Ablation in London

I am having a lot of strange dreams. 

Tonight's involved me going back to my childhood. The only difference was I took my illness with me. There was a charity event, and I was voted to go play football with Leeds United. 

I was an over weight child and after ten minutes of football, Leeds United decided that even charity had its limits and they all booed me off! 

I awoke. what the hell was that dream about! - I don't even like football! 

I'm in pain this morning. The level of pain, well, I can not tell if the pain is from my cancer or trapped wind. Mental note, must suck a rennie and find out. I have now been in bed for seven days due to chemo. This does drive you crazy! 

Tuesday 2nd March

I have returned back from London. Yesterday I had the ablation on Harley Street, at the London clinic, there's been a refurbished in the hospital since last time I was here, the rooms are now larger even more nicer than before. This is the hospital that Prince Philip was in a couple of years ago, and if you look closely you can see his imprint of his head in the pillow! (I haven't slept much) It's a private hospital, and you are really looked after in there. For this procedure it costs around £10,000. My mind right now belongs to a person that as not slept for two days. I believe this is due to the drug that they give you to awake you up after surgery, that and getting up at 4am the previous day to travel down to London.

One of the effects of cancer for me is that every scan, every result, every step, I do not relax and wait, I observe body language, I analyse the spoken word, I read facial expressions, I measure the time that it has taken to get answers, and then predict the results before they are revealed. Sometimes I hit the jackpot and I am correct, sometimes I confirm that cancer as made me one hell of a ultra paranoid person.

The nurses and anaesthetist and of course the Professor are lovely. They make me feel at ease but of course when I said I was nervous about CT scan which I was having before the procedure the anaesthetist explained he could not say everything would be ok, he explained that whatever the results it can not be changed. 

They asked where my favourite place in the world was, and before I told them about Hunslet retail park :) , I was asleep. I'm guessing it was around this point when Rob got a call from the Professor asking if he had a copy of the previous CT scan. We sent one down from Leeds and the team that was doing my procedure was not at there usual hospital so I'm guessing they didn't have this information there. He asked where was the tumour and if I was having chemotherapy. Rob started panic at this point but the Professor explained that all was ok. 

I awoke, and instead of opening my eyes slowly and asking  how it had gone. I jumped out of bed and accused one of the staff of having MY procedure! They sat me back down I came around, and luckily they found it funny. I asked if all had been ok and I was told the Professor will see me later, I asked if that was good, and was told the Professor was happy. 

I went back to the room to join Rob again and wait for the Professor, and after not able to eat for several hours ordered a delicious three course meal from the menu.

The professor is very busy, and he arrived about 5 hours later. He explained that he would see me tomorrow.  Rob and myself stayed in the room, Rob slept on the chair, it would've cost £250 for an extra room, Now I know I'm from Yorkshire, and Yorkshire people are famous for being tight, but £250! You can go to an all inclusive in Benidorm for a fortnight with a family of four for that, and still have change for a bag of chips.

This morning we were signed out of the hospital, and set off to go back home at 7am. At about 8.30am we got a text to call the Professor back. 

With the copy of the previous scan he was able to look at them both, he had done the procedure on the tumour that he originally killed as it did look bigger, but as for the other two, it looked like one was inflammation on the liver and had gone, and the 1.2 cm tumour had disappeared. He wants me to have a MIR scan to work out what has happened.

We travelled up from London, not quite understanding what has happened. We called friends and family and passed on the situation, not just to let them know but to also absorb the information ourselves.

That was now two days ago, and I have spoke to my oncologist, there are a number of reasons why this could have happened, but the only way is to have the MIR scan. Sometimes chemotherapy can hide tumours. The chemo could have shrunk the tumour, and the CT scan may have not picked up the tumour if so small. I'm hoping to have the MIR scan privately in the next few days.

This will be quite so just after three chemotherapy sessions, but due to my right and shoulder pain as dramatically become less, and my tumour account has gone from 1700 to 600. With the result from the CT scan my oncologist said it is all pointing to shrinkage. But on the other side sometimes chemo of the ability to hide tumours, so will feel better after that M I R scan.