First of all, as usual, I apologise for not posting for some time. I meant to, and then life as I knew it changed completely.
On Friday 10 November 2017, my Dad went to his voluntary job as usual, sorting donations in our local Oxfam shop. He had a bit of a funny turn, couldn't breathe properly and his colleagues called an ambulance. They checked him out - his heart was fine, so they gave him some medication to open his lungs up. After a bit, he was OK so my sister picked him up and took him home, and everything was as normal. It was probably the dust - you don't know where some of this stuff has been stored.
Only the following Tuesday, 14 November 2017, it happened again - he was back at Oxfam sorting donations and the paramedics were called. This time they suggested he see his doctor and ask to be referred for a chest X-ray. So he did.
And that is when the roller coaster started to move. Doctor's appointment, chest X-ray, CAT scan, appointment with the consultant, PET scan and biopsy. Finally, exactly 5 weeks after his first funny turn, we had a formal diagnosis.
Dad has squamous cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of lung cancer. It is inoperable due to its location and size.
But there is hope. There is just the one.
Today he started an intensive course of radiotherapy designed to shrink the tumour. A twelve day course, three doses of radiotherapy a day.
And after that, we wait a couple of weeks to give the treatment a chance to work. And then whatever comes next, comes next.
I am still here, I am still knitting and I know that you will understand my past and future absence from this blog. I am not giving it up. Hopefully there will be times when I feel I can post, that I have something to put out into the blogosphere. But in the meantime, my heart and mind are elsewhere. I also know that we are not the only family going through this, and I send my love and best wishes and my hopes for a reprieve for your loved ones too to anyone out there who needs them.
