This too shall pass.
As some wise person once said. It’s been about two weeks since my last update on this exciting adventure concerning my health. Well, you say, not much can have happened in that short time. But you would be wrong, as you will read but you probably will not believe what you do read. I’ve probably written in the past about the need or my desire for variety in my retirement but in this case I’d be wrong.
Right now I like /need some predictability with just a smattering of variety. The predictability comes with me feeling that I am coming to terms with this catheter of mine (not to mention the several hospital visits) and that maybe life won’t be so bad wearing the catheter while waiting for the colon cancer operation and then the prostate version). Silly me.
The variety part comes along with a trip down to Derbyshire on account of my need to escape the four walls of our Leeds house. A touch of cabin fever in other words. Obviously we had to wait until all my ailments had become controllable (i.e. predictable). We didn’t want to end up in yet another A&E. So after a couple of weeks without bypassing and other aspects under control (silly me to think this way), we decided we could safely drive down the M1 and stay at our second house for two or three nights. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, I’ll tell you. While enjoying our short break, my pee started to turn bloody (first time for quite a while) and I ended up, despite my reluctance, seeing the inside of another A&E department. The Royal Derby. See, I told you you wouldn’t believe me. I’m covering the country in hospitals –Leeds, Harrogate, Newcastle and now Derby. Wow.
They (the staff) were lovely (aren’t they all), gave me a bed for the night (to monitor the blood) and even fitted me with a new catheter and in a relatively painless fashion. So thus equipped we left at 7 o’clock Saturday morning, drove ‘home’ and settled down for the rest of the visit and in the end stayed from Thursday until Sunday. Not too bad.
We had to come back to Leeds for this week’s test (the Cardio Pulmonary Exercise Test – CPEX). That was last Wednesday and I tell you I haven’t got the results yet which is a shame because the results of this exercise bike test, pedalling up a steep hill (not literally) but no less hard work for it being an imaginary hill.
The results will determine my future at least in the short term. I have to be pronounced fit enough, in robust enough health, to cope with the colon cancer operation. The urologist won’t do the prostate operation (the TURP not the HOLEP – I’ll explain all this as some later stage) until the cancer op has been done. So if I ‘fail’ the CPEX nothing is going to happen to me in terms of operations. And, if you haven’t worked it out, this would be bad, very bad.
According to the cancer surgeon I need at least a 9 on this test. I have no idea what this means and either the guy doing the test didn’t know either or he was just refusing to tell me the worst. Who knows? I’ll let you know next time, fingers crossed.
So that’s me over the last two weeks. In the fun column well I’ve had visits from friends and lunches out at a number of pubs, so I’m doing all I can in that column. All I need now is a good number on the CPEX, an early date for the colon operation followed shortly afterwards by the prostate op, catheter removal and job’s a good ‘un as they say. Some way to go though…
Oh and I’m taking part in a research project just to be helpful. Again I’ll keep you informed.