It has been a month since my MRI scan, 30 days since my last post. We have tried to be patient and wait for the result. In the end it took a couple of phone calls before a doctor called us. He told me my scan was "satisfactory." I think I have heard that before.
The doctor understood that I wanted to discuss the result face to face and to ask about issues such as whether I can apply for the restoration of my driving licence. The consultant will arrange an appointment for us. I've heard that before, too.
After news about the tumour the question of whether I can drive is the other big issue for me. Only once I have my wheels back can I get on with life to the fullest extent. While I am stuck at home (apart from the occasional walk) I still feel like an invalid.
There is another urgency to my getting my driving licence back. If I can start driving by June (two years after my diagnosis) I can keep my no claims discount which was something like 70%, the result of 40 years of accident-free driving. That would make a difference of several hundred pounds to my insurance costs. So the longer I go without permission to drive, the greater my frustration.
7 January - MRI Scan
To Carlisle Infirmary this morning for an MRI head scan. Nothing much to add to that. I expect we will receive an appointment to discuss the results in a few days' time.
So the next few days promise to be an anxious time. Will the tumour have shrunk? Has it grown? Or just stayed the same at it was at the last scan more than 6 months ago? The answer to those questions will determine the direction my life will take. I dare not hope for the result I want for fear of being hugely disappointed.
Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment!
So the next few days promise to be an anxious time. Will the tumour have shrunk? Has it grown? Or just stayed the same at it was at the last scan more than 6 months ago? The answer to those questions will determine the direction my life will take. I dare not hope for the result I want for fear of being hugely disappointed.
Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment!
31 December - Happy New Year
26 December - So that was Christmas
I hope that you all had a very good Christmas.
Christmas here unfortunately did not go quite according to plan. A couple of days previously I had a severe pain from the region just below the middle of my back and I could not find any position where I couldn't feel it. It did eventually ease off though.
On Christmas Eve the pain returned. In the morning I felt nauseous and vomited a few times. We were concerned enough to call the doctors' surgery for advice, and they were concerned enough for a doctor to come out and take a look at me to see if I should be admitted to hospital as an emergency. By then the pain had eased again and I was no longer feeling sick, so I didn't have to go to hospital, but I have to have a blood test on Thursday, the first working day after the Christmas break.
I haven't felt much like Christmas fare, so I have been existing on easily digested foods like porridge for breakfast and mashed potato with bouillion for dinner. Hopefully I'll get back to eating normally again soon.
Christmas here unfortunately did not go quite according to plan. A couple of days previously I had a severe pain from the region just below the middle of my back and I could not find any position where I couldn't feel it. It did eventually ease off though.
On Christmas Eve the pain returned. In the morning I felt nauseous and vomited a few times. We were concerned enough to call the doctors' surgery for advice, and they were concerned enough for a doctor to come out and take a look at me to see if I should be admitted to hospital as an emergency. By then the pain had eased again and I was no longer feeling sick, so I didn't have to go to hospital, but I have to have a blood test on Thursday, the first working day after the Christmas break.
I haven't felt much like Christmas fare, so I have been existing on easily digested foods like porridge for breakfast and mashed potato with bouillion for dinner. Hopefully I'll get back to eating normally again soon.
3 December - Getting back to normal
Today marks a milestone in my recovery as Olga and I returned from a long weekend in Manchester. It was the first time I had been away since discovering I have a brain tumour.
I felt fine and managed quite a lot of walking - without my stick. I had one nasty moment though when I was ascending the steps between the rows of seats in the RNCM concert hall. There was no stair rail and the seat backs were too low to use for support and I had a sudden attack of vertigo and thought I was going to fall over. Olga quickly realised what was happening and grabbed my arm for support. Thereafter I ensured that I clung to the rail when negotiating stairs - though I'm sure there are places where that just isn't possible.
Apart from that little incident I was fine. It was good to do once again the kind of thing we did in normal life.
I felt fine and managed quite a lot of walking - without my stick. I had one nasty moment though when I was ascending the steps between the rows of seats in the RNCM concert hall. There was no stair rail and the seat backs were too low to use for support and I had a sudden attack of vertigo and thought I was going to fall over. Olga quickly realised what was happening and grabbed my arm for support. Thereafter I ensured that I clung to the rail when negotiating stairs - though I'm sure there are places where that just isn't possible.
Apart from that little incident I was fine. It was good to do once again the kind of thing we did in normal life.
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