Waiting for treatment.

No one's going to argue with the greatest rock n roll band for sure, except that that won't be the Beatles.  But if the Epiphone was good enough for Joe Pass, well, that settles it.  Epiphone is an icon.  Me, a humble Ibanez cutaway.

RichyDee said:

Anyway nothing wrong with Epiphones. If the Beatles liked them then who’s going to argue with the greatest rock n roll band ever.

True enough, my Dot is from 2003 and Korean made, which are apparently far superior to the more recent Chinese made ones, and I love it. Against that I have an Epiphone Les Paul, which looks great but is probably the least playable instrument I have, very hard work.

I don't have an Ibanez but I've been tempted on many occasions, at the moment my eye is on a Yamaha Pacifica 112V (sorry for the tangent people).

Do you know what?  It's all going over the top of my head but I don't care - it's a joyous tangent.

Linda.x

Mike we love a tangent shows there’s more to life than cancer. 
the 3 of you can make a trio 

Hazel 

Great to hear your consultant is pleased Rich.

Yes, you'll have down days but you'll also have good  days and as Gill says, the good days will get more frequent.

So pleased you've been offered counselling.

Enjoy your new guitar!

Linda x

Rich it does sound like you are in a much better place that you were.  Good to see that.  Reassurance from the clinical team is so vital - never be scared to ask for that when you're worried. 

At this stage I will leave the conversation as I have absolutely no idea what you and the others are talking about when it comes to guitars, or any other musical instrument 

But keep up the good work!

I had my PET scan the day before the meeting with my consultant. He checked me over but hadn't seen the scan but told me everything looked okay and he wasn't expecting to see anything on the scan. Their meeting (where they would examine the scan) wasn't until the next week and one of the ENT nurses said they'd phone to tell me what's going on after it was checked. The scan, as far as I understand was not clear enough because there was too much swelling and my specialist wanted to do a CT scan in 3 months and check that instead. The nurse spoke to my wife first as she answered the phone and then to me. She was upbeat (as was my wife) and said that Wolverhampton likes to do a scan after 3 months to check progress but many hospitals don't do a scan until 6 months, so she said it was nothing to worry about but of course I am worried. I was hoping by now it would all be done, instead I feel like it's never going to end. One of the issues is that I haven't really been looking after myself properly. After I was phoned to tell me I was having my PET scan, I just went into panic mode and barely ate (well drank fortisips) or drank anything. I even had a night where I drank quite a bit of wine. The following evening (Friday) I decided I'd have some more to drink but I couldn't keep it down and felt just really rough. In the end I ended up in Walsall hospital for 2 days. I had lots of blood tests and a chest x-ray amongst other things but it seemed that I was low in potassium and needed rehydrating. The doctors were not great and apart from one I spoke to, had pretty poor bedside manners. When I arrived at the hospital I felt so weak that when I got out the car I dropped to my knees. Luckily an ambulance crew were parked up and came and took me straight to A&E (no waiting) where I was assessed and it was decided top keep me in. Every time I spoke to someone I explained about my PET scan which was on the following Tuesday but they still decided I needed a CT scan but didn't tell me why. It took hours before anyone came to speak to me to explain. The doctor who came said that because I had "collapsed" outside the hospital the cancer might have spread to my brain. (the fact that I had hardly eaten or drank anything for a week didn't seem to occur to them), although she did say it was only one reason I "collapsed" out of many. This of course still terrified me. I said will the PET scan be able to see if this has happened and the doctor said it would. I asked then what's the point in a CT scan (which was scheduled for the Sunday with the results coming back on the Monday) if I'm having a PET scan on the Tuesday. She agreed that it wasn't needed so I cancelled it. This was on the Saturday late evening. A porter still came to collect me on the Sunday, which is a good indication of the terrible communication that this particular part of Walsall hospital had. At the time I was talking to someone from the psychology team and explained how upset I'd been with the way I'd been treated and the way the doctors were so blunt in their manners. A doctor had already terrified me earlier when he said something to me. I think it was him that ordered the CT scan. He was someone who was a specialist in geriatric care as apart from one other patient everyone else was over 70 at least. The doctor who was with him, explained to me later that he isn't qualified in cancer care and I said then why are unqualified people getting involved, particularly as I had explained several times to numerous staff about my PET scan. I explained all of this to the psychology lady who agreed that I hadn't been treated very well particularly as I had also explained to them about my mental health issues. Thankfully I was out on Sunday afternoon and have had my fortisips every day since as I don't want to go back in. Anyway the PET scan presumably didn't reveal any additional spread (also there's the fact that just before any treatment I was assured that the cancer was contained in one place and there was no spread). The nurse who I spoke to after my PET scan had been studied was not concerned about the CT scan and said it was not unusual and that if the the region around the treated area is still swollen and healing that having another scan is nothing to worry about and that my specialist likes to have a scan 3 months after treatment has ended to check progress. He is very thorough. Also as my wife explained, if they had seen something concerning don't you think they'd have called me in rather than wait another 3 months to have a look; which makes sense. However I am still scared and just want to get my all clear and begin to put all of this behind me. I have still not been told anything bad by the cancer team but having to wait another 3 months is torture. I haven't moaned for a few weeks so thanks for reading.

Also I've decided to take the video down off YouTube about opening my parcels. Even though I've already opened loads I still have about 20 or 30 unopened parcels and I realise now that I can't remember what's in them so I'm confusing myself about anything else I order in case I've already done so. I have had 2 or 3  duplicate orders since posting the YouTube video so I want to get everything a bit more organised, plus I don't want to wait another 3 months.

Rich.

Hi Richy moan away. I was 18 weeks before my pet ct scsn 12 weeks is too esrky. Glad you’re bsck on straight and narrow. Next time you’re having a wobble rant on here. You’ll be fine as we’ve all said we’re lucky with our type if cancers. Treatment brutal results excellent. Yes any concerns they wouldn’t wait kerp uo the fortisip s. And see yiu planning your Christmas Day in July. Still ? 
hugs xHazel x

ps we were worried about you not hearing from you. 

Hi Richy. It’s awful if we fall into the clutches of hospital staff who are not cancer specialists, it’s a sad fact. It’s so specialist even cancer doctors need to stick to their area of expertise. Of course a general hospital doctor won’t have a clue. And here we are like a rabbit in headlights. 
So sorry you’ve been through all this. 
Get your wife to organise a consult with your CNS to clear things up. 
We spend a long time with the cancer “not gone” 5 years. But it gets easier. 
Hope you get some clarification