History. Pt1

29/11/2012

Today I was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach. Apparently more common in Asian countries it is unusual to see it in Australian caucasians. At this stage I don't really know exactly what it is  i have. I get more tests tomorrow, a Ct scan, some blood tests, and an ECG.

How did i get here you ask? Interesting journey so far.

3 weeks ago I visited my local GP for what I thought were chest pains. After a quick check it wasn't chest pains, possibly it was my liver. Off for some blood tests, lucky for me the vampire was still at the surgery and able to do them immediately. They came back OK for the liver.

Next was an ultrasound for most of the other organs.. Nothing specific came back from them so next was a trip to the gastroenterologist. That seemed simple enough and at this stage there was no rush. Again I was lucky, there was a free slot in the specialists schedule that Saturday morning for a gastroscopy.  As there seemed to be no rush at this time we booked the next review for a fortnights time.

So last Saturday nice and early I go in for the scope. Quite painless really and I woke up feeling groggy but fine. Then the Dr came in. It didn't sound too bad at first but then it went something like this. You have an ulcerated gullet and a very inflamed stomach lining. We immediately changed the checkup for today instead. Most of the tests will be back, not all, but it was important to meet straight away.

So today what happened. It went something like this. I was feeling very good, the pills i had been given were working really well. Unfortunately I have some bad news for you. The ulcer region is surrounded by this raggedly red region, the inflamed bit, and it is too big. It could be benign but it is too big and needs to come out. The specialist surgeon I normally use is in the UK until the 14th of Dec and I am having the girls out front try to contact my second choice and see if I can get you in earlier to him.

Anyway it turns out he can't see me until the 10th instead we book in for the first choice on the 14th. Suddenly everything now is really urgent.

So here I am again back to where we started. I have to have this thing removed from my stomach. I have cancer they are not sure how far it has travelled and tomorrow I get a Ct scan etc. I'm meeting next again with Dr Malki to seethe results from tomorrow.

My  intention is to document my daily journey. I suspect that it will be pretty boring most of the time as the pills I have are taking away any pain I have but I will try to anyway.