It's hard to imagine that all of which follows took place within the space of two short weeks.
Friday afternoon, 18 August, I rocked up at my local hospital to see the ENT surgeon. He asked me about my symptoms, had a feel of my lump and stuck a camera up my nose to look at my throat. He had a junior doctor observing him, so it was quite reassuring when I heard him say "The X looks ok, the Y looks OK".
He told me there were a few possibilities, but that he'd know more following a CT scan, an ultrasound and a fine needle aspiration. He asked me if I had any questions. The 'C Word' wasn't mentioned explicitly as I recall, but I did ask "I was referred here on the two week pathway, so is there a possibility that....?" He gave a kind of sideways head tilt which put me in mind of Tom Selleck in an Episode of Friends and told me that it was one of the possibilities. In any case, the tests needed to be done quickly as he wanted to see me the following Thursday.
So I had an anxious day at work on the Monday waiting for the phone to ring. Finally the hospital called to say my CT scan would be the next day, but they wouldn't be able to do the ultrasound until 31 August. I was a bit overwhelmed by everything, so one of my many wonderful colleagues told me in no uncertain terms to go home and forget work. Suffice to say I took her advice.
So on Tuesday 22 August, I attended a different local hospital for the CT scan. I arrived ages before my appointment but was processed very quickly and efficiently and I think I left before I was even supposed to arrive! I treated myself to a wander round the shops afterwards, then met my other half from work and we got the tram home together. Mid-journey the hospital rang to say "The scan shows us everything we need to know. You need to come in for surgery TOMORROW." Another blind panic moment while I desperately tried to catch everything she was saying between announcements of which stop we were approaching, and scrabbling around in my bag for pen and paper so that I could repeat everything was said to me and my other half could write it down. I'd managed to catch the word "tonsillectomy" and the important details of where I needed to be and when, but other than that I was a bit in the dark.
To be continued....
