Big Thanks.....

Big thanks to James for updating my blog for me whilst I was away - grand job done, just as expected xxxx

Big thanks to everyone for all the supportive messages xxxxx

Unable to say more at the moment, because simply way too tired - suffice to say, I'm home, slowly recovering and more info forthcoming when I get some strength back from somewhere.

Much luv to all xxxxx

In the words of Yazz "The Only Way Is UP"

Hello all cyber friends,

I have to thank you all for your lovely messages of encouragement and support, it is really great to feel the sense of community.

So what has happened since the last update on Friday............ seeing mum on Friday afternoon she had made a very small improvement since the day before, still looking totally exhausted but I understand we can expect too much and this will be a long road to recovery.

We had a chat about maybe getting Dj up to see her soon as it had been nearly a week since he had seen or spoken to her, only problem being is that the plan was to end the epidural at 6am Saturday morning, I could sense the fear in trepidation in mum when consultant confirmed she would then be put on pain relief by mouth. Think we all had the same sort of feelings of nervousness as we know this has to happen to enable her to get some mobility back (epidural had made one leg virtually dead and unable to support her, fairly normal for extended epidural use) but also mindful of the fact it could lead her to be in extreme pain, although the doctors state this won't be the case. I rang in the morning to see if she was up to seeing Dj and to my relief she was, we all met up there on Saturday afternoon, mum had been switched to Tramadol pain killers, still looked exhausted but again a small improvement from the Friday, still has her sodium and saline drip in and drain for the wound but no longer required the oxygen mask to be on and BP had increased to around the 100 mark again and seem to be staying there.

Dj stayed for about an hour and then Leanne, Dj and left as he was going to stay at ours to give Rab a little break. All in all a great weekend, Dj got a new Ed Hardy hoodie and finally convinced him that jeans don't need to be uncomfortable, he tried a pair on and was very happy with them so a couple of new purchases and then on to Nandos to meet Loretta, Tony and Jake to complete the Nandos extra hot challenge (soak a chip in their extra hot sauce for 10/15 mins and then eat when you finished), Dj loved this and proceed to tell us it wasn't hot at all, think he takes after his father on that one as chili used to be a staple part of his diet. also managed to have movie night with popcorn and Avatar, Arcades, Wii and home paid Pizzas before coming back on Sunday evening. Al in all Dj was pleased to see mum, relieved more than anything I guess and pleased he could see we are not hiding anything.

Mums condition for Monday, Tuesday was fairly similar, physio getting her move a little, she rates her pain as now uncomfortable and not unbearable. Still remains very tired but just taking each day one at a time with short term goals, just a case of her resting as much as possible really now.

Her surgeon came up with a crazy idea over the weekend that she would be ok to go home on Monday/Tuesday, laughable really, anyway his registrar agreed this was crazy and discharge would be discussed later in the week, now set to be review Thursday or Friday, stoma team insist she won't be going anywhere until she is happy dealing with the bag. So just a bit of a waiting game at the mo but the end to phase 1 is insight and she promises me she won't be doing anything this side of xmas once she is back at home, luckily there are enough helpers around to ensure she does stick to this.

Rab, just wanted to say a special thank you to you, you have really stepped up to the plate to take care of things at home, the fact Dj is dealing with things so well is down to you, Nan and Grandad. As I've said this is only part one and a lot of work still to be done but we are all here to help.


Update you all again towards the end of the week with more news.

Love from James & DJ

xxx

Cool, Calm, Exterior .... Not quite the same inside!

Hello all,

Firstly thank you for all your kinds messages of support, I have printed these out and plan to take them with me this afternoon when I visit the 5 Star Hotel KC, she'll love your messages of encouragement.

Right... where were we up to?..... Following the surgery she was kept in recovery overnight, the following day she was then moved down on to a normal ward. This was good in one sense but worrying in another, good she managed to skip going to intensive care but worrying because the normal ward is far busier and care for about 35 people split between 2 or 3 nurses, now maybe it's just me but you would have thought having major surgery would at least entitle you to one on one care for a few days, oh yeah I forgot this is NHS care..............

Any one in the future that tries to tell me how good the NHS are is likely to get a punch straight on their nose. So many stories within the first few days it's a joke really, I won't go in to them now as I'll let mum do that once she is back home, but for example, whose bright idea is it to give a newly qualified Nurse 10 patients to deal with and also someone who has just had major surgery.

In terms of mum's condition, She is on constant epidural, once back on the ward she initially took a turn for the worse as her blood pressure dropped dangerously low, looked as white as a sheet, swollen face and she was carrying a temperature, their concern was she has picked up a small infection.

After monitoring her BP is was decided that they will do blood transfusion during Wednesday night, 3 or 4 pints I believe and start a course of antibiotics.

During this time I am portraying my normal cool, calm and collected exterior (those of you who know me then you know I'm so laid back I'm practically horizontal most of the time) but to be honest inside my stomach was in knots (no pun intended) but thinking of the bigger picture and showing mum and also Rab that I am confident things are going in the right direction. Surgeon came round to see her and again confirmed surgery went as planned and was done all through keyhole, in his words "no more cancer in you Carole".

Went back to the hospital yesterday afternoon and was totally relived to see her looking a lot more alive to be honest, colour back in her, face swelling gone down. She tells me she had a bad night and hardly no sleep, doctor stayed with her the whole night due to the low blood pressure during this time she overheard them putting a crash team on standby for the whole night, can't even imagine what that would feel like knowing you are in potential danger.

However the good news is that the transfusion seems to have done the trick as they are no longer concerned about her BP as now over the magic 100 mark, she remains very weak and as only awake about 30 mins during the 4 hours I was up there.

She did make me laugh when she woke up and said I should go as she wasn't much fun to be with, had to explain to her this is not a social club and I haven't come up there for the sparkling entertainment at Hotel Kings College, not her job to be the hostess with the mostess, I'm sure we can give her 3 months annual leave any longer than that then I think she is just trying it on.

love to all and will update you again after the weekend

p.s Shents I don't remember that game at all, already erased from my memory, lol

Oh and I better mention Wednesday's victory for The Arsenal against Wolves, 0-2 away victory with the superb Marouane Chamakh grabbing both goals

xxxxx

Feeling good...... things are "as good as can be"

Hi all,

Just a quick post to update everyone on the current progress of Mum.

Surgery was conducted on the morning of Tuesday the 9th November, I managed to speak briefly with one of the consultants involved in the opperartion and they confirmed that everything went 100% as planned and things are:

"as good as can be in the circumstances".

We got to see her about 5.30pm last night but she was still in her own little world, she seemed to think she had mosquitos on her making her itch, still not given up on the idea to run away somewhere hot then, unfortunatley a little bit late now mum, eh! lol.

Off to see her again shortly so will be able to fully update everyone with the full details in the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who has supported mum to this stage in the journey, you have all been such a massive help, you probably don't realise how much but all the family are eternally greatful. As much as we try and understand I think you can only have a proper understanding if you are or have been through the same troubles.

It's a relief she has had you all, hugs to you all for you kind thoughts and words

James xx

Bags are packed and ........

...........still don't want to go......:-(

I'm looking at my packed bags and have none of the excitement usually associated with packed suitcases sitting in the corner just waiting to be hauled onto a train, plane or automobile.....Instead I'll be checking into 'Hotel' KC for an indefinite number of nights.

The ward sister called this afternoon to tell me that there is a bed waiting for me tomorrow on 'Cotton Ward' . Sounds nice eh, 'cotton': fresh, clean, crisp and spring like...
I'll more or less guarantee it's nothing like the description I've just provided but more on that once I've escaped their clutches.

So the plan is get there for tomorrow morning at 10am. Settle in and start the bowel prep, first sachet of disgusting tasting muck followed by one further sachet 6 hours later - then a few hours after that everything should be gone!

Surgery next day, Tuesday but don't know exactly what time yet - although I'm assuming it will be fairly early as it's a long op -minimum 6 hours if all goes well, could be longer if anything changes along the way.
Plan is keyhole surgery - but with the option to change to full open surgery if any surprises are found.

No visitors until James/Rab say so - I'm made it clear to them that this is my decision and I will see people only when I feel ready and not before. Sorry if that offends anyone but this is all about me, me, me now.
I'll see you when I've got my head round things.


James will be updating my blog - thanks James.

Don't know what else to say tonight really apart from thanks for all the support, kind comments, the statements that tell me I'll get through this in one piece (well, not exactly one piece, but you know what I mean....) and bye for now.

bbl8r (which means, be back later).....:-)

Been snappy and grumpy...

Been in a crap mood for these last few days. Everything has irritated me or just made me feel like I want to shout at someone :-(

Unfortunately for Dj he's decided to pick this week to also be a little grump (probably feeding off my stress).

Today, for the first time in the last 4 days, I didn't end up yelling at him for being cheeky, annoying, back-chatting or just really being a typical 11 yr old.

Today I bit my tongue and told him he'll be losing his Xbox for weeks if he continues with the back-chat.

He snapped out 0f it within 5 minutes - Don't you just love the power of technology :-)

At this rate he'll be glad to see the back of me for a few weeks......

Hospital appointments department rang today to 'remind' me about my operation next week...almost said 'Really? I'd completely forgotten all about it' :-))

So the current plan is that the ward sister will contact me on Sunday to confirm they have a bed (sigh) and if so, confirm what time I should aim to get there by on Monday to start my prep.

I want to run away and hide somewhere where no-one can find me - but I can't, unfortunately...

Halloween.....and Manolis :-)

Firstly Happy Halloween to those that do celebrate it :-)

We don't celebrate Halloween at all. Dj's never been particularly interested in it so we've managed to avoid making anything of it.

When he was younger he found it all too scary (Scooby Doo could scare him when he was little, so he had no tolerance level for ghosts, vampires and ghouls)

He does always have a pumpkin..... (to keep away the witches which he "knows do not really exist however, just to be on the safe side")...... and below, this is Dj's pumpkin this year.

He's lethal with a knife though and had to keep reminding him it's a knife not a spear!

He used to be afraid of using a sharp knife (blood phobia) but this year managed to cut the whole pumpkin out himself - without losing an arm...cool eh :-)

Also, today is Manolis' birthday. He's relaxing on the Greek Island of Rhodes with my lovely sister.

Happy Birthday M, hope you've had a brilliant day - much luv from us all