Tomorrow I have my regular three-monthly-ish post-cancer outpatients appointment – the first one in almost two years that will be face-to-face rather than on the phone. Back in September I had an annual CT scan to make sure everything is still OK and I have spent the last three or four months happy because I […]
Entries Tagged as 'Medicine/Health'
Video nasties
October 12th, 2022 · Comments Off on Video nasties · Life
Today’s post saw the arrival of my belated birthday present from the NHS: a bowel cancer screening kit. Obviously this is going to involve me posting a stool sample to some laboratory. The kit contains an instruction sheet for doing all this, which includes a QR code which can be used to see an instructional […]
Tags: Medicine/Health·WTF
Get on your bike!
July 27th, 2020 · Comments Off on Get on your bike! · Life
I see that the government want to encourage more people to take up cycling to improve health by reducing obesity. While it is easy to pick holes in this, the gist of it is very laudable. There shouldn’t be any doubt that reducing weight leads to improvements in health and that cycling can help to […]
Tags: Cycling·Medicine/Health
One in a million (and a half)
April 20th, 2020 · Comments Off on One in a million (and a half) · Life
A couple of weeks ago I received that letter from the NHS that was, apparently, being sent out to 1.5 million people who are deemed to be vulnerable. While I don’t feel particularly vulnerable, I was not surprised to receive the letter, it was still a bit of a shock in a way because it […]
Second attempt at normality
May 12th, 2019 · Comments Off on Second attempt at normality · Life
So this is what has been going on with my little health issues. On Easter Monday I was allowed home after my big operation. This represented a really quick recovery because it was a massive operation. Actually it was more like a stomach operation + a chest operation + a tracheostomy, all lasting about 12 […]
Tags: Cancer·Medicine/Health
Back in one piece
April 21st, 2019 · 1 Comment · Life
It looks like that cancer thing is over now. Still to be confirmed, but it is all looking good so far. I went in for an operation to remove the tumour, along with a big chunk of my oesophagus, on April 10th. After that I spent about a week in intensive care before getting released […]
Tags: Cancer·Medicine/Health
False Alarm
April 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on False Alarm · Life
Over the weekend our Jack Russell had us worried. He was having trouble eating, looking like he was choking when he had food or a treat. Although he can be a bit of a drama queen it was very disconcerting because that is exactly how I felt last year and that turned out to be […]
Tags: Medicine/Health·Pets
Operation inflation
March 22nd, 2019 · Comments Off on Operation inflation · Life
Well. Had a meeting with my surgeon today. Instead of the original estimates of a 7-hour operation followed by a hospital stay of 7 to 14 days, where they might try to send me home after 5 days it now looks a bit different. Because they want to put in a tracheostomy for various reasons […]
Tags: Medicine/Health·Statistics
I finally got a date
March 15th, 2019 · Comments Off on I finally got a date · Life
Had a phone call from the hospital. They have had a look at the results of my CT scan (good news – the tumour has lost a lot of mass, although it still give me problems with eating) and fixed a date for the big operation where they take a big chunk of my oesophagus […]
Tags: Medicine/Health
First world problem
March 13th, 2019 · Comments Off on First world problem · Life
One of the many side effects of the ECX combination of chemotherapy is that skin on the hands and feet can get sore or red and can peel. Amongst all the jargon and technical terms this particular side effect stood out because of its blunt, Ronseal ‘does-what-it-says’ name: “hand-foot syndrome”. I did have several of […]
Tags: Medicine/Health·Technology
