Since the third chemo into the New Year...

It's January 9th and Richard is doing wonderfully!

Since the last post alot has happened. His last chemo session at The Marsden went much as the others and his reactions were much as before, some mild nausea and tiredness, but nothing too dramatic until the morning of December 14th when we had to rush him to hospital with a raging temp of 40c (104 farenheit). We were very fortunate to find a bed available at The Royal Marsden in Sutton (a sister hospital located in a suburban community about 30 minutes southwest of London) and within two hours of leaving Whithurst he was in a lovely private room with an intraveinous drip of antibiotics in his arm to fight the pneumonia that had crept up on him. It was coincidental that he was scheduled to have another endoscopy at the same hospital the next day which, suprisingly, they went ahead with. After three days of loving care, lots of iv's, shots, measuring, monitoring he was released the Friday morning of the 17th and we drove home at a snails pace through a magical winter wonderland of snow and ice feeling so very grateful.

Saturday evening though found us at The Royal Surrey Hospital A&E department in Guilford (about 30 minutes from Whithurst) with a "suspected Deep Vein Thrombosis" in Richards right calf which was 3 to 4 cm larger than his left. A surreal experience but after about four hours we were back home having had blood taken and analyzed and a doctor show me how to inject Richard with a blood thinner until he could have an ultrasound exam on Monday to see what was up in more detail. Long story short, it was not a DVT,  just bleeding into his leg (apparently not so bad!) and it corrected itself, slowly shrinking over the next week.

And then it was Christmas with Richard feeling almost completely restored as he had been taken off the chemo pills a week early because of the pneumonia. We had a wonderful time with Richard's lovely family and friends. Twentythree of us around the table for Christmas lunch! Lots of love and affection savoured and shared.

On New Year's Eve day we had an appointment with David Cunningham, Richard's oncologist, in London. We were both trying to self-soothe our fears of a bad report regarding the cancer and its possible spread as we had not heard the final results of the latest endoscopy and MRI scans. We left elated as Mr. Cunningham told us that the tumour had shrunk from 7 to 4 cm and the lymph nodes near the tumour which were also cancerous had cleared dramatically. so everything was GO for the operation and our goal of a cure!

So now we are preparing for Phase 2 of the journey. The big op with George Hanna at the Harley Street Clinic which is scheduled for Tuesday, January 25th. An 8-10 hour operation with a probable two days in ICU,  then 10-12 days in hospital until normal eating and body functions resume. Then it will most likely be 4-6 weeks or longer, depending on how Richard does, until Phase 3, the final three cycles of chemo to eradicate any cancer cells that might have gone undetected. I figure the whole process might be finished by early to mid June.

Since the last post, along with the doctors and nurses, we've also experienced so many friends wonderful healing intentions with sessions of reiki, group prayer, sacred music, coherence breathing and more. All of it seems to stem from a profound love for Richard and our common humanity. A HUGE heart-felt Thank You from Richard and me!

Onwards and upwards!