This follows on from my visit with oncologist, Dr Kate Mahon on
Monday 16 March. I mentioned my
discomfort with ‘jetsam and flotsam’ coming from my back passage. Monday 23 March, one week later, it was
continuing apace. So, I rang my registrar at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and things accelerated from there.
By Monday night I had been to my local GP and had a referral to
Prof Dr Chris Young. He was the surgeon
who performed my stoma operation in February 2014. His PA Jessie first offered 22 April but I
asked for an earlier date. She offered
today, Wednesday, 25 March. I said
‘yes’! I emailed scanned copies of
required forms to the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse where the flexi sigmoidoscopy was
to be performed. (At 6.15 pm friends
with whom I was supposed to be having dinner in the city rang – ‘where was I?’
– I had forgotten due to all my business – I caught a taxi arriving at 6.40 pm,
40 minutes late!)
Tuesday morning the Lifehouse emailed some more forms. In the afternoon they contacted me and told
me to fast and not drink liquids from midnight.
Early evening, Gerald the anaesthetist phoned for ‘sleeping’
arrangements.
Wednesday, Barbara and I walked to the Lifehouse, arriving at
the required time of 7.00 am. Every
person and every stage of the process was perfection personified. At the end I gave 10 out of 10 on the feedback
form. 11.00 am we had coffee in the
Lifehouse Café and Barbara drove me home.
Dr Chris spoke to me before and after the rectum
inspection. He said there was a lot of
waste product from the two cancerous tumours.
One is situated just above the upper rectum and the other in the lower
rectum. I need radiation to shrink their
size.
So, now I am waiting for Chris’s PA Jessie to ring me and
arrange an appointment with Dr Sue Carroll.
At the lightning speed achieved so far this week, I am hoping to see Dr
Sue tomorrow or Friday.
I have a feeling that
dealing with these troublesome tumours might elongate the time before the
cancer in the liver starts growing again.
Since being back in
Australia, I have had four BezCan
related meetings; with The BezCan Project
Governance Group reviewed and agreed a constitution for an Australian
registered charity; and been sending and receiving emails from Uganda. I want to be able to return with Barbara to
Kamuli, Uganda in July and then again myself in November. Barbara and I are aiming to visit family in
America from mid May to early June.
Two of our children and their families will also be there for five
days at the end of the May.
Hence, I want to be OK
health-wise. The ‘jetsam and flotsam’
increased as a result of the high altitude and jet lag on my return trip from
Uganda. I want this problem ‘zapped’
from my event schedule when visiting the US and Uganda next. Maybe I am being unrealistic. However, I am very focussed on ensuring that
by the end of July that The BezCan
Project is so established with assisting Canaan and Bezallel Schools that
it will continue even if I die in August.
My February/March visit
to Kamuli was so amazing that it is beyond my words to describe well. Everything I aimed to achieve and more was
accomplished. I am honoured to work with
such wonderful friends at Bezallel and Canaan Schools. I aim to write and release a BezCan newsletter by early April.
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