Oncology

I got my referral to the oncologist and saw him last week.  Although I am going to have to go to QA at Cosham for my chemo sessions, I was able to have my first outpatients consultation with him at St Richard's in Chichester.  The 'Fernhurst Centre' is where they deal with such matters and, as you might expect in these enlightened times, it was a bright and airy building with no hint of gloom and doom.  The staff were friendly and welcoming and everyone in the waiting area seemed quite cheerful, considering what they were all there for.  Lots of smiles and animated conversation all around.
The oncologist was accompanied by the Macmillan nurse who had been present at my diagnosis a couple of weeks earlier.  I liked him straight away - I guess you have to be a special sort of person to have to deal with cancer the whole time - and it felt as if I was striking up a positive relationship from the outset.  As he is going to be THE key player in whatever unfolds over the next few months, it is reassuring to be in the hands of someone you think you are going to get on with.
He went back over the diagnosis I had been given and, as ever, I asked for explanations of some of the more technical terminology - I do like to understand what is going on.  We talked about all sorts of other things too, including the sort of work I do now, and have done over the years.  Inevitably, my nine years as a publican attracted the most interest!  All in all, a very positive experience.
He wants to arrange my chemo sessions on Fridays so that they coincide with his main clinic day at QA.  This could work quite well in terms of the rest of my week, assuming the chemo doesn't wipe me out for 7 days out of 7.  I am working on the assumption that weekends will be unpleasant, apart from the fact that I might be forced to sit in front of the TV and watch the Six Nations Rugby without a hint of conscience.  Mondays might offer the chance to do a bit more and the middle days of the week are my working days, so I hope I can still do that too.  Then back to QA on Friday for another dose of poison.
The plan is to do three Fridays out of four for three months.  After that, another scan to compare and contrast with the one on which my diagnosis was based.  That forms the basis of the first review.  Is it having any impact on the tumour?  How am I tolerating the chemo?  Depending on the answers to those two questions, we can make a decision on whether to continue.  Assuming that we do, the cycle gets repeated.  I am assuming that we will.