Sunday 19 October 2014

Out of the blue..

I'd almost forgotten about my cancer blog.  It's a period of life that is somewhat thankfully behind me and the fact that I'm able to live a normal life with few physical reminders is testament to good fortune, good doctors/surgeons and support of family/friends, as well as resilience of the human body and mind.

I was reminded about my blog couple of weeks ago when contacted by David who is currently going through a similar story - same cancer, similar spread and similar failure of high-dose chemo and is now faced with lung surgery the same as me.....even from the same surgeon!   It's good to be able to help in some small way, even if its just answering a few questions, putting minds at rest about the prospect and after-effects of major surgery.  It's a journey into the unknown for cancer sufferers - the chemo, the surgery, the after-affects and there seems little first-hand information available to put minds and rest and give hope.

I recently watched an online video of a muscle-sparing thoracotomy operation similar to that I had.  Not sure it was a good idea as it's pretty major invasive stuff, but despite having two operations and seven bits removed from my lungs there has been no real affect on lung-function or life-style.  The pain from the operation is temporary but the cure in terms of finally removing the last remnants of active tumours was permanent.

As I write, David has just undergone his surgery and fingers-crossed it will be the only one he needs, and he too can look to the future and getting back to living.