Sunday 20 January 2008

Back to 'Normal'

Back to the RM last week for my first tumour marker blood test since the op. With the recent fire at the RM in Chelsea the Friday clinic, which is not well known for punctuality, was even busier than normal. Frustratingly, I never get my tumour marker results back on the same day, so seeing the consultant was largely irrelevant. He was impressed by the matching scars and sent me off for a chest x-ray which was fine, and also arranged for a CT scan in four weeks. He promised to call with my tumour marker result the next week. Guessing I would not hear anything and I would have to chase them up, I was surprised to receive a call last Monday morning. My tumour marker was normal (or to be precise, 7, with lower than 10 being classed as normal)!! The best news I could have hoped for! I'd already worked out that with the time elapsed since the op, if there was no other source of cancer, then my markers should have dropped back to normal, but hearing confirmation was the news I'd hoped for.

No real cause for rejoice just yet - I've been here twice before and relapsed but at this stage its the best I can hope for - I'll take that for now!

Been back to work for the past couple of weeks, which is another important piece in the normality jigsaw. Its taken a few days to get my brain into gear, I'm a wee bit of the pace after 8 months off - loads to catch up on (or nothings changed, in some respects).

We've booked a holiday to Dubai in Feb - my first holiday for a year. Fingers crossed that is - we don't have great track record of booking holidays we can actually go on for varying medical reasons!!

Thanks for everyone's support. Not out of the woods yet, but the path is a little clearer!!

5 comments:

Lightbox Education said...

I can confirm that the scars do indeed match, even though I didn't strictly ask to see them! The top was whipped off before I had chance to object, the first time that has ever happened to me. I thought I was getting a look at the sun tan but that was clearly not on the cards. The scars reminded me of the marvellous Sigur Ros's mysterious album entitled '()'. I'll play you it next time I'm down.

Rob said...

Nige,
all sounds great news....glad to hear that its all moving in the right direction !

Anonymous said...

I hope you are doing ok, I've missed your commentary.

Anonymous said...

I pray that you are ok. I really miss your comments. I am going through the same thing and feel a bond.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, I'm just setting out on the road. I really hope I'm off at the first junction but time will tell.