Kerry and my friends came to Dojo in Newcastle to help me celebrate, I am pleased to report that Kerry bought a cake and handed it over to the staff who played me some mad Happy Birthday music and delivered it to me in front of the entire restaurant. It was a great night, I even had a pint. First one in many many months.
Now that my Birthday is over and I am officially in my 42nd year, I had my second, ‘second opinion’ this one being with Omer Aziz from the Christie in Manchester. Part of my private health care.
and…
Yes, his opinion does differ from that of my NHS team, he wants to discuss something further with the NHS team and wants my case in front of the MDT in the Christie.
Will this happen before the 10th of December?
Highly unlikely 😦
What Omer did was discuss the case in more detail with me, more than I have had with other any of my doctors and surgeons.
He believes that I may have a abnormality that could be a secondary in my right seminal vesicle. He saw it on the scans and then took it to an radiologist in the Christie that also agreed. He wanted to know if I knew.
As you can imagine, this had not been brought to my attention before. I shot a look over at Kerry when he told me and she shook her head. That was good enough for me. It wasn’t that I had forgotten or written it down.
Although this was sad news to hear, and although as Omer described, there is ‘daylight’ between the two (as there should be) It was a concern to him, especially as it should be in the notes. Something along the lines of
“Told Mr Mortimer, we will investigate the seminal vesicle during the operation, should it need to be removed then we will do so” or something similar.
So at this point, warning bells are going off for Kerry and me. He then continued to discuss the case with me, was radiotherapy ever discussed with me?
Again, yes discussed. However, not offered. The only time that I recall discussing radiotherapy was to shrink the tumour down in size for removal.
We then discussed, how I was feeling, my thoughts, my wishes and as we all know I’d rather not have everything removed unless completely necessary. Previous talks with my other doctors and surgeons on this matter was always “It is better to remove everything so that it cannot rear its head again”
So, where does that leave us? 6 days before the operation is due to go ahead?
Well, I think that we need to postpone the operation for sure. At least have the second opinion in full. It could be that we still go ahead with the operation. I think we just need this and Kerry agrees that should it be her in the same situation, it’s what she would do.
So until further notice. I am putting a stop on the operation going ahead on the 10th.
I am due to have a phonecall with one of the MacMillan nurses today. I am going to tell them today that Omer is rushing over a fax (Yes. The medical profession still uses fax I understand, considering I have both of their email addresses… I digress) I am going to call Mr O’Loughlin’s secretary tomorrow to make sure things are clear. Then it is a case of a waiting game.
Why does this always seem to be in the final hours? I mean… C’mon seriously?
An honest blog about a guy's journey through cancer and chemotherapy 