Following my consultations on the 19th June I now have an appointment for the radiotherapy mask making, an appointment to have 2 teeth out and an appointment to have the feeding tube inserted into my Stomach.
I must say that the staff at the Churchill hospital don't hang about with making the appointments, all very efficient and professional, which is brilliant - Thank you.
23rd June 2025, MASK. My appointment at Churchill Hospital radiology dept was at 0900hrs, this is to have the mask made in preparation for the radiotherapy sessions.
Checked in and added my car registration to the system so that I now get free parking for 5 years at the hospital (Nice perk), Filled in the required consent form and was taken through to the "mask making team" don't know if there is an official name for these guys, sorry ! They went through what will happen, all seems very straight forward, a flat mesh is put in an over to warm up, then when ready, its placed on my face while I lay on my back the frame is fixed to the bed that I am laid on and two guys then mould the mesh around my face and shoulders until it's tight, but not too tight that its uncomfortable, I shut my eyes as it felt better for me, but could breath easily as its a plastic mesh. After about 5 minutes the mask is the shape of my head and shoulders, it looks like the first attempt at a batman mask, must remember to ask if I get to keep it once all this is over !
Once the mask was finished I then had to have my head and neck CT scanned, I believe this is to ensure that the radiotherapy if administered in the right place every time. I lay on the couch, the mask is placed over my face and bolted to the table / couch, I cannot move at all, but its comfortable, well as comfortable as it can be with your head pined to the table ! While the scan was going they also injected a dye into me to help trace everything for the scan. This was the same as the first CT Scan i had a while back, and yes it felt like I had wet myself when it went around my body, but for the records I hadn't !!
It was all over in about 15 minutes, the next time I will see the mask is on the 21st July, the start of my treatment.
27th June 2025. Teeth. This time its off to the John Radcliffe Hospital to the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery dept for a 11:30 appointment. It been a long time since I've had any teeth out, so not looking forward to this. But the nurse and dentists were very good at putting me at ease or at least as much as possible. After a couple of anaesthetic injections and a test to see if its working, they set about heaving and tugging at each of the two teeth in turn until them came out, both without too much trouble I'm pleased to say. I'm good to go after a few minutes after they make sure the bleeding has stopping and I'm not dizzy when I stand up then its off home. A little set back to trying to eat as much as I can as I don't want to eat / chew anything for the rest of the day for obvious reasons, will just to eat more in a day or two !
10th July 2025. Feeding Tube (PEG). Again a return to the John Radcliffe hospital to have the feeding tube inserted into my stomach. This is called a PEG which stands for "Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy", didn't know that.. every days a school day!
0830 hrs, Met the surgeon, who went through what was going to happen, he also stated that I wont remember anything due to the sedation and local anaesthetic.. he was right all I remember was going into the operating room on the bed, a canular being fitting into my right arm, being asked to lay on my left side and biting onto a tube thing to keep my mouth open, nothing after that until I was in the recovery ward.
But the process was to insert an endoscope camera with light on it down my throat and into my stomach, the light on the end is so they can shine this towards the outside of my stomach and the brighter the light on the outside of the stomach the less there is in the way to enable the tube to be inserted through my body into my stomach. I'm sure its more technical than that as they use scans of the body to make sure there isn't anything in the way before fitting the tube.
The tube has a disc in the end inside my stomach to stop it being pulled out along with a clasp on the outside to fix it fairly tightly in position with approximately 20cm of tube with clamp and screw nozzle at the end for when its being used. I'm told I have to flush the tube through every day with cooled boiled water and clean the external fixing the sterile water and swap once a day for the first 10 days.
After 10 days, and this is the weird bit, every day the tube has to be pushed inwards by 5cm, twisted 360 degrees and pulled back to its original position and reclasped in place, apparently similar to what you have to do when you first get your ears pierced, but the hospital arrange for local nurses to come to my house to help and show me how to do this which is good.
While I'm in the recovery ward the hospital Fire alarm goes off so am pushed in my bed out to the front entrance, luckily is warm and sunny, we wait for a couple of minutes and then told we can return to the ward, apparently it was a microwave that over cooked someone's lunch that set it off, but a bit of excitement for the morning.
I am in the recovery ward for about 4 to 5 hours, my tube has to be flushed though a couple of times before I can be transferred to the Churchill hospital where I will spend the night due for observation for 24 hours. On scale of 1 to 10 the pain in my stomach is at about 2, so not too bad.
I'm transferred to the Churchill hospital at 14:30 hours, told I can now have something to eat so ordered dinner, which I had a bout 1900hrs without any problem, but at about 19:30 hrs my pain went from a scale 2 to scale 9, so called for help and were given paracetamol which after about 30 minutes kicked in. I was told this is due to not having eaten anything for 6 hours prior to the operation, having the operation and no food for a following 6 hrs, its the acids in my stomach coming back on line, its a common thing to happen, its just a pity I wasn't told before hand !
Managed to sleep that night although very conscience of the tube sticking out on my stomach I even managed to sleep on my side which helped. Met the dieticians who went through what I have to do and how I do it with regards the PEG. My aim is not to use this until I have to other option so will force myself to bear any pain in my throat to enable me to keep eating normally.... but time will tell !!!!
After being given all my sterile water tubes and swabs plus some more paracetamol and some tablets to stop stomach cramps I am given the all clear to go home, they also gave me some of the Fortisip drinks (High energy supplement drinks) for when I have to be fed through the tube, so need to find space at home for all of these !
16:30 hrs and Elvis has left the building again.
Next is the start of the radiotherapy and chemo session on Monday 21st July
