Just another Friday. For many people that may well be true. The majority all waking up with that ‘Friday feeling’.
The headlines from the papers that day………..Fears for Britain’s high streets amid shop closures and the Prime Minister’s efforts to avoid a Brexit Cabinet breakdown dominated Friday 8th June front pages. As I said, just another Friday.
Armed with a lot of ‘good luck’ messages, my wife and I set off for Western Park for my 2pm appointment. The conversation during the 40 or so minute drive to the hospital was filled with a lot of “what if”… “can you imagine if”… “what shall we do if”…
Arriving at the hospital and entering the waiting area knowing that at ‘present’ I didn’t need any further treatment or blood work taking was a relief in itself, albeit this could change real soon. Would the results show I’d need surgery?
After a short wait, in to the meeting room we were called. Dr Evans (my oncologist) wasn’t in the room yet so my wife and I just sat and waited. It can’t have been for more than 3 or 4 minutes but it seemed like forever.
Then I heard her voice. Talking in another room but getting closer to us. The adjoining door that linked her office to the meeting room opened and in came Dr Evans.
“You’ve done beautifully”, “your scans were boring” a couple of the lines that Dr Evans said to tell me I was in remission!! I’ve had a lot of good news given to me over the years in a variety of different contexts, but nothing, nothing, as ever sounded as good as those words that Dr Evans said to me.
The Ultra Sound scan had shown no signs of cancerous lumps and the PET scan was normal, whereby the ‘radioactive sugar’ had been absorbed in to my blood stream as it should do and not ‘eaten’ by live cancer.
Reflecting back to that day some 5 months since being told I was in remission, (13th October 2018) my body covers itself in goose bumps and the smile on my face stretches so wide at the sure delight and amazement that the treatment worked and that Friday 8th June 2018 was the day I could start to rebuild my life.
The news I received on the 8th June put a line in the sand that the ‘physical’ fight against cancer had been ‘won’ but as anyone who has been fortunate enough to get the same news, the fight with cancer is not just physical, it’s a mental, emotional one as well. My journey with cancer took me ‘out’ of normal life and in to a very surreal and lonely journey. Realising I could start to rebuild my life and try and pick up where it left off was going to prove difficult, something I will write about in future blog posts. Surviving cancer certainly gives you an ability to see ‘life’ from a different perspective.
With some words of advice and a plan to follow up with me in ‘3 months’ it was time to thank Dr Evans and her team and leave Western Park to head home and celebrate something that just a few hours previous, I could only pray and hope for. Life returning to normal.
I owe absolutely everything to Dr Evans and the team at Western Park. They have given me and my wife and family a future again. The words ‘thank you’ can’t start to express how grateful we all truly are.
Here’s me 5 minutes after coming out of my appointment. Slightly excited!!
If you’re on your own cancer journey, I truly hope you get to experience the outcome that I did and you too can start to rebuild your life.
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