The Most Valuable Hemoglobin

Oh what fun Oxford was yesterday.

Went back there at about 12:30pm to speak to Dr Protheroe (I finally learned his name!), get the results of last week's CT scan, and get more blood taken. More blood! BLOOD!

The scan results were clear - no regrowths, nothing out of the ordinary at all. I relayed a few fears and problems I've been having since my last checkup (nothing major, and the doctor informed me they were indeed nothing to worry about - apparently remaining testicles and scar lines can hurt for months if not years after testicle removal surgery! Who knew?!), and we just chatted about my health for a while.

I even mentioned this blog to him, and he's given me the email address of his secretary to send it to. Maybe they can use it to help other guys in my situation. Who knows.

He ended the session by telling me to go get more blood drawn, so I left the doctor's office and drew a ticket for the phlebotomist. From one of those ticket machines you get at old butcher counters, or government buildings. Kinda surreal.

After waiting 40 minutes, I trundled in to the phlebotomist room. She knew what she was doing, but still managed to fail twice, once on each arm. Kinda getting sick of my veins. And the best part is: apparently phlebotomists can only try twice before they have to refer you to someone else. Unfortunately, there were no other phlebotomists on call yesterday, so I got sent back to the doctor.

Who, of course, had gone home by then. So I got sent through to the day clinic. Oh, Oxford's day clinic. What a fun place you are. A huge ward full of sick people on beds, in chairs, wandering around, shuffling and limping. I was sitting next to a nice old lady that was getting her last round of chemo, right there while we were talking. Again, surreal.

I get sat down, a heat pack shoved on my arm, and told to wait. After another 40 minutes of waiting, a nice nurse (or head matron? I don't know the terminology, but all the other nurses were asking her questions) came and took the blood (3 vials!) from a different vein immediately. By then the heat pack had gone cold, but that didn't seem to matter.

We were finally free to leave at about 3:30pm. We had plans to go to the covered market on high street, since it's Megan's last trip to Oxford. As we were getting there, the place was closing, but we still managed to grab something to eat at Pie Minister and looked around some of the shops.

So that was my day yesterday. I have to go back to Oxford again around the end of March for another Xray. And more bloods. I wonder if someone can pull out a waiting ticket for me now..?

Surveillance

Hello blog, it's been a while. About 3 months and 1 week, really. That's a while. I realize the end of January is not November, but honestly..

.. there's not much to report on, really. No bad news. No good news, but no news is good news, so that's good. News.

I'm currently what the hospital calls "Under Surveillance" which is basically me checking in every few months and having a scan or a blood test to make sure nothing evil and sneaky is trying to regrow anywhere. So far, so good.

I did go to Oxford in November, and again yesterday. In November I had a blood test and another chat with the doctor, along with a quick chest X-Ray. Both tests came back fine, and the talk was over quickly. I received a letter after that chat, just like I did after the first one, summing up what we discussed.

I also had a chat with Gemma, a.. possibly nurse, I don't really know her job title.. about the NHS website. They asked me, when I first went there, to check it out, try using the help files and let them know how it went when I went back.

When I told them, Gemma took down my bug reports (some of the "I survived!" stories were broken, things were in weird orders, etc) and seemed genuinely thankful I'd taken my time to check. Didn't learn anything new from the help files, but that's to be expected at this point.

Had another appointment for earlier this month for a CT scan and a chat, but when I phoned on the day to confirm my scan time.. they told me the scan was a week earlier, and that I didn't turn up. When I informed them that I did not know about the scan, they confirmed they sent out a letter on the 14th of December.

Maybe it went to Santa, instead. I'm not sure.

Regardless, they rebooked the scan for yesterday, the 25th, with another check up on the 30th to discuss the results (and take yet more blood!). I attended yesterday and it went fine (I didn't receive a letter for that appointment, either) and I was out after a few hours.

As mentioned, we're going back on Monday the 30th to discuss the results. We're going to try to make a day of it and visit Oxford's covered market while we are there. Oxford's a very busy, clustered place. I think I've learned that I don't want to live in a big old city.

While there, I'm going to mention this blog to the doctor, or maybe to Gemma. I wonder if they'd be interested in using parts of it in their help files. I'm not sure where they get their "I survived" stories from, but they only had a choice of 2 when I looked, so another one might be good for them. We'll see.

So, how have I been since November? Alright. Coping. Happy that the cancer itself is gone, but still annoyed by it's after-effects, both physical and otherwise. The fact my life has been on hold for yet another 6 months with still no end to the waiting in sight is annoying. The fact that my wife has to return to the USA in a month and I'll have yet another part of my life without her is annoying.

But still, one thing I am thankful for: an annoying life is much better than no life.