In September 2009, I finally went to our family Doctor a Dr Christopher Dias, at Ormeau Medical Centre Ormeau Queensland Australia. Wendy's nagging has finally paid off. I had been suffering from diarrhoea for months but lately it has got worse. I put the symptoms of diarrhoea down to our change of lifestyle from England to Australia and last years stress of being made redundant and all that went with it. Dr Dias checked my prostrate and took blood and stool samples, My 10 years in South Africa made things worse as he also had to check for parasites from the African continent. A week went by and the samples came back clear, more samples were taken for different tests., these also came back clear, except minute traces of blood had been found in my stools. Dr Dias recommended that I have a Colonoscopy I chose Dr Michael Miros of Southside Endoscopy Centre in Loganholme which was close to Wendy's restaurant.
A fibreoptic colonoscopy with polypectomy was scheduled for Tuesday 22nd September 2009 The colonoscopy was performed under general anaesthetic by Dr Michael Miros who suspected a rectosigmoid malignancy. A few polyps were also removed from the descending colon, transverse colon and Hepatic Flexure. After the procedure I felt terrible, I couldn't sit up properly and I had a pain on the right side of my chest to my shoulder. I was going to be sick !!!I was taken back into recovery and further rested until the symptoms eased. Before we left the clinic Dr Miros told us without doubt that my cancer was significant and that I would be informed soon of further action.
In order to "Forget," and try to make some sense of what was happening to us, we booked into a spot for the weekend that we had previously thoroughly enjoyed..... Couran Point. Couran Point is a beautiful beach resort on South Stradbroke Island, just off the Gold Coast Queensland. Anyone that has viewed our Australian tour blog, will know that we have been to some beautiful places in Australia this is one of those "must see" beautiful places and a Haven to de-stress, it was only for the weekend but worked wonders to forget about the Cancer.....
Couran Point Beach Resort
It was a huge shock to hear the words "Colorectal Cancer" but we were impressed how quickly things started moving. I was quickly scheduled for CAT scans at the Pacific Private Clinic for the following day and had an appointment to see Dr Michael von Papen for the Monday. When we left the colonoscopy clinic they gave us a DVD of the procedure.....great!!!! I joked that it would soon be on UTube!! That evening I was still in a lot of pain on the right hand side of my body up to my shoulder this went on for a few days until Dr Von Papen telephoned to say he had viewed the scan results and identified that the Bowel had been punctured by the colonoscopy procedure and had allowed compressed air to be trapped in the chest cavity and was sending a prescription for pain killers. We had been warned that this could happen, but all was sorted out very quickly. Compressed air is used to enlarge the bowel for the camera and should exit in the normal way. With the puncturing of the bowel the air escaped before the bowel was sealed by the procedure and sat in the chest cavity. Anyone reading this Blog, and being considered for the same procedure, should not be put off by my ramblings, as this one, single procedure of identifying the cancer via colonoscopy, saved my life .....or significantly prolonged it anyway.
We ummed and ahhed about watching the DVD of the procedure but eventually curiosity got the better of us, and after Hope went to bed one night we watched it. It was fascinating to watch the polyps being removed but when the camera eventually got to the cancer, what a shock!!!!. It looked so alien and awful, how could something that looks so dreadful be living and spreading inside, it has to be removed as soon as possible .
Wendy
It was fascinating watching this dvd of the colonoscopy, watching the polyps being removed and cauterised, the whole time wondering were the cancer was. It wasn't until near the end when the camera picked up this purple rotting section....here was the cancer. John and I looked at each other in horror, thank goodness the surgery was next week, no one would want this inside them.
John
On Tuesday 29th September 2009 after a further consultation with Dr Von Papen I was booked into Bribie Ward of the Allamanda Private Hospital in Southport on the Gold Coast Queensland and we all prepared ourselves for the operation which was scheduled for Wednesday 30th September 2009
My thoughts at the time were for Wendy, Hope and my sons Jonathan, Matthew, Jarrod and family back in the UK, horror stories of What if ? negative thoughts and visions ................plagued my mind
I had my own room at the Allamanda and very pleasant nursing staff, one nurse joked "Your too young to be in this ward" ! looking around at the other poor souls, I could see what she meant, all were in their 60's or more.
Finally the time has come..............Everything had been explained, keyhole surgery........... up and around in no time .......NOT....... I said final farewells and love, to Wendy and Hope and was wheeled through to a very noisy waiting area and finally the theatre..... woooooosey then finally Zonk.
Wendy
The wait was awful. I had brought Hope to the hospital, because we thought it important for her to see John going in and coming out. We where there when they put the cannula's in to John and when he was wheeled out to theatre. We then had to move all his stuff to a room on another ward. This room was empty of a bed so Hope had a good area to play in. John left for theatre at 11.15 in the morning and did not return to the ward until 5.30pm. No one could tell me anything although I asked countless times. Worried sick but trying to keep upbeat for a 7 year old is exhausting. When you are alone with a child you try and protect them from all the horrors that could happen, but it is very stressful not to have anyone to dump on.
John was in immense pain for the first few days and totally drugged on morphine, hallucinating cracked ceilings and spiders haunted him......we laughed about that after!!! John found himself on a liquid diet.... really appetising, however the six cans a colleague brought him had to come home with me!!! Every time a nurse came in they kept asking if he had passed wind, I of course found this very amusing and after about 3 days had great pleasure in telling them that he had. He would not have been allowed out if he hadn't as this was the start of the healing process.
The operation was a success and after 6 hours keyhole surgery that didn't quite get to it, and a cesarean section type procedure across my lower abdomen 17 centimetres of sigmoid colon and 12 centimetres of rectum colon were removed........ thank goodness, further consultations with the oncologist and Dr Von Papen reveals that no further complications are expected and no recommendation for chemotherapy, fantastic Got you cancer !!!!!!!!!!!!! ......for now..........
Thankful to all involved we left the Allamanda a few days later. I was in extreme pain from the keyhole surgery that gave me various holes in my stomach , that couldn't get to the problem but especially from the cesarean type incision that finally did.
Since this operation I have heard on several occasions " Now you know what us ladies have to go through having a cesarean !!!!!!" statutory reply by John ..."Yes but you didn't have half your bowel removed at the same time".........
We were to find out some time later, that a scan had revealed, I had Polyps growing on my lungs but this was 'maybe' nothing to worry about. This was to later come back and haunt us............
I had a follow up appointment with Dr Von Papen some weeks later and he arranged for me to be seen by an Oncologist. Both Von Papen and the Oncologist stated that I didn't need Chemotherapy as it was believed that all the cancer had been incised along with the removal of the lymph glands that did not show any traces of the disease. This decision was wrong which we were also soon to find out.
It was at this time that we started thinking of returning home to the UK we felt so far away from everyone and felt now was the time to make a very big decision to leave Australia. We love Australia but .....what if........
During our tour of Australia we completed our Australian touring blog with a heavy heart, knowing that we would be returning to the UK soon. Wendy's old company Sodexo, wanted Wendy back when she returned to the UK, they made her an offer of a job whilst still in the Northern Territory of Australia so we were set.
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