A Tale Of The Unexpected

Last Thursday was a normal sort of day - a little trip to Reading to have a simple (I'm told) colonoscopy at the Berkshire Independent Hospital in the morning, then a spot of painting in the afternoon, before going out to dinner in the evening.

But fate was hovering about - intent on messing things up a bit.

Having donned a dressing gown over the unbelievable dark blue outsize 'Bridget Jones' pants I waited my turn, idly chatting to a woman who'd just returned from having had her colonoscopy. It didn't sound too bad - in fact quite interesting, as she said you could watch the entire procedure on a video screen. As I'd never seen the inside of my body I thought I'd take advantage of the situation. Someone had told me that a colon is the length of a double-decker bus, so I prepared myself for a Disney-style adventure.

But it wasn't to be! The surgeon had just received the results of the CT scan I'd had the previous weekend. His words didn't exactly fill me with joy as he calmly, kindly and soberly announced that it showed a large blockage in my colon indicating bowel cancer! A bit of a blow - to say the least. "However I can operate on you this afternoon, if you'd like!" said the surgeon. So at 4 o'clock I was wheeled away for a major three-hour operation and my day ended in a high dependency unit at the hospital. They removed about twelve inches of the cancerous growth, and here I am - just over a week later - reclining on my hospital bed, a good bit lighter.

A friend is kindly typing this into my blog for me, as I'm as weak as a kitten and can't manage much at the moment.

Even though I won't be able to drive for a couple of months and am not expected to be back to normal health and strength for about 6 months, I do have three pieces of good news:
1. Due to the nature of the operation I promise I won't post any photographs.
2. I'm going home tomorrow to stay with my sister-in-law, Val.
3. Best of all - the lab results have just come in. All the cancerous growth has been successfully removed, with no 'spread' whatsoever.

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their concern about my health on my blog.

Till next time - bye for now.