Things have gone off the rails a bit.

There's a bit to get through, so bear with me, please.

The results of the PET scan and the CT scans at the end of the chemo were pretty good. If you read through these posts, you'd probably come to the conclusion that I expected something that looked a lot like a cure - that is, the cancer beaten, and skulking off with its nasty little tail between its legs. When the oncologist told us that the CT scan indicated that the lymph nodes were clear, but the PET scan showed that the primary site was (only) severely degraded, we were both disappointed, although Paul told us that this was a very good result. This result meant that I would have to have four-monthly checkups, and when the cancer re-appeared, we would deal with it as best we could.
So far so good, although not as good as we'd hoped.

Then about three weeks ago, I started to have difficulty keeping food down again. Bugger!! So I've been in hospital for the last ten days while the old body has been re-hydrated, various tests are done, and results argued about. But in a nutshell, it appears that the cancer is back (or possibly never went away). It has invaded the stent put in nearly 6 months ago, and appears to marching north along the duodenum. How this was missed on the scans is a matter of some conjecture, but that's really here nor there.

The result is that I will need surgery in the next week or so, depending on the surgeon's NZ fishing trip! It will either be a bypass of the duodenum, or if the cancer hasn't advanced too far towards the bile duct, a resection of the duodenum removing the major site of the cancer. The second option is by far the preferred, although its beginning to look a little distant over the past couple of days. If the resection happens, I'm back to regular checks and handle things as they arise. If its the bypass, then things aren't quite that positive. Either way, at least a couple of weeks in hospital.

I will have another gastroscope on Friday (23rd Nov) to see how far north the cancer has advanced, and therefore how likely the resection is. In the meantime, I'm kicking my heels in a small but private room, gradually rusting up. By that I mean that I'm getting so little exercise that my body is starting to hurt in all sorts of places - its letting me down. The most exercise I get is a couple of laps around the ward. And this won't change until the doctors have a Plan in place. The Plan being, what surgery, and when. Then I can go home and wait. But there's more!!
We sold our house just on a month ago, and settle next Tuesday. So these last two weeks, while I've been resting in hospital Gaye has been readying us for the move to Brisbane. We'll be packed on Thursday, uplifted on Friday, cleaned on Monday, and outa there on Tuesday. Brisbane is still on track, but now the timing has to be a little doubtful because of the surgery. Originally, we had planned to leave Canberra around 20 December - for good. Let's see how it goes.

I have to say as a post script that I'm a bit embarrassed by the way all this has turned out. I haven't re-read the Blog recently, but I do remember that its relentlessly positive and full of good news. And somehow, its all gone skew-whiff.

Now that I have my modem working, I'll try to keep those of you who are still interested up to date.