Family Business
I thought I'd use the book cover this week as the title image, two reasons. Firstly the book has sold 5 copies this week, and secondly the photo shows the three people closest to my heart.
I’d
like to start this brief update with a heartfelt thank you for all the good
wishes we’ve received over the past 5 days be it over FB or via private
messages. I hated having to post up the blog last week, but I was conscious
that Social Media is the best way of informing friends far and wide about
matters of importance, births, deaths, marriages and cancer having another go.
There were a couple of messages which weren’t quite so supportive, but I can
understand the sentiment behind them. Delete and block and move on. The
positive messages are the ones we’ve concentrated on. Two specific messages
with a connected thread specifically spring to mind. I’d mentioned that it’s
unlikely I’ll be able to get to the Fat Boys 7s in the summer. Well, I may not
be going, but I’ll be proudly wearing a Camel Jockeys shirt after the event (so
long as Errant Son doesn’t pinch it) courtesy of Coco!
The
blog has just under 8,000 hits between Sunday and Tuesday, by far the largest
weekly hit so far, I think a fair few have come via the Peter and Jane blog
postings, and getting supportive messages from total strangers is truly
humbling. (I am a social media tart!) The main point of the blog though is to
try and raise awareness to cancers. The message at day one was if you’ve a
nagging cough or a body change that goes on for more than a couple of weeks
then go and get it looked at by your GP. Cancers that are spotted early can be
treated and cured. That message hasn’t changed in the last 18 months.
A
number of people have offered to help Carol out when she’s having to drag to
and from Oxford for 10 days or so. That has been on my mind a lot, as whilst
it’s not that far, it’s still probably a two hour round trip, and Oxford
traffic can be a total pain at times. Luckily she’ll be able to buy a long term visitors car parking
permit which whilst not giving any priority on parking does at least mean she
won’t have to pay the heavy hourly charges.
Waking
up on Tuesday morning to the news coming out of Manchester put any problems I
may have into perspective. 22 people won’t be going home again. I spend quite a
bit of time in Manchester with work when I’m well enough. We have an office on
Deansgate, albeit the other end from the MEN Arena. I’ve walked past the venue
on numerous occasions, drank in pubs almost next door to the place. Manchester
is a great City, the bars around the Law Courts are good, old fashioned “Proper
Pubs”, and the people have always been friendly, even to a Southern accented
Yorkshire man.
You
may remember if you’ve read this blog in the past that I’ve done a couple of
bits and pieces with Macmillan since I was diagnosed back in 2015. I was
contacted by the person I’ve been speaking to a couple of weeks ago, (Hello
Becky, hope Bruges was fun!) to ask if I’d help out with a new campaign they’re
running from 30th May. I can’t tell you the details as it’s under an
embargo until then, but even with my current diagnosis I’m more than happy to
help them out any way I can, so watch this space. I told Becky my latest news
and she kindly pointed me in the right direction on the Macmillan site for the
procedures I’m going to go through. I spent a fair amount of time last weekend
trawling the site and soaking up as much information as I could. I vividly
remember Jo telling me in 2015 that under no circumstances should I Google
“Throat Cancer” and instead I should go straight to the Macmillan site, without
passing go and without picking up £200. Whilst the descriptions of the
procedure leave little to the imagination, they are at least realistic and
encouraging for the long term. Updates will appear on my Instagram and Twitter
feeds as from Tuesday - Instagram is paulmaxwellclark and Twitter is @Nobby1962
On
Thursday Carol and I had our first joint visit to Churchill Hospital in Oxford.
My appointment was at 3.40pm, but we’d been advised it can take up to an hour
to get parked so we left Reading at 1.50pm, arrived at 2.40pm and were parked
after only 10 minutes of queuing, so perhaps the good omens are with us on this
one. The Head and Neck Unit in the Churchill is far more modern than the ENT at
RBH. There’s also a decent free WiFi signal in the hospital which no doubt I’ll
abuse in the weeks to come.
We
were called through only 10 minutes late, but left to wait in the Dr’s room for
over 40 minutes before she eventually showed up, not an impressive start.
However first impressions don’t always count for much. I won’t be seeing Scary,
Mr More Scary then Scary or Cool Dude now for quite some time, so I’m going to
have to come up with new names for the team looking after me this time, at the
moment the jury is out, but rest assured the names will eventually come.
Once
the Surgeon arrived she brought with her the Dietician, Speech Therapist and my
new CNS Nurse, I’ve got to say that I’m hugely impressed by this team. They
asked about my history of cancer, both the initial hit and the recent past,
they listened to my croakings and they understood what we’ve been going
through. I was hoping not to have another “Up the nose, down the throat”
procedure, but I was sadly disappointed. The Surgeon asked if I normally had an
anaesthetic and my reply was “Only when Scary does it, opps I meant Dr F, as
she admits herself that she’s crap at it”, well that broke the ice to a degree.
The head honcho joined us at this point, I swear there were more people in the
room than at a Bracknell RFC 1st XV home match……… I’ve mentioned in
the past that this is the one procedure I’ve really struggled to get used to
and this one was no different as it went on for around five minutes, and my
throat is still raw from the biopsies last week. They had discussed prior to
sticking the camera up that there was a possibility of me only needing a partial
removal of the voice box, unfortunately the scope confirmed that a full removal
will be necessary in my case. Many, many discussions then took place about what
they’ll do, how they’ll do it, and what it’ll mean to me as far as recovery
goes. I was given the option of meeting someone who’s been through the
procedure to talk about their experiences, but I’m afraid things are just too
raw to go through that at the moment. At the end of the day, it’s got to be
done, so I’ll face the consequences when I wake up. I’m slightly disappointed
that I’ll have to wait for between 4 and 6 weeks to have the operation as part
of me hoped that it would be scheduled for next week. But at least this means
that Max will get this A Levels out of the way before I go under the knife. He
had his first exam today, and I know that with the work he’s put in that he’ll
smash them.
The
speech therapist spent a good half hour with Carol and I after the surgeons had
left running through the procedure to get me talking again. She’s one cheerful
bunny, and someone I reckon I can work with without any problems at all.
Probably just as well as I’ve no real choice in the matter.
After
around 90 minutes we were allowed to escape to the rush hour bedlam that is the
Oxford ring road. Next up will be pre-op assessments, ECG’s, blood tests, more
dietician meetings, etc, etc…… then the knife. My current weight is a cause of
concern as I’ve dropped to just over 75kg’s, however I’ve now been prescribed
the magic Ensure drinks that worked so well for me last time. Three of those a
day, plus my normal diet should at least abate the weight loss and maybe even
add a few kg’s to the bones I’m rattling about in at the moment. From what I
can gather I’ll probably be in for somewhere over 2 weeks. The internal
stitching isn’t checked for around 10 days and until they confirm that I’m
water tight I can’t even start to learn to speak or to eat without a tube.
I
know the NHS comes in for a real bashing these days, but within 24 hours of my
appointment at Oxford I managed to get to see my GP who’s prescribed all I’ll
need to get me through until the operation takes place. Ensures, Morphine and
laxatives, what more could a man ask for. “Psst….. wanna buy any drugs?”
The
delay in the operation means that I may actually get to do a bit more
photography than I’d envisaged. I’m starting this weekend by going down to the
Bournemouth 7s to shoot the Badgers 7s side as promised a number of months ago.
I’d
initially thought that this blog update would be of epic proportions, loads
going on, loads to write about. However I’ve really struggled this week to come
up with anything to say. Sleep at the moment is a luxury (for both Carol and
me), I’m struggling to concentrate on anything as my mind keeps slipping back
to what’s ahead of us in the next few months. The writing juices just weren’t
flowing. I must be feeling down, I can’t even think of any decent song titles
to put in.
The week
ended on a bit of a high note as I was messing about with Twitter and found
that Katie Hopkins had been sacked from her job on LBC.
As
always, thanks for reading.
To
be continued…………
#Shoulder2Shoulder
Good luck with your treatment, Paul.
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