Its June 2024, two years since my routine blood test. Two years after my PSA had increased. In those 2 years I have had treatment for 5 different primary cancers. I’m alive, relatively well and strong, and starting to realize that maybe I’m permanently a bit damaged. I also learned not to take anything for granted, and be cynical about advice. I learned the hard way.
The thyroid is straight forward. “They cut it out, and you take a pill daily for the rest of your life.” And I even started to believe this. Why not, considering how well all the other treatment went. Immediately I was put onto hormone treatment for the prostate, a containing treatment while the other cancers were prioritised. The thyroid was always last. First the right lung, no biopsy was needed as both my prostate and kidney biopsies were positive. R.A.T.S., (Robotic Assisted Thoracic Surgery) was a stunning success. The lung surgeons at Southampton Hospital used the De Vinci robot on me and removed my right upper lobe. I was strong and had exercised hard in anticipation of the operation. I went home the next day. At Bournemouth Hospital I had cryoablation on my right kidney a month later. Went home the same day, so far my treatment was spectacularly successful.
Then it was the time to sort out the thyroid. There were lots of signals to let me know this was not going to be straight forward. I missed them all until too late, because I believed it was a simple procedure. First and third biopsies were inconclusive. The second did not happen, as the Consultant who was planning to do it declared that it was beyond his capabilities, after an intensives investigation using ultrasound. Then a letter informing me that I had been passed onto Poole Hospital arrived. One more visit to Dorchester Hospital E.N.T. to be told my left vocal cord was not working, and the reason I was passed on to Poole, was “it’s a bit complicated”.
Only once the E.N.T. Surgeon at Poole, started intensive investigations and extra scopes and MRI’s did it dawn on me that this might not be a simple procedure. A year later, after a 4.5 hour operation, I’m still having more tests and need an operation on the vocal cord. I can push myself to exercise, walk the dog, and get total absorbed with woodwork. But there is a cost, as my body just goes into slow mode. I now understand the meaning of fatigue. Now the tests start again.
