New Year Ruminations

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those of you who have wished me well and who have managed to sustain an on going interest in my well being.

Thank you!

I would also like to wish all of those of my readers who have faithfully followed my travails through this illness a very healthy new year!

I am NOT going to wish any of you a prosperous and happy new year simply because I am convinced that these matters take care of themselves, as long as you remain healthy.

The savings on health care costs alone, should bring a smile to your lips and feelings of prosperity.

The fact that you do not have any aches and pains can only enhance the feeling of happiness.

Of course if you remain healthy you may only experience prosperity briefly, for example if you have already contracted the buying bug and indulged in a buying frenzy prior to Christmas and now have to face paying off the massive credit card bills you have incurred.

Of course you may be able to defer unhappiness and enjoy prosperity by being able to indulge in a massive shopping spree you have either already started or are about to engage in through the post Christmas sales.

On thing is certain, if you have managed NOT to catch this consumer related illness then you will certainly be both happy and prosperous throughout the year to come.

Of course there is a flip side to this happiness and prosperity, you may have to suffer the indignity of comments from visitors as they remark on the fact that you have LAST year's entertainment centre, a previous generation of cell phone or, horror of horrors, a computer that is way past it's use by date!

I am of course being flippant.

I wish you all well and all that you wish for yourselves!

Once again - thank you for your interest in my welfare - whether you realise it or not - it is much appreciated.

Have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. I hope that 2008 will bring for you all everything that you wish for yourselves.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

At least that is what I would like to wish for myself and all those who read this blog.

I was contacted by the ENT specialist relatively early this morning with the following news:

"The vocal cords have a normal appearance. The epiglottis has a normal appearance. The surrounding soft tissues are normal. The anterior and posterior triangles and submental region are normal. The salivary glands appear to have a normal appearance. What is seen of the superior mediastinum appears normal with no identifiable lymphadenopathy. What is seen of the lungs and pleura is normal. The skeleton has a normal appearance.

Status post surgery but no adverse lesion identified."

I don't know about anyone else but for me this is the best news I could have at this time of the year.

I for one am relieved to read the word "normal" so many times in the report.

It still does NOT explain the pains and why breathing was difficult and certainly does not even begin to explain some of the pain and stiffness of the joints in the shoulder and neck areas.

However what it DOES suggest is that we may have to look at things other than a cancer related recurrence to explain it all. Perhaps in the new year we may actually be able to do something useful to deal with the consequences of whatever is causing the issues.

Meanwhile I guess it's back to the "clear as mud, but it cover the ground."

As the new year inevitably rolls on I just hope that the small, but positive changes that appear to be taking place, will enable the voice to come back, however inadequately, and however partially so that I will once again be able to communicate with people using Skype instead of typing.

For those who have not yet experienced overuse syndrome - my only advice is - avoid it if you can - unless you are a masochist continuing pain is grossly over rated.

An Interesting Night and Day

Woke this morning around 3:00 am and found that if I tried to turn my head to the left I simply was unable to either take in or expel any air. Wonderful - breathing being something that appears to be a precondition to being able to stay alive I was somewhat panicked and of course woke up and turned to the right and started to be able to breathe again. It was with some trepidation that I then adjusted myself and went back to sleep again after some panicked moments and woke later this morning with the determination to have this looked at.

I suspect this will be a BIG ask at this time of the year when most Doctors also have their fancy turn to Christmas cheer that does NOT involve their patients. So an appointment with the local GP was arranged and since he was unavailable what I presume was a locum was seen. As she has no real familiarity with my case there were a considerable number of issues to go through and eventually I learned that the ENT that I had seen before had closed his offices for the holidays, that another ENT was busy with patients and so left the surgery with the assurance that some form of emergency appointment would be arranged for me - whether with an ENT specialist or a registrar that the local hospital so that they could put the scope down the throat and actually see what they could see. At this point of course I went home to await the phone call that would no doubt be an appointment to see someone about what was happening and what if anything needed to be done.

Finally the phone call came and I was able to learn that I would be able to have an appointment with a specialist at 2:20 I agreed and that was fine. Then a little later I was contacted again and told that there had been a cancellation and I could now have an appointment at 12:20 - I grabbed it!

By the time I actually managed to get to my car to start out for the appointment I did something that felt right at the time which was to stretch my neck up and backward and noticed that there was almost a snapping of tendons in the neck which was both audible and painful and then lo and behold I was able to turn my neck to the left and breathe again - all just in front of the appointment of course.

Wonderful - picked up my partner from work and we both attended the appointment where I explained the miraculous snapping tendon and the consequences and then the doctor (someone who works with a chap that I had seen before by coincidence) took notes and finally extracted what I laughingly call "the Snake" and went in through the nose and looked into my throat and airway. What he found was interesting.

There did not appear to be a tumour but the airway had narrowed to a gap of only 2mm so there was always going to be a risk of problems. He did not know why. He explained that in the worst case I could have a tracheostomy which would enable me to breathe at least - but he did indicate that this was NOT a great form of treatment unless things got really bad.

So some hundreds of dollars later I left his surgery and will today take in my scan etc so the doctors can have a chin wag and see what they can all discover from the documentation and the look down the throat.

Ain't Christmas wonderful!

"Feed the Man Meat" - perhaps not!

I wonder if there is now a possibility of suing the organisations that started off the campaign in Australia about the need to 'feed the man meat'

The latest information from the ABC is that there is now research which seems to link the consumption of red and processed meat with lung and colorectal cancers and this of course includes oesophageal cancer.

"People who eat a lot of red meat and processed meats have a higher risk of several types of cancer, including lung cancer and colorectal cancer, US researchers have reported.

The work is the first big study to show a link between meat consumption and lung cancer. It also shows that people who eat a lot of meat have a higher risk of liver and esophageal cancer and that men raise their risk of pancreatic cancer by eating red meat.

"A decrease in the consumption of red and processed meat could reduce the incidence of cancer at multiple sites," Dr Amanda Cross and colleagues at the US National Cancer Institute wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine."

Very soon if this research continues we are likely to find that it is better to eat the occasional bit of unprocessed grain and fruit and perhaps if you happen to be of 'middle eastern appearance' the occasional date! everything else is simply unhealthy.

It's at this point that you can probably get me started on GM crops and what sort of a mess THAT is likely to produce in the next few years.

There goes my last argument against being a vegetarian!

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year

I just wanted to wish all my readers the compliments of the season and let you all know that I still have no further news that what I offered back in November.

One ray of possible sunshine is that my scans were apparently taken to a case conference or some other form of presentation and the verbal advice I have had back from the Doctor's receptionist is that the conclusion from that meeting was that my aches and pains may be from just the effects of the radiation scarring and that I would get a letter in due course from the Doctor.

This would indeed be welcome news and news which has not as yet arrived in any form other than the comments of the doctor's receptionist.

So this will be the week I ask again for some verification - otherwise it's just waiting around until the next scan to see what if anything is happening.

Sorry I have no better news than that.