Janus Look 6

I played the organ at church on Sunday as usual, and  my friends asked how I was. “No worse than last week,” I replied.  “Oh, that’s good,”” came the reply.

How wrong I was.

When I got home there was a message on the ansaphone for me from a surgeon at the hospital.  “Oh, good,” I thought. “They have decided on my treatment and things can move forward.”  However, he wasn’t from the GI department at all.  He was from the Medical Emergency Day Care - and it wasn’t my gut he was calling about, but my lungs.  “We have the results of your CT scan,” he said, “and they show blood clots in your lungs. You must come in straight away.”

So I took a taxi, and my daughter drove to the hospital from her home.  

They took me into this unit which was new to me - and they were expecting me.  I was taken into a cubicle - my daughter was told it was too small for her to come in too - and they did the usual  - BP, temp, but they added in an electro  cardiogram and took 3 tubes of blood.  We were told that we should sit in the waiting room for the next hour or so, until the blood values came back. I guess they were considering a transfusion.   

Eventually they came and told me that I was to have a second CT scan, as the first one had been concentrating on my guts - while this one would just be for my lungs.  It was quick and easy, but a different one from on Friday, and the pillow and ambiance wasn’t as nice. When the results of that came back they showed four clots on the lungs, two on each side.  

I was still confused.  I wanted to know what the colon consultant would make of giving me blood thinners - as he might be considering surgery for me.  “Well, your lungs are more of a problem that your cancer,”  he said. They gave me a few days worth of heparin  to start thinning my blood. This was administered by me with the nurse directing me, with  a syringe directly into my abdominal fat.  Finally a good reason to be fat. No nerves in fat, so it didn’t hurt at all.   All together our time at the hospital lasted five hours.

Early on Monday, another surgeon from that unit called me.  We have decided to change your medication for an oral sort.  I told him I could cope with the injections, but he felt this was both easier for me and a better solution as it would provide the medicine twice a day, making it more effective.  The treatment was to last at least 6 weeks.

“But what about my cancer treatment? “

“ Oh, perhaps they will do chemotherapy first,” he said vaguely.  He also said he thought the reason for the clots was related to the cancer itself. And if I got a big clot into my lungs, I  could die.  So he convinced me. 

So that’s all I know. My GP called to give me her support and answered some of my questions, but she didn’t know any more about the cancer itself either. 

So I am to try not to cut myself or fall, and if I have bleeding, go sraight to A and E. 

So the rest of my life, as I put it at the end of my last rant, will take a different journey than I was anticipating.  But still, it is sort of interesting, isn’t it?