It has been a while, but I did promise not to post just for the sake of posting. After goodness knows how long, there is finally something new to talk about. If you have read virtually any of my other posts, you will realise that the word "hospital" and the phrase "good news" very rarely (if ever?) appear in close proximity.............The words "hospital" and the phrase "waste of space" (or similar) are seen together quite a lot. I won't spoil the end of the post by telling you which was round the might appear at the end; no point in writing a suspense story and giving the ending away, it would not be fair on you dear reader.
The last blood test in October was a bit of a washout. I had hoped that it might show a drop in the PSA level, but in fact it showed a slight increase. Not really what I wanted to hear, and it did seem to surprise the consultant who had also expected it to have gone down some 2 months post radiotherapy. But, hey ho, what can you do? I could hardly take the what remained of the offending gland out and give it a good talking to, so I just had to put that one down as another experience on the journey and wait three months for another blood test.
I had intended to play it cool and wait until at least the middle of January before having another stab (literally). Christmas came and went (I had 'flu so missed that one), a new year was ushered in very well thanks to the Jools Holland Hootenany and still I thought "leave it until later in the month".
As it turned out, my coolness lasted all of 4 days and on the 5th I duly toddled on down to the blood letting department of Medway Hospital, form in hand.
You may have read about Medway Hospital in this blog before. It is a sort of war zone, usually just visible through a miasma of cigarette smoke generated by the people who go there. Hospitals in the UK might be "non smoking areas", but the risks associated with asking the locals not to smoke in the grounds probably far outweigh the chances of success, so the staff tend to leave well alone.
I had expected to be there for at least half an hour after taking my ticket from the machine by the door, sitting in rather too close contact with a load of other people. Wrong! There was literally no-one waiting! 5 minutes later, I was out of there and heading back to the car minus a few millilitres of blood. By Medway standards, this was nothing short of miraculous; it actually took me longer to walk back to the car than I spent in the blood letting department.
The other day, the letter from the consultant arrived. Anyone who has been in a similar position will appreciate that opening one of these is done with a mixture of excitement and trepidation
The envelope contained two pieces of paper: a letter and another blood test form.............
The letter informed me that my PSA level had fallen by nearly half and that the consultant viewed this as satisfactory progress. Hooray, all that back and forth to KOC has finally yielded a positive result! If it falls by another half over the next few months, I will be within the "normal" zone..............phew! It also asked that I have another blood test in April, so hopefully that will be the end of the story. It has been a long and tortuous journey to get this far, but nearly there.
A song to end with. I don't think that I have posted this one before, apologies if it is a repeat. It will mean nothing to anyone under a certain age and will probably mystify anyone from outside the UK. It is very short, so those who don't like it will not suffer for long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2skW43HNpE
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