Thursday 1 September 2011

Goodbye Limbo Land.

I have lost track of how long we have been waiting for any sort of news on the venue for surgery, is it about a month? I think it is. It's a bit bloody much really.  You get told you have cancer, you need surgery, they dont want you to wait too long for surgery, so sooner rather than later, but they don't have a date yet, you're going to Maidstone, then no, you're going to Medway, either one, they dont have a date. We say no, we want Maidstone, they say you have to have Medway as its all change from 1st September, then someone else says no, its 1st October, they say its the PCT's fault, the PCT say its the cancer commission's fault (who ARE these people?). The cancer commisioners, well, I can't get hold of them, I cant work out quite who they are or what they do except piss off cancer patients and their families. I have emailed our MP, spoken to PALS at Medway, spoken to PALS at Maidstone, spoken to our GP (lovely man) spoken to onco nurses, secretaries, chief executives and assistant chief executives, then the surgeon is on holiday, and so is the onco nurse, and so are we...bloody hell, if I wasn't mad,I would have lost the plot by now !

And so today, somebody I hadn't spoken to before, was a lady from the planned care office, who rang to tell us that surgery had been booked for 14th September at.....wait for it............Maidstone...yes thats right, bloody Maidstone !!!!
You know that feeling you get when you realise that you hadn't lost your wallet after all....well that was the feeling we had today...pure elation !!!

The surgery wont be done by the surgeon we have been seeing and have built a rapport with, it will be done by a different surgeon within the team who we haven't met. But as our GP said today, its no biggie, Ady will meet him on the morning of surgery and all the surgeon needs is a body on the table and his notes......it's not as if they will be having a chat during the operation....well, I hope not, anyway !
Our onco nurse is going to see if she can arrange a 'hello' before the big day, perhaps when we are there for the pre op or something...that'll be good.

The next two weeks is going to be busy, well, three actually. We have Steph starting secondary school, Charlotte going back to school, the pre op assessment, Adys usual blood test at the doctors, meet with the new surgeon, hopefully, appointment with the nurse so he can be taught pelvic floors and told the gorys about the op, and we need to pack for the hospital. 13 days to go. Then we have the whole hospital visiting thing, picking kids up, sorting the animals, organising visitors, letting people know how he is doing and so on....we will get there in the end.

I have sussed a pattern forming. Last year, the colon cancer surgery was on 13th October, this year the prostate surgery is on 14th September, so next year, we will be ready and prepared for 15th August!!!!
Bring it on !!!

We are Emma, Ady, Charlotte and Stephanie, and we live at

24.5 Prostate Avenue,
Hopeithasn'tspread,
HaveToWait&See
Reality.

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