Highs and Lows and God Knows What

Do you ever get that feeling the moment you meet someone that you think to yourself "I like this person"? We all make those first impression judgements often without realising we have. After the stress of the last couple of days it was important that the treatment plan and all the associated components that are part of that were rounded up and put in their respective places. Our meeting with the oncology consultant Mr Raman was that opportunity as well as my chance to be more involved at the business end as it were.

So off we went to Canterbury for the appointment at just after midday. Because of the ever present parking problems at these hospitals we had left in pretty good time but if you have ever driven into Canterbury on any weekday the traffic can be horrendous, and it was. Our appointment loomed 10 minutes away as we arrived at the hospital, and the oncology department is accessed from the main hospital entrance: most of the parking here is staff etc. but there are half a dozen disabled bays. Previously we have never been able to get one of these which means dropping Jen at the doors and finding a space in a public car park, the closest of which is about 5 minutes walk away. I drove to the main doors and wonder of wonders! there was a disabled bay free. No stress!

We parked, and unlike other parts of the hospital where we have been before it's a short walk inside to oncology. Five minutes wait and we are called in to see Raman, and I got that instant "I like you" thing (previously we saw one of his staff not him so until today we hadn't actually met him) going on.

We reviewed the operation, agreed that the next chemo cycle would commence 16th April, giving time to remove the staples from the arm (should be done next week at GP's) and because I have low cortisol that's been flagged up in (yet!) another blood test result we are going to arrange what is known as a Synachten test [click to read more] to establish what may be going on.  

All these lows and highs and god knows what's may well be caused by the fact that the original cancer has gone secondary into this neuro endocrine thing. Now, endocrine in medical terminology relates to hormones and stuff, and it's possible that the cancer is either producing it's own hormones or affecting production of mine. So until the chemo gets working over the next few cycles we wont know for sure but hopefully as the cancer gets beaten up by the chemo this might settle itself a bit. On that score time will tell.

So mr Raman has left me to arrange the synachten test which I will do and to ensure the staples get taken out of the arm so its nice to feel more involved. He did assure me that he was keeping an eye and in touch with the consultant for the arm operation, but having met him I feel much more relaxed and confident that there is a person in charge now who I am very comfortable with.

I have been getting very sore joints of late too, and Raman confirmed that was either the chemo or the low cortisol (could be one or both) but it's good to know there is a cause that we can identify and it's not something new that we don't know anything about.

Continuing the non-stressed thread of the hospital visit right opposite the door to the oncology department is the hospital restaurant for staff and patients and we stepped in there and had a very good lunch at a very reasonable price which rounded off the visit very well.