The Story so Far!
This is my first attempt at creating a blog, something I have always shied away from in the past but now I have decided to give it a whirl, mainly to record the current and future events in my life which are going to have a dramatic impact on the family as a whole. First, a little background:-
Since the New Year, I started having some problems with
finding the right words whilst speaking and then by the third week of January I was struggling
badly with comprehension – reading and writing. To cut a long story short on
the 22nd January, having seen our doctor for the second time in a week, had a brain scan that afternoon and they found
growths/swellings behind my forehead. The consultant believed these to be secondary tumours, referred me back to the GP with strong advice on further checks and scans.
Following a full-body scan the next day (the day of the snow in the South Wales area which added to the fun of the day), they found further
swellings in my neck lymph nodes and took some samples for biopsy. These proved inconclusive so further samples were taken using ultra-sound - another week of waiting for results! We have now been given more information by the ENT
consultant in Singleton hospital. Progress, however, is limited as we are
now being transferred to another specialist team.
The biopsy taken from my lymph node in his neck has
indicated that this is an “adeno” type cancer which basically means a gland
cancer. The likelihood is that it stems from a primary in the lung area,
though this didn’t show up on the chest or body CT scan.
We now await the thoughts of a specialist Oncologist
(cancer consultant) who will work with the Lung specialist team to determine
the best treatments moving forward. Inevitably, this will be chemotherapy
and perhaps targeted radiotherapy.
In the interim, I have been on a heavy dose of steroids which have
reduced the swelling in my brain enabling me to get back into some design of web sites and photography
and a new blog!
