… to drink that half-litre of sparkling water with blackcurrant syrup last night. I was up and down like a yo-yo all through the night and I didn’t really have a very decent sleep because of it. Serve me right.
And the film that I saw – the James T Wong film – was the first time that I’d seen it. It was the first one of the series apparently and Boris Karloff had only a supporting role rather than the lead role that he had later in the series. And the film lost quite a lot because of it. The plot was rather thin and the denouément was rather weak.
Anyway, I was up at the usual time, had my injection and then had my breakfast. It was about 11:00 when everyone was ready to leave and so while they shot off to Montlucon and shopping, I went round to my house to check it over and relax for a while. Surprisingly (or maybe it isn’t), even though the day was grey and depressing, the batteries were fully-charged and the water was heating up nicely.
I headed off to Montlucon at about 14:00 and went to Carrefour, but I couldn’t remember what it was that I wanted to buy so it was rather pointless. And then I went off to the hospital.
16:30 was my appointment, and so I was seen bang on 17:45, and least I now know what they think might be up with me. Apparently I have a lymphoma of the ganglions, and the cure for that is quite drastic. They intend to take out my spleen. The spleen is also the organ that controls a great deal of the immune system and so while removing the spleen MIGHT (and only “might”) solve the lymphoma problem, it might provoke problems all of its own.
But it did lead to an interesting dialogue –
Doctor – “I’m afraid we are going to have to take your spleen out”
Our Hero – “Blimey – isn’t that a really difficult operation?”
Doctor – “Rubbish! Generations of surgeons have been taking the backbone out of politicians for almost 100 years! It’s child’s play by comparison!”
Anyway, after the holidays, they will arrange an appointment for me with the surgeon and the anaesthetist and we’ll see what happens then.
So rather chastened by the news I headed back here to tell Liz.
Liz – “Are they going to do that here?”
Our Hero – “No Liz – not in the kitchen”
To cheer me up, there was home-made ice-cream. The strawberry was excellent but as for my inspiration of the choco-mint-chip (made by the simple expedient of grinding up a mint-chocolate bar into a litre of coconut milk), it was astonishingly good. I was amazed.
At least that cheered me up. And I needed cheering up too because that wasn’t the only bad news that I had had. I mentioned to the doctor the story about the twice-daily injections and she confirmed that unfortunately they do have to continue.
So I shan’t be having my lie-in after all. Drat and double-drat!
Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
I really think you should go to the experts in Belgium rather than use the butchers in France.
It’s apparently not a big operation and can be done quite quickly, whereas the paperwork that has to be done to carry out cross-border medical treatment means that it’ll prolong the agony. I’m fed up of blood transfusions once a week and anti-coagulant injections twice a day and having to live at someone else’s house because I can’t look after myself
have a nice christmas Eric, hope they get to the bottom of it soon..take care
Same to you and yours, Grahame. But what I suspect is that they are going through a process of elimination – taking bits out until they arrive – by chance – at the bit that’s causing the damage.
That will also have the effect of solving the problem in that while I have a low blood count, there will be fewer places for the blood to visit so it will work itself out in the end anyway
I can appreciate that you’re feeling really demoralised and miserable. It’s entirely up to you and life is survivable without a spleen but I would still urge you to see somebody that really knows what they’re doing as opposed to somebody that thinks they know what they’re doing. The end result might be very different in Belgium and you could walk away with a cure the French never thought of and with an intact spleen.
It’s nice to know that people are so concerned for my welfare and I’m grateful for that.
I’ve spoken to a couple of people, someone in Germany who has had the operation and a couple of nurses, one in France and one in the UK, and they are of the opinion that it’s a comparatively straightforward operation.
It’s hit-and-miss in the sense that it’s not the usual cause of the type of lymphoma that I have. 90% of the cases are due to a rogue protein but tests have proved negative in this respect.
But as you say, life is quite possible without a spleen and so losing it is not going to be a big deal – and I can have it done in a couple of weeks which is quicker than sorting out the paperwork for a cross-border medical transfer. If the operation doesn’t solve the problem we can always try again with nothing lost.
But paperwork can be done and the option is still there to remove the spleen. If you don’t do the paperwork then you might end up without a spleen and no closer to the reason for the ailment. I’d still say to head away from the French butchers and try something else first.