Friday, February 19, 2010
A personal note:
Not long after I started these occasional posts, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. There followed a flurry of consultations, examinations and treatments, all carried out with consummate professionalism and care. The result: I'm OK, thanks to the wonderful people who work in our amazing National Health Service. Under their tender ministrations I responded well to the chemo- and radio-therapy and I've managed to avoid surgery, which is apparently very unusual, the normal route being chemo- and radio-therapy, a colostomy, and being fitted with a "Bag for Life" (I can't go in Tesco's now and see those signs without suppressing a chuckle). Dr. Jeff Summers, the oncologist at Maidstone Hospital and Mr. Will Garrett, the surgeon at Medway, have both been marvellous and I owe them and their staff a lot. I have regular scans, all of which so far have shown no recurrence of the tumour and no sign of the cancer having spread anywhere else, so I'm very lucky.
All of this explains why I've been a lazy bugger and not posted anything else!
Not long after I started these occasional posts, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. There followed a flurry of consultations, examinations and treatments, all carried out with consummate professionalism and care. The result: I'm OK, thanks to the wonderful people who work in our amazing National Health Service. Under their tender ministrations I responded well to the chemo- and radio-therapy and I've managed to avoid surgery, which is apparently very unusual, the normal route being chemo- and radio-therapy, a colostomy, and being fitted with a "Bag for Life" (I can't go in Tesco's now and see those signs without suppressing a chuckle). Dr. Jeff Summers, the oncologist at Maidstone Hospital and Mr. Will Garrett, the surgeon at Medway, have both been marvellous and I owe them and their staff a lot. I have regular scans, all of which so far have shown no recurrence of the tumour and no sign of the cancer having spread anywhere else, so I'm very lucky.
All of this explains why I've been a lazy bugger and not posted anything else!
