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Cancer Treatment in France


Grecian
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Norman

So sorry you have to go through more cancer treatment but so pleased that these necessary follow-up tests has caught it early.  Will be thinking of you on Wednesday and wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.

Your information is always so helpful on the forum, so please return soon. :)

Seriously good luck.

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Blimey Norman, there you have been giving me so much help and support, and now this has happened to you. Really sorry to hear you have to go through the operation, and recovery period, with all that entails.

Thank goodness they have caught it early, always best to have that on your side. Wishing you all the very best of luck, and a speedy recovery, although I know only too well, that the recovery bit takes a long, long time. Really hope your stay in hospital is not as long as the last operation.

Richard
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Indeed, tough, resilient, courageous.............you will overcome, Norman.

I shall think of you on Thursday, the day after your op (and it will be my birthday coincidentally) especially and will hope that all will have gone well[:D]

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So sorry to hear Norman that your cancer has metasized but hope that the operation goes well and after today you will be clear once again.

Glad to hear you are back home Grecian, take it easy and enjoy the sunshine.
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Norman, this is "tomorrow" or rather, it is today, well, this evening.

For my birthday, I decided that it would be a real treat to go for a Nordic walk with newly befriended walking companions.  We walked in an area famed for beautiful views, Romanesque churches and faune sauvage.  We even saw some sanglier.

As promised, I thought of you and hoped for the succession of your operation.

I have lots of info from an email to do with Cardiff Singer but perhaps you aren't up to reading yet but, bon courage, you will be enjoying the programmes and we will be discussing them on the Listening Thread!

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  • 2 weeks later...
WOOLS, HAVE YOU NOTICED, HE IS BACK, YOUR POTE THAT YOU HAVE SO FRETTED ABOUT!

Sorry to shout, old Wools is a bit hard of hearing these days or at least he doesn't always keep up[:)]

WELL DONE, Norman!

Keep well, chin up, the barrel will be occupied again:  I hope you spring-cleaned it before you went into hospital?[:D]

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Very glad to hear things went well Norman, I hope the setback isn't too serious, I know all about setbacks!

Have you progressed to the tasteless soup and compote yet?[:D]

I hope that your hospital stay will be a lot shorter than last time, not the place you want to spend too much time by choice.

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Bertiebe I am afraid I cannot report any improvement unfortunately, the daily toilet use is really dragging me down at the moment, somewhere between 15-20 times a day, not exaggerating unfortunately. What makes it worse is that I have no control when the little buggers want to slip out, they just evacuate when they are ready. I saw my own doctor yesterday but he refused to give me a prescription for any Loperamide, saying that I must not cause a blockage, really 20 times a day and he is worried about a blockage!

I have an appointment to see one of the surgeons who 'had a go at me' on Wednesday at Bordeaux, hopefully to have my pancreas drain and bag removed, to make matters worse the nurse pulled the drain out yesterday when changing my bag. I had to telephone Bordeaux to seek their advice, the doctor told me to continue to wear a bag without the drain in place, he has faxed a prescription to my local laboratory at Bressuire for a blood test on Tuesday to check the pancreas before I see the surgeon again on Wednesday. This is the second time that a nurse has pulled the drain out, the first time it happened I spend 4 hours in A&E at Bressuire hospital for a surgeon to put the drain back in again. I really do not know how I am going to cope with the 500 Km journey on Wednesday, I hope mind over matter will prevail and I don't have any mishaps on the journey.

I hope you are coping with your 150 Km journey each week, the hassle just seems to go on and on, I guess one day tings will return to some sort of normal, I certainly hope so.

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I had some mental relief from wearing Tena slips which at least protect your clothes... a bit like pampas

My setback is a tiny bit like yours in that all was going brilliantly then I DID get blocked. A second op was threatened but for the moment I am on water and  starting the compote purée again today[:-))]

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Wishing you well NH and hope that all natural order sorts itself out with all that compote and vile potage.

And the adult nappies, well, they are brilliant, due to some treatment which I should never have had, I was constantly fearful of what my husband cheerfully called follow through. IF ever I need them again I shall not hesitate.

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If you are really worried about the trip to Bordeaux, you need to make it really clear to the transport firm that you need an ambulance in which unfortunate eventualities could be dealt with, not just a taxi.

You also need to get whoever is looking after your nursing care involved, as there are solutions that can ease the worry.

I know I am using one as I type.

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I really hope you are do not need a second operation Norman, you have been through enough already in your life. The last thing you want after your operation is a blockage at this stage, hopefully that fact that they are now feeding you those delicious compotes is a good sign.

I have been wearing the pads since my stoma reversal over 6 weeks ago, and have purchased some from UK Amazon, the cheapest I could find actually, which are really good quite thin and fairly comfortable. Thankfully I do not have diarrhoea just constant small stools sneaking out. The trip to Bordeaux will be daunting but as you suggested I will mention it to the taxi driver, I know all of them quite well now, and ask him to pull over if too big a mishap should happen.

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  • 4 months later...
As it has been just over a year now since I started this thread, I thought I would provide an update.

This time last year I was completely all over the place, having just been diagnosed with bowel cancer, not knowing how the whole process worked and having to organize my own appointments for scans etc. Thanks to the help of all you kind people who contributed to this thread you all pulled me through the ordeal, and today I find myself in a better place.

Since being discharged from hospital in Bordeaux on May 7th I have had two 3 monthly scans to check for any recurrence or spread. Thankfully I can report that both scans were clear, with no problems anywhere. Further to this the inflammation on my pancreas has completely disappeared, so my pancreas has recovered to its original state. I must say this is a huge relief to me, as I wasn't sure just what to make of the pancreas problem, especially on top of everything else I had to contend with.

On the down side I am still having a lot of problems with bowel control, things have improved from the initial 20 or so times a day, and some days I do have reasonable days of maybe 'only' 4 or 5 times a day, but this can go up to somewhere near a dozen times a day, on a bad day. Considering everything that was done to me with the three operations I guess it is no surprise that things are still a bit upset inside me.

To add to my problems I now have two hernias, one on my belly button and one to the right of my stoma scar, which is causing a lot of bloating on the right side of my tummy. My own doctor has refused to send me to see a specialist at my local hospital and has told me that I must wait to see the surgeon at Bordeaux. I had an appointment to see him for the 16th October, but unfortunately the appointment was cancelled, and my new date is 20th November. So I will just have to battle on for another 4 weeks before I see him. Whilst I am not too keen on another operation to sort the problems out, I would rather it is done as soon as possible, and hopefully alleviate the bloating problem.

So all in all I feel I have been fortunate, if that is possible having being diagnosed with cancer that things were not a lot worse, plus the fact that I have not had to endure another 6 months of chemo after my operation. So at the moment there has been a reasonably happy ending, unfortunately I know that I will be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, but at least I will have regular scans for the next 5 years, if anything shows up hopefully it can be dealt with swiftly.

So once again many thanks to all you people out there who supported me throughout the last year, and the advice that you offered. It certainly helped me through a very difficult period in my life.

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That is great news! Grecian, I know you went through a nightmare but it is so good to hear you have come out the other side.

Hope you can get your hernia seen to quickly and your system eventually settles down and then by the sound of it you are sorted. :) Well done on your recovery.
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