That storm of the century didn’t affect us too badly in Gloucestershire – but the rain hammered down causing a few floods & fallen trees to avoid on my route to Oxford on Monday for the CT scan.
I was supposed to be there at 10am & I genuinely didn’t think that I would be there that long – after all how long does it take to sign a form & have a CT Scan….2 hours max surely???
No no….first of all I didn’t have a letter telling me where my appointment was because it was all arranged over the phone – so I traipsed from 1 department to another & no-one seemed to have any knowledge of my having an appointment that day.
I eventually found the right room…..and waited….and waited a bit more…and then met with a lovely lady from the trial, who talked me through the paperwork that I was to sign for the trial. (I have had lots of questions about the Trial & I will do a separate blog post explaining exactly what it involves on Sunday).
After 4 failed attempts to find a suitable vein they took 8 vials of blood, (definitely is Halloween week!) and sent me off to another hospital to get the scan – driving with a Cannula in my arm made me glad Figgy is an automatic!
The scan, just incase you forgot (silly you!) was to check my whole body for Metastasis – spreading of the cancer. I had a scan 3 months ago just after my Melanoma was first diagnosed, and that scan was clear….but I was starting to feel tired….and had an inflamed lymph node in my groin that hadn’t gone after 4 weeks. Because the original Melanoma was so bad – ( Breslow depth of 4.7mm )I had started to awaken to the concept that I was about to be given bad news….inevitable news…I can’t escape that hidden bullet forever – it is only a matter of time.
I am not trying to be gloomy – I am genuinely not that way inclined. I fully accepted that no matter what news I was given, we would handle & process it in the way we have with everything else – head on & with optimism…..but I was very apprehensive.
So on Thursday The Mr & I head back up to Oxford for the dreaded results….The Man (Dr Fadi Issa) and Miss Fancy Eyes(I didn’t catch her name but she had amazing eye makeup!) were given the honour of positive news.
The Man reads out a list from a form….a 4mm nodule on my upper right lung and various cysts in my liver, but no sign of lymphedema & no obvious metastasis.
Ok….At list point I hit panic mode – a nodule – 4mm!!!……but you see apparently us “people” have funny little lumps, and cysts and growths inside us. Apparently that is normal – who knew!
So they are going to compare this CT scan with the scan that was done 3 months ago (not sure why they hadn’t already done that!) and see if said 4mm nodule & cysts were on that scan – because if they were, nobody told me about them.
And they will also keep an eye on said lumps & bumps, just incase they are sinister – at 4mm in size they wouldn’t do anything about it at this stage, so I should relax….I mean of course you can…when you have things growing inside you that you didn’t know were there but are apparently normal.
And that…was that…the lymph nodes were checked again & Miss Fancy Eyes rolled her long lashes in agreement with The Man….no we don’t want to take a sample of that lump thing because it is right at the top of the femoral artery and seeing as it didn’t ring alarms bells on the CT Scan we will leave it & I should let them know if it or anything else changes.
So I am back on the watch and wait stool.
Talking of Stools…. apparently I need to take a sample with me to my next meeting with the trial team. Anyone who knows me, knows I am extremely anal (scuse the pun). But apparently on my marvellous medical rollercoaster I am to share everything…. the good & the bad.
Cue a totally mortifying conversation with my mother about how to get said poop into bottle without “too much mess” (whilst The Mr stood in the corner of the room literally crying with laughter)…followed not too long afterwards with another conversation with one of my best friends who said & I quote “we have both had 2 babies. There is nothing we don’t know about indignity & poop”
And on that note I will leave you with the horrifying images of 2 very scary monsters. Enjoy your weekends x