I miss you terribly. Don’t let any one tell you that I do not love you!
The good news is Richard is making a remarkable recovery.
1. No more chemotherapy treatment
2. Richard has had his central line removed and is doing very well without it. At first he didn’t want it to go as he got attached to it.
3. He has a full head of hair and is acting like he never had cancer.
We’re chuffed with him, he’s been quite brave through out all of this treatment. September 8th is coming soon and that day will be 12 months since he was diagnosed with cancer.
For those who are reading this. This treatment was done on the NHS, so if anyone tells you the NHS is a bad service, it isn’t it’s a fantastic service that deserves protection from those who wish to force private medical insurance on us.
Cancer
It all started on a saturday at night to be exact. Richard had just returned from a two week holiday. He had gone with his mum and younger brother James. Everyone seemed happy, stories told of adventure and fun.
Shirley, Dean & the girls (gemma and katie) started to get ready for the drive home. Within 10 minutes of them leaving, Richard came to me and lifted his t-shirt and started to ask me about a lump he had under left arm.
I cannot remember what my reaction was! I felt my stomach do a backflip and scored a 10 for a perfect dive!
A few days earlier I thought to myself how lucky I was to have four children who didn’t have anything wrong with them! Did I just tempt fate?
Anyway, whilst I poked and prodded Richard’s lump (roughly the size of a golf ball) I swiveled the chair I was sitting in; I was sitting at the pc at the time.
I alt-tabbed to the desktop and opened up a browser and started to search for lumps under armpits. A few searches came back as an infection of the lymph nodes; for some reason I had ignored the search results for lymphoma or cancers.
Deciding that the lump was a simple infection, I said that we’ll take a look at it again in the morning. Even then i didn’t think it was anything more serious than a simple infection!
During the night Richard was coughing and struggling to breathe. In the panic, i gave him a shot or two of an inhaler! Did I do the right thing? At the time, yes! Richard went back to sleep able to breathe.
That morning, we took a walk with my mum to the nhs clinic that had recently opened in the page moss area. We half expected it to be open on a sunday, we got to the gates and noticed it was closed. Ok, i said, lets wait until monday and take him to the doctors.
The rest of sunday went by with no problems, richard was out playing with his friends.
Monday came, I got ready for work and said my goodbyes. Little did i know i would not be at work for long.
On the way to work, i came across a young lady who was lost, she was trying to find the new roy castle foundation building on the tech park! I helped her out by pointing out some new buildings had recently been occupied by new staff and one of those buildings could be the one she is looking for. During the walk towards to where we both needed to be, i asked what she did to which she replied ‘i am a celeb event organiser’. I don’t know what i said to that, but i was interested. At that point, we reached where we needed to be, i pointed out the buildings and said goodbye.
I was only at work for 30 minutes when Angela called ‘richard has to go to hospital’ i said, ok, i’m on my way.
I pop in to see Geoff; my line manager and tell him i have to go, i’ve got to take my son in to hospital.
Thankfully, Karl, my brother was also in work and i gave him a call and asked if he’ll rush me home and then drop me and richard off at alder hey.
We got to the hospital, it was quiet. The few times i have been to alder hey, it’s always busy. We got checked in after seeing the nurse on the reception and then sat in the waiting room, we was then seen by a doctor.
They looked, prodded, CT Scans, Ultrasound scans, blood tests, oxygen and then we was moved to another area for further observation. The doctor who we had been seen by, said she had an idea what it was but did not want to say anything that might cause alarm.
After a few hours of waiting around in the observation area. We was moved up to ward E3. A nice ward, quite busy, the staff were great, the play team who helped to try and keep the kids busy were fantastic. Little did I know that we would be on that ward for two weeks. The only time I left Richard was to go home, get a shower and change in to clean clothes.
There are many things you don’t expect when you are in hospital. And one of them is how much money you will spend whilst you are in there. I did not pay any attention to our finances, I just spent to keep myself and Richard fed whenever he was hungry. I thought hospitals are there to help you. What you don’t realise is that if there is a private company on the grounds of the hospital, they will charge you more than what you will pay at any of their other sites. WHSmiths at one point was charging £1.99 for a can of redbull! Two pounds for a drink!
Anyway, I’m digressing.. Thankfully, Alder Hey is near some shops and Sainsbury’s is near by.
After a day or two, me and Richards mum signed the consent papers (even though we’re not married but have lived together for over 18 years) I was not allowed to take full responsibility to sign the papers! This was for Richard to go to theatre and have a biopsy of the tumour removed from under his arm. I can’t remember if they had taken it all out, but I was glad when the operation was over.
Whilst we was on E3, we was still waiting for the results to come back, Dr. Howell, was very apologetic that the results were late but they wanted to be sure and they had to run a lot of tests to make sure they correctly identified the right type of tumour. One particular night, Richard was starting to suffer, he had trouble breathing, constantly coughing. Nurses and duty doctors prescribed some medicine, I can’t remember what it was called but it did the trick; it helped him to sleep and to relax.
September 8th… Dr. Howell speaks to me and tells us that the results have come back and they have confirmed what the growth is and it’s a ‘Hodgkins T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma). There is a 96% cure rate of lymphomas in children and young adults. I didn’t ask too many questions apart from one “Did we catch it early or too late?” Dr. Howell replies “with lymphomas there is no catching it early or late” There are two types of growth, either a slow growing tumour or a fast growing. It is possible Richard has had this growth for some time but in the last month or so it has decided to grow very fast. There were two things we are concerned about. 1. The growth under his arm. 2. His chest area, there is a growth there that is compressing on to his airways/lungs and is making Richard struggle for breath.
By the end of the second week, we was moved to another ward either K1, I am not sure; we didn’t spend much time there, possibly a couple of nights.
Whilst on the new ward, we had met a doctor who had spent an hour with us discussing what a central line is! The nickname for it is ‘wilbur’ Not sure why! The operation for the central line took around 1 or 2 hours, I don’t think I have ever been under so much stress in my life; not even for my first born.
More to come…This was all typed up on a phone, so please excuse the grammar 
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Everything seems to be going o.k with Richards treatment. After his first dose of Methotrexate; he started to have side effects which are similar to meningitis. Thankfully after another week on the ward he started getting better. He did not have a reaction to the Methotrexate upon receiving his second dose. Fingers crossed he doesn’t have any when he goes in on Monday for dosage #3.
His hair is growing back, it’s like having a new born baby with fluffy baby hair
Little did I know that the chemotherapy Richard started receiving this morning will be constantly going through the night until tomorrow. It is called Methotrexate.
Richard spent most of the day playing on the nintendo ds or the PSP. Around 3 or 4pm he had to sleep due to pains in his head.
Tomorrow (tuesday) He’ll be going to theatre for a lumbar puncture and to also receive another dose of methotrexate in to his spine.
My prayers go for the young girl who was admitted to the ward around the same time as Richard when he was diagnosed with cancer. she seems to be having it rough at the moment and I feel blessed Richard is not that bad (and I hope he does not get any worse).
