Alastair Swinnerton

I spoke too soon – within minutes of me hitting publish on the last post, the consultant who was about to do the Sigmoidoscopy came into the cubicle and gave me the news.

Seems they have decided the spot on the liver has metastasised, ie it is cancerous, which means an operation in Bristol at some point in the next few weeks. It is a very small spot, and it is on the surface, so it’s an ‘easy’ operation he said, and may not need chemo beforehand, but we won’t know this or the many other new variables for another week or two, while YDH and Bristol work out a plan between them. The variables are these –

– I may or may not need chemo before and/or after the liver op;

– the bowel op and the liver op may be done together or separately at Bristol, or they may be done separately, the bowel at Yeovil and the liver at Bristol;

– I may or may not need chemo before and/or after the bowel op.

So, the only new thing we know for sure is that the spot on the liver is cancerous. Of course, this all makes things rather more complicated logistically, but at least there will be a few weeks before anything happens, hopefully giving Julie time to recover a little from her own cancer treatment, which ended today (hurrah!). So not ideal news, but at least it’s got rid of one unknown.

All of which means Bernard is now T3N0M1, or Stage 4, but I have absolutely no doubt that he can be beaten, it’ll just take a little longer is all.

So for now, here’s a photo I took of the consultant’s screen the other week. The spot in question is the small, very slightly darker grey bit in the middle on the right. See, tiny. Hardly worth bothering with really. Except of course they are, thankfully.