Another AARGH moment or two.

I am finding myself technologically challenged when I see youngsters playing with their new toys and I guess that is as it should be for an old fogey now out to pasture. I have to say though that I wish I could still compete. Alas for that you need two hands and certainly lower levels of daily pain.

Still, there is the "excitement" of fighting various bureaucracies as they get my papers wrong, ring me in the middle of the day and ask if they can speak with George (my middle name), having angst about item numbers not being on an account sent to Medibank when they are actually there on the bill AFTER the item name etc AAARGH!! You see this is why we social workers were so good on the counters in at least one government Department years ago, we knew first hand the frustrations and had the skills to calm everyone down and get the thing fixed. If only there were real people, like SWs around instead of unending telephone messages inviting you to select from a spoken menu that does not suit your inquiry so you have to wait until all the options are exhausted and THEN finally, maybe, if you are lucky, you get a human at the end of the line you can actually talk to.

Now - finally, I also understand what was ailing all those 60+ folks who used to come and do business where I used to work. They were right to grumble and these days this individual thinks things are actually worse.

I am entitled to say that now that I have reached the magic age at which grumbling is OK.

Have - everyone then write and tell me about it. Even vicarious fun would be welcome at this point- better yet give me a call on Skype or Google Talk or the land line.

Latest News

Had an ultrasound to see what was happening with the PEG tube and little could be seen by me as they had the very cold but interesting gel spread across the abdomen. I was disappointed not to be able to see the outlines on infant on the screen above my head, thinking of the millions I could have made from a medical miracle. As the headlines: Man has child at the end of his feed tube" disappeared from view, I realised that I really could not see much at all - no doubt the report will be more helpful than that lay person's observation.

I suspect that the tube has been in need of replacement and that the indescribable pain I feel in insides is due to some inflammation as the tube turns and squirms inside my abdomen. We will see.

That's all fort the moment folks, I am going back to my chair for rest and recreation.

Scan results are back

Scan results are back from CT Scan a few weeks ago. Results are mixed. To the Radiologist the view is that the cancer has returned in two places - one being in the collar bone area where I have been operated before and where they could not get all the bits - this appears to the real danger spot and we are setting up an appointment with a neuro-surgeon to see what if anything can be done there. The other locus is elsewhere and the radiologist suggests that it is simply more of the same old same old while the oncologist disagrees and says that as they are under 1 cm in size they may just be normal tissue.

What does all this mean for my continuing survival?

Buggered if I know.

All I can tell is that I have been asked to get an MRI done and then to see my oncologist after this in six weeks time. So, figuring that he does not want to waste his time and does want to be paid, at WORST I have at least six weeks left - at best, a lot longer.

If anyone wants to know more -I can read you the report and you can prove how smart YOU are by telling me what it means.

Salut

Peter