First appointment at Guy's - Pre Op

The bloodletting begins lol!  Well, OK, not that bad, but I would rather I was not here having any of this done.

Got the train to London with Lee and went to Guy's for my pre-op check. 

Nothing awful really - I just answered lots of questions, had an ECG, blood tests, MRSA swabs and a chest x-ray.

It was also my chance to ask questions, and find out a bit more about the procedure I'm having in 2 weeks, which I'm told will be a keyhole type of surgery.

I will be having the nodule and some lymph nodes removed.  If the nodule is cancer, then they will be removing a whole lobe of my lung, which means they probably have to open me up, and 'spread' my ribs to get to where they are working.  Even still, they expect me to be out within 4 days.

I'm in a reasonably good mood, and am lucky enough to be going home to Jamaica for a few days before the operation - which does really help of course.  I'm sure I'll be more nervous on the day!

What a pleasant surprise!

So, I made a start on my list by inviting a few friends over for dinner - which I'll be doing much more of in the future!

We had a lovely time, and my friend Gareth told me that if I want, I could fly to Jamaica with him this next week!  The only problem was that the flight back was on the same day as my pre-op.

I called the hospital yesterday and explained what was happening.  They were only too pleased to change things around so that I can go away before I have my operation.

It just goes to show how you  really just don't know what's going to happen.  Going back home to Jamaica is a really important thing for me, and something that Gareth was only to pleased to sort out for me.......

I'm very touched.......and excited!

The (innevitable) Bucket List

So, when you find yourself in my predicament, you do find yourdelf thinking of things you wouldn't normally think about.  One of them is a bucket list - so mine is on my blog now.

Hoping someone can come up with a better name for my list as I'd like see it as something to work towards, rather than my last minute attempt to to everything I should have done already!

Macmillan Cancer Support

Well, this morning I took the plunge and called Macmillan Cancer Support.  I've been told how they can help me understand what's going on and help support me during my recovery.

I was on the phone for nearly an hour.  They were so lovely, not rushing me at all, answering my many many questions as best they could and advising me on all sorts of things from controlling my pain and my many medications to telling me about after my op and what will happen.

This service is invaluable and a huge part of how people deal with cancer.  I dread to think how the NHS would cope if Macmillan vanished tomorrow.....they couldn't cope!

I feel a bit more at ease now, and know what questions to ask and who to ask!  If anyone reading wants to know anything about cancer, or you have questions swirling around your head, well, they are there for you too, and will happily take the time to explain anything to you.  They are also happy to just listen if you need someone to talk to.

So, a huge thank you to Macmillan, and please, let's all make sure we do what we can to support them.  If you see a Macmillan collection box - put something in - because what comes out of that is so wonderful, you can't imagine!

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/

Feeling Elevated by some good friends.... (spoiler alert: I am a bit of a geek!)

What a nice surprise tonight.....

So yep - for those that don't know, I am a bit of a geek.  I love my computers in all shapes and sizes, and mobile tech is no exception......and most of that would be HTC tech.

Now, I'm not advertising for HTC (well, I'm not being paid!) but, I am part of a special community called HTC Elevate.

HTC Elevate - or just 'Elevate' as us insiders call it, is a small community of tech enthusiasts, specially selected for our love and respect of HTC tech.

Anyway - after seeing many nice messages from friends on FB etc, I logged into Elevate to find that there are 4 pages of kind messages from members all around the world, none of whom I know or have even met (yet!)

Extremely nice!

Pain.

So I'm told the surgery I'm having - Left VATS wedge resection - is quite painful.

As I have been on strong painkillers for a number of years, including morphine, at quite high doses, I've been advised that it will be particularly uncomfortable for me as it will be harder for them to use drugs to control my pain.

Because of this rather unpleasant sounding predicament, I've opted to reduce my medication now so that it works better when I have the operation.  I have to say that already my pain levels have shot up and I'm finding it harder to cope, but if I end up having a lobe removed from my lung, it could save me some real discomfort in the weeks ahead.  At some point I'll go more into the drugs I have been taking to give you a better idea.

If my pain does get really bad, I can take more, just with the caveat that I'll have less relief post surgery.

Some background to my journey - how and why I'm here.....

There's much to know about me, and I'm sure I'll have time to expand on that as this blog moves on, but I'll start by talking a bit about my health, and how I found myself here, about to have pretty major surgery for what may well be lung cancer.

I'm not sick.....yet.  I'm told that there is either some scar tissue, a nodule, or some sort of growth in my left lung.  It's very small - about 12mm at last scan.  It's at the top of my lung, which often is benign, but if malignant, could be something 'very nasty'.

There is only one way to find out for sure, and that's to have this operation where they will remove the lump from my lung.  They will get it tested while i'm asleep, and if positive they will remove the offending lobe of my lung(!).

I guess I'm quite lucky really, as this lump was found on routine scans I have of my spine.  When the doctors met to compare my scan with previous scans, they noticed something had appeared in my lung, and set in motion the process of finding out what it is.  I found this out in January.

It was so small back then that they ordered more scans a few months later to see if anything was happening with it.  Satisfied that this needed more investigation, I was referred to the Sussex Cancer Centre, and ended up having a PET scan at the end of August.  A week later I had the result which showed them the growth is 'hot' meaning it may well be cancer.

So, here I am now - I've had more tests, met the surgeon, discussed delaying for a while and seeing what happens, or just getting rid of it - which is what we're going to do!

My next appointment is at Guy's Hospital in London in November for pre-op then the operation is a week later.

Primarily this blog is for me - to express how I'm feeling, and to record the things I go through.  Who knows, it might be enough to convince one or two of you to stop smoking as well, which would be an added bonus.  It means I don't have to be posting too regularly on FaceBook (I never do), nor responding to too many messages if I'm not up to it.

I'm going into this with just a few, true friends (you know who you are) around me, who are coming to appointments with me and plan to stay with me or visit me all the time when in hospital.  Even my brother, who I don't even remember the last time I saw him, will be popping in and has offered to put me up should I need it....which is nice :)