I originally posted this in Family & Friends, but now realise it should be here.
I can't believe this has happened to us. Last December we were involved in a RTA, when my husband sustained 3 brain haemorrhages and broke almost every bone his face. He was in ITU/hospital for 6 weeks and had massive surgery to repair the damage and has been making a great recovery since with his tremendous fighting spirit, We even managed a week away, but during this week away he noticed a lump in his neck. As we were due to see his MFU surgeon for follow up of his injuries we mentioned it to him the lump expecting him to dismiss it as nothing, but he said ultrasound and FNA were needed of what he felt was a lymph node, which as we were seeing him privately we had done the next day. He did also do a nasendoscopy to check on the facial injuries and said he couldn't see any problem that might account for the swollen lymph node. The result shows cancer cells in the FNA biopsy, but when I asked him if he thought they had originated there, he said he thought they had come from elsewhere. We are now so anxious that this represents a secondary. He arranged further scans, he was going to just ask for chest and neck, but husband has had a little back pain for a couple of weeks which goes off when he gets up, so he has included abdomen and chest. It may or may not be related.My husband has had NO other symptoms, was feeling better than he had since the accident and looking forward to getting back to normal, so this is a bolt out of the blue He is an extremely fit and normally well 77 year old who walks the dog miles every day, has lost no weight and has a good appetite. He won't discuss how he is feeling at all - just says he's "fed up". It is all so, so unfair as he recovered so well from his accident and as this was only a few months ago, it has all been a very traumatic 5 months already.
He had the CTs this week and the consultant is seeing us in his MDT clinic on Tuesday and we are absolutely terrified about this. I want to be the best support possible to him, but having nursed him back to health and the trauma of being in the car when he was injured, I am finding it very difficult. My family are all great support, and are very local but I wish he would talk to me about it. I have read that things are a little easier to deal with once you have a clear diagnosis and plan, but I am so afraid of what they are going to tell us. The hospital is quite a distance away and our daughter is coming with us to take notes. Really just feeling shell shocked and tearful, especially as we have lost a couple of people with cancer over the past 12 months.
Really just looking for a bit of reassurance. I have read some inspiring stories on this site and feel better for writing this all down. Out of interest has anybody had experience of this thing surfacing after a major trauma? The Consultant says not related but our GP says there has been some research into this. I wonder if his immune system was compromised after the accident which allowed something which was dormant to accelerate. I suppose I am looking for an answer and there probably isn't one.
Thank you for listening.
