alihutch

Thanks Lainy, he’s in the air now. One brother flies from San Fransisco tomorrow and the one in Queensland hasn’t said what his plans are.

I think that sadly we are being overtaken by events. His Mum called a short while ago (6.30am her time) to say that the hospital had just called her. Rob’s Dad has started vomiting blood and they have asked his Mum to come to the hospital ‘for a consultation’. I think hospitals only call you in at that time of the morning when someone is dying, so we are looking at when Rob will fly over there. His brother was already planning to go before this happened.

If this is where we are, I’m glad that he’s had this year living normally and only 3 weeks ago was able to drive himself 180 miles for his stent procedure and was cutting wood only the weekend before he went into hospital

Will see that we can do.

So, further update, which isn’t good really.

My partner (Rob) has spoken to the oncologist who’s spoken to the regional hospital his Dad is currently in. It seems that the hospital have decided not to investigate because of his age and are sending him back to the local hospital
The only way he will be seen is if his parents call the oncologist’s sec and ask for him to be seen by the guy who did his stents in Perth 3 week ago. (who didn’t notice anything amiss when his did them)
His Dad is annoyed that Rob has been interfering and speaking to the doctors.
His Mum will speak to him tomorrow when he’s back in the local hospital and see what they want to do. Rob has suggested that she call their health insurance company and will see what they say.
We’re stuck now as it is up to his parents as fully functioning adults. I despair……

Gavin lives about 80 miles where I do and food is a good thing!

Hi Lainy,

Agree with you Lainy ‘wait for what’ is what I’ve been saying…….and finally I got my partner to call some more (I wish I’d been calmer, but this pushes no end of buttons with me, I had years of trying to make hospitals realise that my Mum was a bright functioning human being who just had a worn out body)

Seems the hospital have just decided that it must have spread to his blood vessels without looking and were using a scan from May and not the most recent one because it was done in another hospital. (all his scans have shown no growth in the tumour)

He then called the oncology consultant’s secretary, who is a formidable woman. She said that they’d not heard from the hospital looking after him and said she reckoned that they’d looked at his date of birth and not bothered….. and to leave it with her….She has now called the docs looking after him and the consultant will be speaking to them on the morning. Time difference means that my partner was speaking to them at the end of their day, hence the wait. I think I’ll suggest that he gets up in the night our time to call again.

So I’m relieved that someone now seems to be on the case and I hope tomorrow will bring some more action. The hospital he’s in were on the point of sending him back to his local hospital……I’m furious.

Thanks Gavin….not a great way for you to spend your hols.
As far as we know he didn’t have any other symptoms and he was chopping wood a few days before this happened(!)
He’s still got the bleeding and they still aren’t putting a camera down as they want things to be more stable first, which seems to make sense.
At this distance it’s difficult and it’s a case of trying to work out if my partner should be jumping on a plane or not. His brothers are in Queensland and California and it’s a 4 hour flight for the Queensland one who is closest, but the least likely to go. We wait and see…..and I’ve just persuaded my partner to ring the hospital rather than just rely on what his Mum tells us (which is what his Dad tells her)

It’s the anniversary of my Mum’s death today, so this isn’t really all very good timing.

Thank you.

His procedure has been delayed until tomorrow as they want to have another scan before they do it.

My partner (Rob) spoke to his Mum this morning and she told us that they have said that his Dad (Brian) has lost weight, which isn’t so good. He’s seen the nutritionist who has made some recommendations. Rob’s Mum said that she thought that maybe some of his muscle had wasted as he hasn’t been doing so much exercise. I’m a little surprised about this as they normally go to exercise classes every week and after Rob went over in Feb, his Dad said that he’d been out scything the grass, so I’m wondering if they haven’t been telling us everything. IN Feb Rob also said his Dad seemed as fit as a fiddle.

I’m guessing that Rob may have to make another trip at some point to see how he is.

Ali x

It looks like it’s been nearly 6 months since I was one here.

So my partner’s Dad had a scan in May which showed virtually no change in the tumour (and he’d had no more symptoms) which has all been good news. His next oncology appointment was for early August. However he’s just been admitted to hospital as it looks like his stents are blocked. Fortunately he noticed changes in his urine colour and bowel movements, so saw his doctor last Monday and his oncologist on Friday. The good thing is that he hadn’t really become jaundiced too much and was able to drive himself the 180 miles to the hospital in Perth. He will have his procedure tomorrow and we’re hoping that it will be as simple as last time.

We’d been able to forget about this for a while, so it’s a reminder that it is real.