On 27-Sep my Wife (Von) & I attended the arranged appointment with us both being naturally, very apprehensive & extremely concerned what the diagnosis would be & whether the dreaded word was going to be a death sentence. The wait between the letter arriving & the meeting was, without doubt, the worst agonising wait of my life.
We were met by the team assigned & they were extremely caring about how the delivered the news. However, after hearing the words "Mr. Mills I'm afraid you do have cancer". Immediately, his voice became distant, as if he was in the background, muffled, very similar o the way they do in movies. He was talking but it wasn't getting through. I was immediately thinking a raft of things such as, what is my Wife & Son going to do without me, my will isn't in place, how can I do this to them, I don't have a funeral plan in place to pay for it & hated the idea I was going to be not only an emotional burden but also a financial one too. Why was this happening to me as I had already cheated death in the USA where I had pancreatitis when the put in an induced coma for 30 days, had 90% of my pancreas removed making me a diabetic instantly plus removing my spleen & gall bladder too (the cause of it all - gall stones). Over the next 9 months of recovery the medical university of South Carolina spend $1.2 million on me.
Slowly, the consultants words started to become clear again & heard the words I was not expecting to hear. "We believe you have a strong chance of having a good outcome. Your cancer is the HPV type & we have a good success rate". Tears of relief ran down my face as I clung to his every word of how they intended to perform surgery to remove the tumour in my neck & then treat the rest of my cancer by radiotherapy & chemo which was located on the right tonsil & base of the tongue.
They could see I was still trying to process all that was said for both Von & myself then handed me their diagnosis & intended treatment plan document & then Louise, the Macmillan nurse, led us into a separate room. This was our first exposure to Macmillan & is one of the most memorable I will ever have.
Louise to see & understood exactly where we were mentally & gently took us through what had been said, in plain english, slowly & compassionately so we could take it all in. By the end of that session with her we knew the outlook was positive if although not definite. We thanked Louise for many things & left to absorb what she had said & what might be in store for us.
Next...the surgery
