Hospital

Thanks are once again due for all your ongoing support around my marriage and my diagnosis.

I’m so glad Paula and I decided to get married as soon as possible because my health has taken a rapid dip over the last few weeks.

In fact, I’ve now been in hospital for over a week.

The cancer, which originates in my appendix, has caused me to develop a lot of fluid around my body, not least on my right lung, which now needs to be drained daily. I’ve had an internal catheter installed and this makes the procedure relatively simple, although never particularly pleasant.

The feeling of fullness I’ve experienced because of the fluid and other symptoms has made it very difficult for me to eat or drink enough so I’m now effectively malnourished and having to be built back up via a feeding tube, which is attached for about eight hours a day. I’m also on oxygen 24/7 but hoping to come off that soon. And I’m on painkillers and other meds. It’s essentially a full-time job. I need to get my strength back before chemo can realistically be considered as an option, so the race is on.

Paula has been an absolute superstar throughout, but obviously this has an impact on the rest of her life and her work too, and we’re both very tired.

Friends and family have also been fantastic and I’m so grateful for everything everyone’s been doing, including messaging me, visiting, providing advice based on personal or professional experience, cooking food for Paula and providing support for her, and making me laugh.

As you can see there hasn’t been much time for Blipping but I’m now wondering whether to start a series of portraits of some of my favourite staff here. With their permission, obviously.The amazing NHS workers - healthcare assistants, nurses, porters, cleaners, dietitians, symptom management staff, pleural nurses, Macmillan nurses, phlebotomists, doctors, and everyone else who keeps me going on a daily basis.

I’ll do my best to keep you posted but as you can appreciate my first priority is getting some strength back. Meantime, it’s still giving me great pleasure to look at your pictures and read your journals although responding is more difficult than ever at the moment.

Thanks. Xx

Today’s tune is a song which was put out by the children’s TV show ‘Horrible Histories’ a couple of years ago to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NHS by Nye Bevan https://youtu.be/GxAfKEDa7oQ?feature=shared