Mission accomplished

The mission has been accomplished...and in more ways than one.

Patient transport services have been carried out successfully and with only one major traffic jam to contend with in 400 miles of motorway, which was pretty impressive so I can now hang up my chauffeurs cap for a week or two, all things being equal.

More importantly the consultation at the hospital was even more impressive!

The prof. (hey, no common or garden consultants or registrars here thankyouverymuch) who carried out the surgery was completely amazed by TP's speed and manner of recovery, suggesting that maybe plastic surgery had been carried out in error for such an apparently well looking patient to be in front of him, as opposed to the massively invasive surgery that it actually was!

Of course things are never quite that straightforward, we also learned, as we expected though one always hopes won't be the case, that 'phase two' of this experience will next move onto a course of chemotherapy but, and it's a big but, the chemo is a 'belt and braces' maneuver, just in case one or two of those nasty little mutant cancer cells made a last minute run for it. None have been tracked down in any place they shouldn't be but they can be masters of disguise so for safety's sake the buggers are about to encounter the chemical version of Pearl Harbour!

So, we have a few weeks to regroup the troops both emotionally and in the case of TP also physically and then it's onward and upward.

It may sound somewhat peculiar that we walked into a consultation to discover a confirmed diagnosis of cancer (the boffins could only be 90% sure prior to surgery) and that chemo was the order of the day but despite that we came out on a relative high, but on the scale of all things cancerous, and particularly the cancerous thing in question, TP and the rest of us couldn't have been luckier! It's a tough thing to go through but by chance we got one of the world's most experienced and knowledgeable professors in the field on the case and performing the surgery and the hospital houses one of the leading oncology units and research facilities. If you are going to have cancer then this is the place you want to be treated! It's amazing, as is the prognosis for recovery and as ever TP's resolute and inspiring approach to the whole issue!

None of us are under any mis-guided idea that chemo is going to be a walk in the park but methods of delivery and the pharmacology of anti-emetics have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years..... so with a little luck and much finger crossing it should all be reasonably civilised and before long this whole hoo ha can be consigned to history! :o)