I don't know what to call these entries anymore

So just a quick (hopefully) but quite important update today.

So, I have my appointment with the urologist Mr Andrews on Wednesday. I already knew about that one, the hospital has confirmed the appointment no less than three times.

But today, Monday, I got a call from Northampton General Hospital asking me to attend the oncology department on Thursday. I say that's fine, but ask why and who set it up. The lady tells me it's with a Dr Falst, who I've been referred to by Mr Andrews. I tell her I haven't even seen Mr Andrews yet, but she tells me that's fine and that I still need to attend that appointment too.

So I get off the phone and think for a minute. Back before my surgery, I saw a Mr Choudhary, who discussed the procedure with me, asked about my implant preferences, etc. He told me about what would happen post-surgery - that I would have a follow up meeting, and then decide if I need further treatment (radiotherapy, chemo, etc). He told me if I did need either of those, that they would be done at Northampton General Hospital.

So my mind was racing at that point. Has Mr Andrews looked at my scan results and found out I need follow up treatment? Am I going to have to get chemo after all? I talked to Megan who agreed that it was kind of worrying. I went downstairs and told my mum, and she said it would probably all be fine, they probably just want a chat, but that I should phone my doctor and ask what was going on.

So I phoned my GP and the receptionist answered. I explained my case in a rather confusing and panicy way. She got a little confused, but eventually we got to the point. They hadn't sent anything to the hospital for over a week, and hadn't heard anything new. She suggested I phone MK hospital, which I did.

I was put through to Mr Andrews secretary, who confirmed I had been referred to Northampton, but was shocked that I hand't been told. Apparently this usually happens post-consultation, not before. She told me my case was discussed in a meeting last Tuesday, and then Mr Choudhary had dictated a letter to be sent to Northampton that Wednesday. They'd now received it, and have booked me in.

I asked why I'd been referred, and she told me it was a normal part of procedure. She told me all radical orchiectomy patients were referred to Northampton for further care. She started reading from either the letter to Northampton or directly from my file, and I managed to type a few phrases into Notepad to Google afterwards. They were, complete with their very simplified Google'd meanings, as follows:

No metastatic disease - Turns out a metastatic cancer is the bad kind, the one that can spread. I  apparently show no signs of metastatic disease. I'm going with that being a good thing.
Raised tumour markers - When the body notices cancers, it produces chemicals that can be detected in blood. These are called raised tumour markers, and the fact I do have them means it was indeed cancer and not just a big cyst or something. Yuck.
Completely abscised - Turns out abscision is just another term for "cut out". If my tumour was completely cut out, that means there's no more in there. Hooray.

So this is all just uh.. based on a very hurried phonecall, but hopefully I'm in the clear. I'll find out for sure on Wednesday. I still have to go to Northampton on Thursday. It's still very possible they will recommend radio or even chemo therapy, I'll just have to wait and see.

But hopefully it'll be fine.