Tuesday 13 September 2011

The Day Before.

Back in June ,Ady was diagnosed with prostate cancer. 5 out of 12 cores positive, all 5 out of 6 cores positive on the left. One of the cores at the base contains 80% tumour. (The base of the prostate is the top part on pictures next to the bladder....(don’t ask why, but I expect there must have been a man involved in the naming process somewhere along the line and got the whole thing topsy turvy!).
He has high grade PIN (malignant looking cells to you and me), is stage 2, gleason 7 (3+4) with Perineural invasion (some people think this means the doorway of escape and for the cancer to spread) and has a starting PSA of 24.5
His PSA did go down a bit to 19.8 in July, but has crept up to 21.2 this week. The fact that it is hovering is a good sign and means it isn’t having a party around his body...just the prostate, we hope.

We have been to doctors, nurses, consultants, urologists. We have laughed, cried , worried and hoped.
We have been for biopsies, MRIs, bone scans, blood tests and learnt how to do pelvic floors.
We have fought with the PCT over hospitals and won.

And now, here we are, the day before surgery.
We were told by the onco nurse that we needed to be at the hospital for 7am tomorrow. We arranged for the children to come with us and for me to drop them at school after.
I looked at the letter today, and it said that we need to phone the hospital on the morning of surgery, between 7 and 7.30 to see if there is a bed available. I thought, hmmmm, so I rang the bed lady (different one from last year – different hospital) and I must have been talking to her sister !!
She was very huffy and puffy and stressful and said “ Who on earth told you to come in at THAT time!?”
I told her that the onco nurse told us and I had made plans for my children because we live quite far from the hospital. She huffed and puffed a bit more and I got the impression from her that I was the patient’s wife from hell. She didn’t know who I was cos I hadn’t given my name btw. She decided to pass me to the staff nurse before she blew a gasket.  Shame, cos I was about to ask her if she was happy in her job and suggest that she gets her blood pressure checked on a regular basis.
I spoke to the nurse, who was very nice. No huffing and puffing at all. She explained to me that they ask patients to come early if they are constipated as they will need an enema before surgery. “Is your husband constipated?” She said “Will he be needing an enema?”
“No” I said, “He will be shitting himself”..
”Literally?” She asked,
 “Probably” I said, “But I will make sure he has some prunes for tea just in case”
When I put the phone down, I did recall the onco nurse saying something about constipation , but I forgot !
So that was it, I will drop the girls off to school tomorrow morning and come home, ring the hospital to make sure there is a bed (can’t wait to say good morning to the bed lady in a cheery voice) and take Ady to the hospital for surgery at about 8.30am.
This evening, we are going to have tea as normal, pack Ady’s bags and I expect the girls will make Ady a good luck card each and give him some bits to take with him.
I have written out what medication he has and will make sure he has enough for hospital and I mustn’t forget the camera.
We will probably sit around the table and play cards tonight and maybe a bit of Jenga too, and just have some family time.
Before I forget, I must tell you that Ady bought me some flowers the other day, to thank me for what I have done and for what I will be doing. He also told me not to forget to blog it !

So that’s it for the moment. It feels like one little chapter is closing now and another one starting.
I feel SO sorry for Ady, that he has to go through this all again, all within a year of the last time. The last few days, he has been saying “Not long now darling” and “It’s creeping up now”. He REALLY doesn’t want to go for the surgery. None of us want him to. None of us wanted this bloody cancer in our lives in the first place, but we’ve got it and so we will deal with it.

I wish we knew if there will be a bed free in the morning, whether he will have laparoscopic or open surgery, if he will be in for 1 day or 5, if it has spread of it hasn’t.

Oh well, let’s take one day at a time and start by hoping that he actually makes it through the surgery.

I will update tomorrow when I can. J


2 comments:

  1. I dont really know what to say, so I will say it all.. Good luck, thinking of you all even more, sending love, hugs & vibes that everything goes as well as it can.. If you need me text me xxx

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  2. My bestest EVER wishes for tomorrow, Emma.

    Much love to you, Ady and the Tankets

    Faye and Wayne

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