Hello Limbo Land Again !

I woke up this morning quite a happy bunny. Yay, I thought to myself, we have a date for surgery, and we have the venue we wanted, and what's more, we have a new sofa arriving today. The old one was so uncomfortable, I decided to do a DFS 4 year interest free deal and get something comfy for Ady to sit on while he is recovering. It also has a bed in it which is pretty handy for people coming to stay.

DFS told me the sofa would be arriving late morning/early lunch, so that was enough time to clear the sitting room and mop the floor so it is all sparkly and clean.....of course there are now new house rules of no eating in the sitting room, which the girls just laugh and say yeah, you will forget in a few days, so I MUST make sure I dont this time !!!

The postman arrived with the usual junk mail, and within it was a letter from the hospital. Goodness me, I thought to myself, they are efficient, I only spoke to them yesterday arranging and confirming the surgery dates!

Within the envelope was 3 pieces of paper. One saying that the pre op assessment has been arranged for Thursday 8th Sept at 1pm and one was a Pre admission health questionnaire (that will take a while I think) and the final one is the date for the op. Ding bloody dong, they have booked it for 7th Sept....the day before the pre op assesment and a week before they told me only yesterday that it was 14th !!.Shall I laugh or cry, or panic?

The doorbell then rang and there stood a lovely DFS man with scatter cushions in his hand and a smile on his face. Smiles are such contagious things aren't they :)

My measuring was very nearly accurate, and with a bit of shunting and pushing, and taking the arms off the sofas, they made it into the sitting room where they will be staying for the next 40 years, with the arms reassembled !

I made Steph a toastie, which she had been asking for for about 4 hours. Charlotte had gone to meet friends in town and Ady was at his friends, gossiping probably, so I rolled me some fags, made a coffee and sat down at the dining room table, (cos there is no smoking, eating or drinking in the sitting room now), with the letters in front of me, and phoned the 0845 number (cheeky bastards) to speak to the planned care office.

We blow me bloody well down, they were busy and I was put through to an answer phone....and yes, I jolly well did leave a message !
I then left a message with the Pembury oncology nurse (ours is at Maidstone, but she is on holiday at the mo so the Pembury one is dealing with us until she gets back) and bless her, she rang back to say that she rang the planned care office herself before speaking to me and that it was a mistake and surgery will be happening on 14th.

We then started talking about the surgery and the change of surgeon and wotnot.
I had said to the lady at planned care yesterday, that they do realise Ady has to have open surgery and that he cant have robotic surgery because of the scar tissue from his previous surgery, dont they.....Oh yes she said, I am not medical, but it is fine....hmm, I thought..I hope so...
The Pembury Onco nurse and I were chatting on the phone ( she doesn't have our notes as we are not 'her' patients) and it transpires that the surgeon we have been allocated, only does robotic surgery and Ady had been booked in for that !! Oh dear God help me !!!!

So, we are back now to keeping the pre op assessment appointment, and the pelvic floor lessons appointment but the surgery appointment will change because they have to move us back onto the surgeons list we were originally on because he is the one who does the open surgery *and breathe*...he is on holiday until 5th Sept. They cant just slot us in because he controls his lists.
The onco nurse did tell me that we are not the only ones going to Maidstone and not Medway which made me feel a bit better.

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

24.5 Prostate Cancer Avenue,
WhatABloodyCockUp,
Gleason 7
Limbo Land Again