I'm really not very good at keeping up with this blog. I apologise and I will 'try' and improve. Looks like April was the last time I updated.
Paul has had a further operation for his original problem since then and, despite the surgeon saying it would take a long time to recover, he seems to have got over it quite fast. It was on the 19th August and my Brother's Wedding was on the 30th and he was back to full normality then. It has fixed the problem, we hope, and we now need to just get his bloods checked and see if his iron levels have restored to normal without him having to take any tablets.
He also had a Papworth check up and xray in July which was all ok. It was discussed that now he is well over a year post chemo it would be sensible to consider a CT scan to see the complete picture. If there is growth then chemo will be considered too. Since Paul's above op was already booked the CT was put off and will be discussed next month at his check up.
Paul is once again having a few problems at work with is boss who we are giving the benefit of the doubt too. He just does not seem to understand how Paul must be feeling. Although Paul looks absolutely fine outwardly, his body IS growing a deadly cancer. He feels tired nearly all the time and working just one day a week is quite hard. He chooses to do it as it keeps his hand in and he gets to see his work mates. Paul's (and my) priorities have changed now and life has to be what we want it to be and how we want to spend it. We just do not know when Paul's 'ok' health could be ripped away from him and so work is further down the priority list than it used to be. Spending time as a family doing things we may not be able to do at a later date take priority over anything else.
The 28th September (Sunday) marks the 2 year anniversary of Paul's needle biopsy, our first visit to Papworth and the first mention of the C word. It is hard now to recall how I really felt on that day, disbelief and hope that the next week would bring good news and we could put it all behind us. The 4th October marks 2 years since diagnosis, a day I remember very well. The weeks and months following diagnosis were just something we 'got through' in a whirlwind.
I have looked on the Cancer Research website at the statistics for Mesothelioma survival. Not something I wanted to look at in the beginning, but as time has gone on I certainly feel lucky that Paul has and is surviving this cancer and we hope this will continue for a while yet. It states that statistics show (and I know they are just that, statistics) 20% of those diagnosed with Mesothelioma survive for 2 years and only 8% survive for 5 years. So our goal after 4th October.........to be in that 8%!!!!!!!!!!!
