted by an elderly gent with a walking stick who made some jocular reference to the speed at which I was walking. I resisted the temptation to trump his witticism with a flash of my 40cm scar.
The following day we made a trip to the new sushi bar in Touchwood - expensive and exhausting - but then, to be fair, I have always found visits to any shopping mall exhausting (and expensive), so little can be deduced concerning my physical recovery.
On Thursday we went even further, an hour's drive into the Northamptonshire countryside. Di's sister, Liz, lives in the hamlet of Sulby, near Welford and while the two of them went for a coffee and window-shop in Market Harborough, I was deposited into the safe hands of Alison, guardian of the magical Sulby Gardens. Alison's nine acres are devoted to the provision of a refuge for local wildlife. The gardens thrum to the rhythm of nature's families - flower, insect, fish, bird, mammal. That day's highlights included the sighting of slow worms, a grass snake, numerous tench and rudd, a couple of the 15 or so species of dragonfly that inhabit the numerous ponds and the identification of various hoverflies in one of the wildflower meadows.
The week ended with a visit to the Eye Clinic, currently at Selly Oak but soon to transfer to the QEH site. An examination by the consultant concluded that the retinal haemorrhage in my right eye was still visible but 'calming down' and that I would continue to be monitored without treatment. Everything depends on ensuring that my blood pressure remained reasonably low. I asked for a signed letter stating that everyone has to be nice to me and ensure that I am subjected to no undue stresses.
Following deliverance from the dreaded d and v I have spent much time during the last week in the company of Diana. At the start we ventured forth in my second post-operative car journey. Suffice it to say it proved to be a case of my wound having healed somewhat - or Di's driving technique having improved since the day of discharge nearly two weeks earlier. We visited two country parks and completed two modest walks all the while ensuring that we were never too far from my new favourite permitted food - ice lollies.
The second walk was interrupted by an elderly gent with a walking stick who made some jocular reference to the speed at which I was walking. I resisted the temptation to trump his witticism with a flash of my 40cm scar.
The following day we made a trip to the new sushi bar in Touchwood - expensive and exhausting - but then, to be fair, I have always found visits to any shopping mall exhausting (and expensive), so little can be deduced concerning my physical recovery.
On Thursday we went even further, an hour's drive into the Northamptonshire countryside. Di's sister, Liz, lives in the hamlet of Sulby, near Welford and while the two of them went for a coffee and window-shop in Market Harborough, I was deposited into the safe hands of Alison, guardian of the magical Sulby Gardens. Alison's nine acres are devoted to the provision of a refuge for local wildlife. The gardens thrum to the rhythm of nature's families - flower, insect, fish, bird, mammal. That day's highlights included the sighting of slow worms, a grass snake, numerous tench and rudd, a couple of the 15 or so species of dragonfly that inhabit the numerous ponds and the identification of various hoverflies in one of the wildflower meadows.
The week ended with a visit to the Eye Clinic, currently at Selly Oak but soon to transfer to the QEH site. An examination by the consultant concluded that the retinal haemorrhage in my right eye was still visible but 'calming down' and that I would continue to be monitored without treatment. Everything depends on ensuring that my blood pressure remained reasonably low. I asked for a signed letter stating that everyone has to be nice to me and ensure that I am subjected to no undue stresses.
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