My story so far

Hi my name is Rob #45 the Odd Job bit comes from my business name Oddjobrob the handyman 

On 24th October 2021 while racing my motorcycle at the Lord of lydden meeting Kent I had a crash, it was a big one and I was transferred to the William Harvey hospital Ashford. It was found I had multiple pelvic and pubic bone fractures and multiple shoulder injuries. During the routine scans they found a mass on my left kidney and I was actually told by two doctors (not urologist) that I had cancer. This was a lucky guess on their part and news they aren't supposed to give me. Obviously this came as a huge shock on top of the other injuries. I spent two weeks in the hospital waiting for a transfer to Basildon my local hospital, Basildon had accepted my case 29/10/21 but did not have a bed available. Although still in a lot of pain two weeks into my stay I managed to get myself to the shower. That was so nice just being able to sit under that hot water. As I had managed this it was decided I would be discharged with a gutter frame zimmer and sent home to wait for Basildon hospital. Whilst waiting for transport a space had become available for an MRI scan so I was taken for this, unfortunately I don't do to well with confined spaces so had what would be the first panic attack I've had.

That call from Basildon never came so my wife took up my care. We had no plan, no after care, no follow up appointments and no drug support so did what we could. I purchased a stool for the bathroom, a frame for the toilet and spent the following two months sitting on the sofa making calls to the Gp, different departments and secretaries trying to get some help with my injuries. We kept getting pushed from pillar to post as referrals were not being received and my notes were not updated. Part of the problem seems to be the fact Id my accident in Kent but lived in basildon and obviously covid played its part. I started to suffer panic attacks mainly at night and find myself having to sleep with a light on and a fan cooling me. I'm an active 45 year old soletrader and supike rider so finding myself in this state has been very difficult. Eventually my Gp sent someone round to assess me, they were shocked to find I had not received any treatment and that I was taking over twice the amount of drugs recommended. I eventually received an appointment with a urologist Mr Thomas at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Mr Thomas and his team were great and explained everything in detail (I'm a big boy now) so tell me straight. The plan for me was a partial removal of the kidney however with my shoulder injuries which have turned into a frozen shoulder. Mr Thomas needs my arm be free and able to be placed above my head. With his help we arranged for two cortisone injections into the shoulder joint, this has helped to free the movement so my operation date was set for 19th January, I also received two other appointments for the shoulder 19th Jan and pelvis 20th Jan so obviously had to cancel those. 

On the morning of the operation I had a meeting with Mr Thomas and it was deicide a full nephrectomy was needed following a report from the ct scan. His the boss and knows what he's doing so it was agreed. The operation went well and after a few days I was sent home. 

I contacted PALS at both William Harvey and Basildon regarding my lack of care and treatment for my crash injuries which included a record of events (a diary) unfortunately this has come to nothing so a letter of complaint has been sent to the bbccg.complaints@nhs.net 

As if by magic I've received two appointments one with orthopedics 11th Feb (yesterday) and 28th Feb in the fracture clinic.

My follow up appointments with Mr Thomas isn't until 3rd March so I asked his secretary if she would be kind enough to call me with any news of results as there was a 10% chance it could be benign. I got a call on Wednesday informing me that it has come back as malignant and is Papillary renal cell carcinoma but any further information will be disgust with Mr Thomas.

Back to yesterday I had an appointment with the orthopedic consultant (what a horrible and rude person) I took him the mri scan images and the report that came with them explaining there were no brakes but I had many tears of the rotator cuff, ac joint and labral junction however he was not interested and sent me for xrays having told him there were no brakes, anyway after an hour I was back with him your xrays are clear Mr Cresswell with no brakes so you have two options one you have another cortisone injection which will eventually ware off or two manipulation this is when we put you to sleep and force your arm up and around the joint however this will only give you 70-80% movement as its turned into frozen shoulder meaning it may have been left for too long. You don't say! So I signed the form and left to fill out a form in reception, before I could leave he called me back give me the concent form back (what no please) I've just read your notes and it says you're labral junction has a tear well yes I told you that but you didn't want to look at the report with that he held up his hand in my face and said let me finish. I was dumb struck at this point. I need to do a keyhole procedure to repair the damage. He then asked are you going to be racing anymore? I said actually I'm not however I'm an instructor so yes I will be riding but not chasing tenths of a second. Well then I'm not going to operate as you will no doubt undo my work and as you are a handyman you can do something else. Still dumb struck I just said ill do whatever I need to do to have my shoulder fixed. How long will I wait for the operation? Up to 3/4 months he said. Now I'm sure what I do in my own time isis my business my business right?

Anyway moving forward hopefully my shoulder and pelvis eventually get fixed.

Although extremely hard to deal with, my experiences so far in this horrible world that involves cancer is the people that you meet who understand the feelings you are having and going through are amazing and also talking to the people around you really helps. For those of you that have stayed awake and read this will probably know that this on its own it therapy, write it down talk about it.

I don't know what's going to happen going forward and I don't know if it's spread or if it can come back so just go with it and hope things work out. ️