The Final Countdown

Thursday 16th February 2012

So, today was fun!  Three appointments, two successes(ish) and one epic fail!

My hospital of choice for all things to do with surgery and treatment is the metropolis that is the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth.  It's a sprawling collection of buildings in which even the keenest traveller would easily get lost.

Appointment #1 10am:  Picc line insertion. We were called through by Nurse J very promptly, she called my name out in the Oncology waiting room and immediately looked at me.  It was apparent to her that my name suited my age!  I suppose that most of the punters waiting were at least twice my age, all called Ethel.
Paul and I were lead into a room which wasn't as depressing as usual. Some fairly middle of the road music playing on what can only be described as a CD player that I was bought for my 13th birthday.  Yes, that old.
Nurse J was lovely, a very calming influence in what is a very unnatural situation. I was asked the standard questions (Name, DOB, home address etc) then was asked to lay on a bed with a pillow under my right arm.

I was explained all the various risks of Picc lines and the nurse gowned up and placed the doppler on my arm to find a vein.  This is when my veins do the usual trick of legging it right away from any potential needle coming it's way.  I'm not scared of needles, not at all.  Seen too many of them to bother me anymore, but my veins had other ideas.  The nurse proceeded to numb my arm with a solution and carefully inserted the needle and rod in an attempt to get the line in as quickly as possible.  It wasn't happening.  My vein had decided it was being "bouncy" and not letting the line in very far.  It sounds worse than it felt.  Nurse J gave up with this and tried the ultrasound on my left arm.  No go either.  Apparently all my veins like to sit close to the arteries, the nurse didn't fancy getting covered in arterial blood today so called it quits and said I would need to be referred onto the x-ray department.  Magical dyes and special machines make it easier to get the blighter in so I will have to wait until tomorrow, 8.30am to be precise.

Feeling a bit like a failure, we sat in the Macmillan waiting area and were kindly offered tea and biscuits.  Macmillan really is an amazing charity.  The atmosphere in the waiting area was anything but gloomy.  Lots of people laughing, chatting and generally "getting on with it".  We were made to feel very welcome. It was a calming place to wait for my next appointment.

Appointment #2 12pm (turned into 1pm): Called through to see my Oncologist, Dr B.  Now, Dr B is quite the charming character, always looks mostly flustered when wandering the corridors of Oncology, always late for something.  As soon as you are sat down with him in the consulting room, an air of pure confidence fills the room.  It's nice to feel at ease.
It was only a 15 minute appointment, the main topic being that my treatment plan has been slightly tweaked. Now I'll be doing 3 months (6 cycles) of chemo, 5 weeks of radiotherapy (5 days a week) then another 3 months (6 cycles) of chemo. My chemotherapy regime will be every two weeks.  Two hour infusion of Oxaliplatin every Friday combined with 5FU over a 46 hour infusion that I can take home on a pump. Seven months in total!  I'm really happy with this new treatment regime, it seems to make a lot of sense.
When I met my surgeon 2 weeks ago, he said he would be talking to Dr B regarding monoclonal antibody treatment.  When I brought this up with Dr B, he seemed quite irked.  It went something like, "I don't tell the surgeons how to operate, so I don't expect them to tell me how to treat my patients.  There is no evidence this benefits patients with Stage 3"....ooooh, I only asked! But he does have a fair point...nobody likes to be told how to do their job, especially if they're the expert!

Other than discussing what drugs I will be taking to lessen the side effects that was my meeting with Dr B done for another 2 weeks.

Appointment #3 2.45pm:  Flexible Sigmoidoscopy *groan* - let's save the best appointment until last. So if you click on the link that will tell you what a Sigmoidoscopy is.  It's not pleasant, but absolutely necessary for people like me, every year - probably for the rest of my life.  After gowning up and being lead into a mini theatre I was asked the usual questions to confirm that I am who I say I am.  Why anyone would want to do this as a laugh is beyond me!
The Dr was as gentle as he could be with me, but without any sedation or gas and air, it's a very uncomfortable process.  I'm not going to lie.  Please don't let this put you off however, it's pretty much like having a lovely manicure compared with 7 hours of surgery.  It's also a life saver as it can catch anything untoward in a very early state.

I can't really describe what it's like to watch your colon on a big screen.  It's the crappiest(!) film I've ever seen, director was all over the place!
The procedure took 20 minutes and what made that 20 minutes very worthwhile is that the Dr found 3 more polyps.  Each one was a tiny 2mm diameter but he suspected they were benign, snipped them off and sent them away for histology - this is why screening is so important.  Something so harmless can be snipped away before it turns into something extremely sinister.

Thankfully, that was the end of the day for me at the hospital.  Back again tomorrow at 8.30....this is when it all really kicks off!

Hayley x