November Check-Up

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Had a very pleasant visit to the hospital. We avoid any parking problems these days by just going straight to the multi-storey car park, rather than hunting for somewhere closer. It is just as easy to walk down to the Main Building. We saw that they were planting shrubs in front of the main entrance. There are also areas of grass - so it is looking very pretty.

It looked pretty busy inside the main atrium, but I checked in at the machine and walked down to the ENT Department, where it was much quieter. Nathan had brought his Kindle this time. last time I left it in the car - and neither of us had anything to read - and we had to wait over an hour. N's theory was that if we both came prepared - then we'd be in right away! So we bought a newspaper at the shop inside there - before going down to the ENT Waiting Room. Sadly we didn't see any sign of Frank. I had been hoping to see him so we could catch-up. Hopefully he's doing okay.

Needless to say - it worked! We were soon as to move to Sub Wait 1 by the Argos-type screen that flashes up numbers. I was 1303 today :-) As soon as I sat down there, a male nurse came out and called my name.

We went into the consulting room to find Mr Uppal. he was soon joined by Julian of the Awesome Hat (who had done a couple of my biopsies at the end of last year). i had just been saying to Nathan that we hadn't seen Dr Gahir for ages - when she came in too! She said hello - but I couldn't reply right away as Mr Uppal had a camera down my throat at the time.

It was lovely to see her though - she is expecting a baby! She said it was due in March. She looked very happy. She told me that I was looking well and she admired the thickness of my new hair. She told me that they had been discussing my case - as usual, and thought that maybe they should give me a scan. Seeing as I had adenocarcinoma, which is NOT usually found in the head and neck, they felt that they should keep an eye on the rest of me, periodically. She thought maybe once a year. It seems that I have had quite a lot of radiation already - so they do need to be careful not to give any more unnecessarily. So she checked when I had my last CT Scan - and it was back in June. So she said they'd do another next June.

She was scanning the results of the last one - she mentioned an unusual mark in the chest area. They had done the super-mammogram and ultrasound not long ago - and as I didn't have any symptoms of chest problems - like a cough - they wouldn't do a chest x-ray.

So they will continue with these monthly check-ups until June. They will also investigate unusual symptoms - if I get any! I told them I was feeling great and Mr Uppal said that I had recovered well from everything they had done to me!

I did ask him one question which I had been wondering about. Why I had never had a blood test. I thought that they could detect cancer in blood samples. I know that my dad has them - and if a certain chemical is raised - they would know whether the prostate cancer had come back.

Mr Uppal said that not many cancers have good markers - prostate is one that does - but most don't. So it wouldn't help in my case. "Maybe in 100 years we might be able to tell from blood" he said. Hopefully research will make it sooner than that!

So that was that. We were out before noon and I went off to work. My next appointment is on Christmas Eve!