This is my personal experience with cancer, it's manifestation, diagnosis, treatment and outcome. Some of the descriptions, language and terms I will (possibly) use are in no way written to intentionally cause offence. My style of writing can often be blunt, to the point, at times 'flowery', and my choice of words are merely used to give a true (often non-politically-correct) description of my feelings, thought, hopes, dreams and hopefully will give you an insight to my character as a person. If you are likely to be caused any offence it would be my wish that you not read further, if however, I have somehow piqued your interest, I hope you enjoy what you read as much as I will have enjoyment in sharing my story with you.
I suppose an introduction would be a good place to start, My Name is Wayne (AKA Papabear), I'm 67 yo, I live with my partner of 25 years and husband for 14 of those wonderful years. I'm pretty fortunate in many ways that my life thus far has been relatively uncomplicated in many ways including my health and wellbeing, as a child I quickly got over all the usual diseases so common back in those days, many of those are sadly on the rise again but on the whole have been missing in epidemic proportions. I'm now retired from gainful employment but try to keep as active as I possibly can but don't consider myself to a fitness addict/freak/junkie in anyway. Anyway, this is me, myself and I and this is my story.
A little over 8 months ago now, I started to feel a little mild discomfort when going to the toilet, I didn't really think that much of it until on one occasion I felt a small lump, nothing more than a very small pea sized lump protruding from from my anus.
"I must get some haemorrhoid ointment and nip this in the bud now" were my first thoughts, but as we menfolk so often do I put off doing anything about it, for several weeks in fact.
After a while the discomfort increased and the swelling had increased somewhat and I also noticed a very small amount of blood too. I very quickly then made my decision to make that trip to my local pharmacy, obtained over-the-counter medication to try and relieve the discomfort. At least a couple of months went by with no improvement but noticeably no worsening either but the discomfort was still there but I also noticed that I had the feeling I still needed to go to the toilet in spite of emptying bowels completely (or so I thought). The decision was made to seek help from my GP to at least obtain something a little stronger than my pharmacy could offer and this, as I've heard so many times is where the battle begins! The 8am rush to get an appoint with the GP began in earnest and for several days my attempts fell flat on their face.
Eventually I managed to speak with the reception team regarding another matter and mentioned that I really felt that I needed to have an appointment with the GP, My concerns were at last in the hands of the medical practice and I was duly called back by my GP later that day. I was asked to attend the surgery so that I could at last be seen. I explained the problem, was examined and prescribed a much more powerful haemorrhoid treatment that would hopefully give some relief, what I was not expecting was to be referred to the general surgery unit at my local hospital and for that referral to generate an appointment within 7 days for a telephone consultation. The call came through at the correct time and date but, and here is the BIG problem with telephone consultations. The very first words the consultant said to me after verifying he was speaking to the correct person was:-
"I'M VERY SORRY - THIS CONSULTATION SHOULD NOT BE TAKING PLACE IN THIS WAY. IT IS VERY OBVIOUS ON THE NOTES THAT YOUR GP HAS SENT TO ME THAT I NEED TO SEE YOU AS NOTHING CAN BE DONE OVER THE PHONE"
Apologies were offered over and over and accepted, and an appointment was rushed through to visit the consultant just a couple of days later.
***to be continued ***
