A good morning at Medway Hospital and a surprise

Back again after a day off.........

I will get the tiny niggle out of the way first:

Hospitals make it very clear in their appointment letters that you must either arrive on time or let them know if you will be late. Perhaps if they offered to send you a text when they are running late, their DNA (Did Not Attend) rates would go down........mutual benefit?

Meeting with The Great Man very cordial this time; hand shaken, specialist nurse introduced, intelligent discussion in grown up language. If you need a model of how it could, and should, be done, this was it!

A lot more options than I thought...................

• Do nothing, but monitor (worth considering, but not recommended and not a serious contender)
• Minimally invasive surgery (his speciality): Loads of potential side effects/problems which do not sound like a good idea. Existence virtually guaranteed to be prolonged, but not necessarily "life".
• Radiotherapy
• Brachytherapy which is very targeted radiotherapy using implants
• Cryotherapy which, as the name suggests, is about freezing the cancerous cells to kill them
• HIFU which sounds like a Japanese literary form, but actually stands for High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound

There was a 7th which I suggested, but he was not keen on.......................will hold it in the back of my mind just in case though.

The last 4 are the area of expertise of one of his colleagues; I have been promised an appointement a.s.a.p. with the colleague so that I can find out about those. The last one sounds intriguing and is apparently offered at the level of a clinical trial.

I already have a weighted matrix for deciding which to go for in my head; now it is just a matter of gathering enough information to be able to make an informed decision.

And now for the wonderful thing that  happened the other day..........

Saturday night, had a superb meal cooked by one of my best friends and a great evening of convivial conversation. Wonderful in itself, but it was what happened in the kitchen that pushed it into a different realm .

[If you have read this blog from the beginning 1) sorry for your suffering; can't believe you made it this far, but thank you  2) you may recall the second post in which I said I was going to get a tattoo and needed to find a good tattooist.]

Mine (joint) host and chef presented me with a card from a tattooist and said: "it is all taken care of, just ring him after Tuesday".  I think that it was probably the closest to speechless that I have ever been. You know who you are.............thank you, it meant a lot.

Something mellow with meaning from one of the late greats.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAetSwVewSc&list=AL94UKMTqg-9C3nm41WbddIhKh0JJBLyYd