I should just point out that this lump has not come completely out of the blue. My darling John, who is 3 years younger than me at 37, has had a bad 6 months. He has been fit and strong all his life. He moved in with me 12 years ago and never even registered at the local doctors until this year.
It all started to go wrong in October 2013 when his dad died. His lovely dad was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease earlier in the year and died suddenly in October. John seemed to handle it really well, and when I say that you might think that he bottled it all up and didn't grieve, but he did. He took the time off he needed, he talked, he cried. I was impressed all over again at how honest and simple he is. Anyway it was around that time that he got a new car for work (he drives a lot), and around that time that he started to get back problems. Sciatic nerve problems to be precise. And he has pretty much been in agony on and off ever since. The nerve makes his leg jump and twitch and feel like he is having electric shocks and he struggles to sleep. Bless him, he has been worried all along that this was a sign that he was getting MND. Maybe it was a sign of something else? Who the hell knows? I know I worry when he says the pain has moved and now it can be in his groin and I think "F***, S***, B*******"
His other recent issue has been a ringworm infection. He had red itchy arms for a couple of months before he went to the doctors. We were expecting that it would be some kind of eczema thing and were really surprised when she told him he had ringworm. For a start he has been no where near livestock, and for seconds it's supposed to be hugely infectious and none of us have had it. Anyway he got daktarin cream, and on the second day of taking it he came out in an angry red rash around his neck. The day after the rash, he found the lump where it had been. And that's that. Except that is growing fast. Oh God....
