Mike's Treatment Diary

We visited the North Middlesex Hospital today for the first time and as seems to be the norm, parking was a nightmare. I had a pain free insertion of the PICC line in my left arm as per the diagram in the previous entry. I also agreed to take part in a speech trial. My next visit to North Mid is Thursday for my first chemo session. I'll get two different chemicals, one will be administered over several hours on the day, the other has to be delivered over four days by a pump that I have to be connected to the whole time. Apparently it is portable. More news on Thursday.

Last Friday I had a check up at the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital which is close to the UCLH and Macmillan Cancer Centre, This was to check that there wasn't anything that might need sorting out before radiotherapy starts. It's all OK but I do need to go to my usual dentist today for a clean and to sort out a chipped tooth.  My next appointment is at the North Middlesex Hospital on Monday 30th next week to kick off the treatment process. I need to sign consent and then have a PICC line fitted: PICC lines or “peripherally inserted central catheters” are an intravenous (IV) catheter inserted into a vein in the arm, to reach the area just outside the heart, and generally, should not hurt. A PICC line consists of a long, thin tube containing a temporary guide that allows the caregiver to “thread” the PICC line through the vein so it can reach one of the central venous system veins responsible for carrying blood to the heart.  I will also have the first chemo ses...

On 18th Jan I went back to UCLH for a follow up with the surgeons and subsequently the doctor who will be looking after my treatment. The surgeons were happy that they had got the primary source and presented two treatment options, surgery + chemo + radiotherapy or chemo + radiotherapy. There would be an added layer of risk to me to undergo the surgery and everyone is confident either path would result in a full recovery. With that information I decided the non-surgical option would be best. I am now awaiting a date to attend North Middlesex Hospital to start a chemo course, two sets, three weeks apart before I then get the chemo+radiotherapy daily for a further 6 weeks. Ultimately I am going to be off work for 6 months covering the treatment and recovery.

On January 4th I was off back to London mid-train strike. The hospital kindly allowed me to admit on the Weds for the operation on Thursday. I was prepped by 7am Thursday and don't think I actually went to theatre before 3pm. General anesthetic administered I awoke in recovery sometime later to be told that they found a suspicious lesion on the tongue adjacent to the bottom of my right tonsil. So convinced were they that this was the source, my tonsils were not removed, just a chunk of my tongue. I spent the Thursday night on the ward and was discharged late morning on Friday.

Back in July last year after a bout of COVID I noticed a lump in my neck that I thought nothing much of, putting it down to glands related to the infection. The lump wasn't painful, and I didn't really notice it for a while. In October it became noticeably firmer, and I contacted my GP for an opinion. They sent me off to an ENT specialist who in turn sent me for (in no particular order), an ultrasound scan, an x-ray, MRI and CAT scans along with several blood tests. In early December I had a biopsy of the lump and was sent for a PET scan on 7th December. This needed to be done at University College Hospital on the Euston Road in London. On 14th we had a meeting with a specialist who told me the lump in my lymph node was a secondary cancer and the next step was to identify the primary. The majority of the scans and meetings had so far taken place at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow. The most likely primary source given the location and identification of the secondary wa...