Holidaaaaay!

Heylo again :) <-- i wonder if that will turn into a little smiley face on the proper thing or stay as it is...oooh hang on, i can add images!! i could just add a little smiley face. Let's see...

Oh my god it's MASSIVE. And i seem to have very little control over where it goes! I shall work on this for next time...

Anyway!

Went to see my nice surgeon yesterday (bowel as opposed to future liver) for follow up appointment. She was really pleased with the scar, which was a massive relief as can't start chemo til it's fully healed. Still a little oozy right above umbilicus (aka tummy button...seems so pretentious putting in the few big words i know, but scared if i don't use them, going to forget them!) Can see that new tissue is forming tho.

Other great thing about scar improving is that we can go on holiday for a few days! So on Saturday mum, dad, rob (my bro) and i are off to the New Forrest for 4 nights. Hotel looks gorgeous and they have a lovely looking spa in which mum and i are intending on getting thoroughly covered in stuff and prodded and poked for a few days... So so pleased it'll give mum and dad a break for a few days as well, and a bit of a change of scenery. It's by the sea!

...mmmmm just be brought glass of wine and bowl of cheesy puffs, things could defintely be worse.... ;)

Other bits from the follow up appointment- as soon as the surgeon came in and took one look at me she informed me i was anaemic (low in iron). With hindsight i can now see the Casper comparison. Fun new discovery: claire - half a colon + iron tablets = a toilet full of pond water. I'm so sorry...bwa ha ha....ha

Probably means i'm also going to need a blood transfusion before starting chemo, which is only a day long hospital procedure, no need for overnight malarky.

One of the main functions of the terminal ileum (the part of the small intestine i now don't have) as i understand it, is the absorption of vitamin B12. This means not matter how much of it i eat, it's never going to get into my system. Surgeon lady has therefore suggested having injections of B12 every 3 months. Strikes me as a good plan, and relatively hassle free.

Finally she brought up a fun new finding from pathology, the department running lots of tests on my colon tumour. Not sure i fully understand it, and the wine is starting to kick in (half a glass-Norv ud be ashamed!) but will do my best to explain it as i see it.

Depending on where a tumour has arisn from, it will have different 'markers' on it's surface. 98% of those starting in the colon are positive for ck7 and negative for ck20 (or the other way round- i can't remember. These might not even be the right numbers. Or letters :S). Mine's backwards, positive for the one is should be negative for and vice versa.

This means one of 3 possibilities:

1. I'm just in the 2% that are odd but are standard colon primaries

2. The colon tumour was a secondary having spread from somewhere else yet to be discovered

3. I really am a freak, never to be explained by medical science

Altho i think an element of 3 will always be true, all concerened are pretty convinced it's possibility number 1. Logically, colon cancers very very very rarely spring up as secondaries and bearing in mind mine had got to small pinapple/bi-grapefruit size, we'd know about another primary by now if there was one. There are also the 12 polyps that were found on the endoscopy that scream my gut was prone to doing this sooner or later, backing up the case...

Right, enough cancer for a week! Got so much to look forward to: big fun warwicky visit tomorrow, holiday, and going to see Giselle in covent garden with shell next weds...gooooooood times.

You have no idea how much your messages on here/facebook, texts, cards etc mean to me. One always seems to appear when i start feeling the tinyest bit down-like magic! Thank you so so so much.

xxx

PS i'm having issues getting it to space- sorry if this is all scrunched up!