The benefits of hindsight eh?
2023 started to shape up between Christmas 2022 and New Year. Number one son was heading back to Cardiff after spending Christmas with us. The now normal rail strikes destroyed the timetable for his return journey, and he was in danger of not getting back for his girlfriends’ birthday. These things are important. One of my boring and annoying traits is anticipating that when things are a bit disrupted, they quite often get more pear shaped rather than better. So, after dropping him at the station, I went into Taunton with the intention of a coffee, maybe a wander around the shops or the museum and I would be close by if the railways failed him.
Of course they did (I would like to say I hate being right, but it’s kind of normal) We drove to Cardiff and being a certain age, I needed a comfort break; in a super crowded service station. 24 hours later I have a nasty flu/cold type virus. Nothing especially unusual. Maybe it was a bit more horrible than average and maybe lasted a bit longer. Not covid, I did test.
With hindsight, the tail end of the winter and into the spring saw me having more of these heavy cold and flu but not covid viruses than usual. My Strava (some of you understand this!) log mentions ‘post lurgi’ or ‘pre lurgi’ a few times. My bike mileage really plummeted but we did several decent walks. And I work in a primary school and post Covid there is lower virus resistance. In medical terms ‘there’s a lot of it about’
Then the UTI’s came. At Easter. And the first one was a right bugger. It didn’t help that the prescribing doctor mistook me for an older female; to be fair the anti-biotics were probably OK but there were not enough of them and a bit of extra stress was added as well as a small dent in my healthy male self-image – I have abs and biceps, I’ll have you know!. Ten days to get this sorted and then I am well enough and fit enough to walk 22 miles from home to Lynmouth. Job done, start to get the fitness back up and continue planning for some big Scottish mountains. The GP practice organise some scans and book a prostrate exam and blood test. UTI’s in men are unusual.
Within a week, UTI number two or UTI one episode two. Not as horrid and quickly under control with antibiotics. We postpone the prostate exam and the blood tests for a fortnight.
Wednesday 24th May 2023 05.45hours
The lump. The stupid, life changing (life threatening?) lump.
The painless, visible, and Scottish mountain denying lump. It’s big, across the room visible big, possibly international space station visible big. Stats; 3.4cm x 2.7cm
My fingers brushed my thigh as I went for my first wee. They don’t do that. I’m fifty-nine years old and for decades have navigated my own topography without inadvertent ground contact. Hell, I can do this in the dark, with my eyes closed and sometimes at great speed – a necessary and practised skill now.
An exam at home. ‘That’s not a hernia.’
Wednesday 25th May, the rescheduled prostate exam and blood test. Nurse ‘that wasn’t there last time I saw you’, I concur. ‘It’s not a hernia’ yup, we agree. I am referred for another scan and my phone rings within the hour to make an appointment for 17th June. We agree to keep the scheduled bladder and kidney scan for 1st June.
Thursday 1st June. A professional and initiative using sonographer expands my kidney and bladder ultrasound to include the lump and the testicles, ‘they’re next door, so let’s have a look’ Good news, apart from signs of increasing maturity, they are just fine. He sends the results directly to the consultant booked for the lump scan on 17th June. We save 15 days; let’s not call this luck, serendipity?
Friday 2nd June. A phone call, ‘we don’t want to see you on the 17th’ I interpret this as an all clear. What they meant was they were referring me elsewhere and sending a report to my GP. Hindsight, I’m good at this. Listening carefully, less so.
Friday 2nd June. The GP calls ‘to follow up on the scan results’. I’m anticipating ‘…lump is probably reaction to UTIs, monitor periodically, normal life, Scottish mountains, blah,.’ He says other words including cancer…. possible. I am not on an occasional watch list but on a free transfer from Team Radiology to Haematology United, home ground the Beacon Centre at Musgrove Park hospital.
Tuesday 13th June. Consultant haematologist reviews results so far. Blood has a high liver spike, probably the anti-biotics, kidneys good, bladder good, testicles – absolutely first rate obviously! The lump, it’s heterogenous and probably not nasty – a mixture of hard and squishy is my takeaway, presumably rock hard is bad. Again, I hear the good news (I had no idea I was such an optimist!) and go away thinking a few more tests and we are off to those mountains. She refers me for a biopsy, a CT scan. And there’s an ‘also;’ ‘you have a heart murmur, my stethoscope is from the Early Learning Centre, and I can hear it’ A bonus echocardiogram, my own three for two NHS offer.
June 19th, 23rd, 26th. Biopsy, CT scan, echocardiogram. That was quick.
Follow up call with consultant booked for 13th July to discuss results.
28th June, blood test to double check the liver. Result – liver is OK.
29th June, unexpected call. Haematology admin, another consultant wants to call you tomorrow. That’s two weeks earlier than scheduled. Does my mind start racing through all the permutations? Does the Pope have a big hat? Could all be good and signing me off or is it super-bad and time to order the box?
30th June. It’s neither, not yet anyway. It’s cancer but not Haematology’s cancer. The lymph nodes have captured some cancer from my bowel, it’s their job. They have also managed to give themselves cancer, which has got to be some kind of design flaw. I have adenocarcinoma. This is in my GI tract, broadly speaking bowel cancer. Transfer to another team, the Colorectal team. I have a named nurse who will contact me on Tuesday 4th July. Bugger.
6 months, 1000 words. Fit man to sick man. Mountains cancelled. 10/07/2023
(10th July 2023)
