Today I have met my oncologist for the first time. His name is Dr Nick Reed. He goes through the plan for the chemo over the next 12 weeks. The plan is to have 4 cycles of 3 weeks at a time. It will start with an intravenous drip for 3 hours followed by pills both morning and evening for the next 14 days. I then have a week off before the cycle starts again. Concerns are that there are often side effects that range from nausea to headaches and in some extreme cases a variant of sepsis. It is very important that I manage my time and body to keep as healthy as possible.
On to the couple of tests on my thyroid. The first is an ultrasound on my neck to see what the pet scan light that lit up on my neck is. It appears to be an 8mm nodule in my neck. Dr Hopkinson, the man in charge of the ultrasound, is keen to find out a bit more so prepares for a needle biopsy. This is when he takes a tiny sample of the nodule to be sent off to the path lab to be tested. His view is that it is likely to be 1 in 3 that it is cancerous. So a local anaesthetic is administered and a needle inserted to take a sample for the biopsy. As I have a phobia of needles and have been known to feint the moment one comes anywhere near my head it is a miracle that he wasn’t picking me up off the floor as I spark out. This is avoided and the biopsy is successful and the sample sent of to be tested.
The final session that afternoon is with the Ear Nose and Throat consultant one Charlie Hall. A very jolly chap who reiterates that the thyroid nodule is not likely to be cancerous but if it was would be fairly easily remedied. It will not be done until the tumour in my bowel is sorted in any event.
So what had seemed to Lou and I like another huge concerns seems to be a secondary issue for the cohort of consultants.
Onwards and upwards
A journey along the gotley canal! 