Well the day began well; the kitchen duo arrived as planned at 9am– the journey was less successful. We had decided to go via Ryde this time. We arrived at Portsmouth Harbour and got on the train to Southampton Central which was leaving from Platform 3 within 5 minutes. Once we were on the train the doors were locked and several people asked if the train was going to Waterloo. We told them it wasn't but they couldn't get off. When the train didn’t leave at the appointed time we became suspicious. Once the doors were ‘unlocked’ we checked the platform computer indicator. The Southampton train was cancelled and the train we were on was being diverted to Waterloo! Had we not looked, we would have taken an extremely circuitous route! We were directed to take the train from Platform 5 to Fareham, and to change there for Southampton Central. There was a twenty minute wait for the train and yet another fifteen minute wait in Fareham. Because of a a further cancellation we ended up getting the Cardiff Central Train which we could have picked up directly from Portsmouth Harbour !Ridiculous!
Once we arrived at the hospital things went a lot more smoothly. There was no wait to see the surgeon. He was very pleasant. He had a student with him who asked me lots of questions but unfortunately didn’t listen to any of my answers. I told her I had been taken back into hospital three times following colon surgery, only to be asked two minutes later: “Did you have any complications following the operation?” If this is the calibre of our future surgeons I despair.
Dr P explained that the scans showed the tumours have not shrunk as dramatically as they would have liked. The operation will be very tricky as it involves leaving less than the standard thirty percent of my liver. The risks are too great, which is why they need to perform an embolisation. The idea is that this will block the blood supply to the part of the liver they are removing. As a result of this procedure the remaining liver has three weeks in which to grow bigger, giving me less chance of liver failure. It seems that in 5% of cases it doesn’t work.
I have a copy of the scan report. It gives a detailed description of the size of each tumour, and suggests there are some ‘patches’ in certain bones which show ‘lucent’ areas. The conclusion is that though these areas are slightly suspicious there is no clear evidence of disease.
I will have the embolisation next Wednesday (6th Feb) and may have to go in the previous day. The procedure has been booked. I can ring up and find out tomorrow. The major operation will follow roughly three weeks later.
I am not sure what to think. I need to face the fact that I might not survive the surgery long term, though there is a good chance I will. As a control freak I would like to know what no-one is able to tell me. That is frightening and confusing. Though I think positively about outcomes, I still need to face the possibility of the worst scenario so I am ready to meet it.
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