Finally, a couple of days after the previous update, M found he could no longer swallow anything - liquid or solid. We called the emergency oncology line but their dept was already full so they suggested we should report to A&E. This was a distressing process because it was very busy, there were long queues and because of the 'invisible' nature of Mark's medical emergency, we couldn't easily get the inital triage people to recognise the seriousness of his condition. Eventually he was seen by the gastro-team and it was clear that he was going to need to be admitted. His temperature was spiking again and they were very concerned about the possibility of aspiration pnemonia. Unfortunately there were no beds available anywhere in the hospital, so he had to be taken to the Acute Medical Unit and I was sent home. No visitors allowed. He was there for 2 days, before being transferred to a general ward. No specialist oncology nurses or doctors with the right training for treating an advanced cancer patient. I had to twice phone the emergency oncology team to request assistance. It was a very fraught situation and I knew that M was struggling.
Finally we had a visit from the oncologist's registrar, which I had to attend via whatsapp call only. It was finally confirmed from the scan that the cancer had progressed - tumour and mets. A stent would need to be fitted to enable M to eat and a 2nd line course of chemo (docetaxel) was recommended once M had built up some strength again. Very hard to process this news, which offers a life-line but which will also demand a huge amount of strength and resilience from us both once again, but this time beginning from a much less advantagious starting point. This is the true meaning of the 'battle with cancer' that everyone talks about. You have to continue to fight when there's nothing left. But fight we must.
