The cure

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks. Thursday I will have my pre-operative appointment and a CT scan. The following Friday I will have my Covid test, and then on Monday October 29th I will be admitted to hospital for surgery. Big surgery.

I have a few things to sort out - such as work - but that's not a worry. I have a great employer, a great team, and have cover planned for what will probably be a two month absence. That takes me up to Christmas.  The weeks of radiotherapy didn't evict Gertrude the tumour, but it did stop it spreading and shrink it. 

This has surely been the strangest year for so many. I have had friends who have lost loved ones from cancer and Covid, I have friends who have Long Covid whose lives have changed, probably forever. And if it wasn't for Covid, I would have had this operation back in March and it would all be 'history'.

Playing 'what if' is a waste of time, though, so even looking forward I am not worrying about the risks, side effects, potential changes to my life. Worrying about them now makes absolutely no difference to any outcomes, so why stress myself? I am a little preoccupied though, I have to admit.

The operation to remove the tumour in my sigmoid colon is going to take about 7 hours. I will be in hospital for aaround a week (no visitors) and will have to have a stoma bag for several months. Pretty daunting stuff. But the outcome will be 'cured'. 

Bowel cancer is curable, if caught early enough. My cancer is curable, I am not going to die. Result! So all good. And for no other reason than it's a great song, and the band is The Cure, here's It's Friday, I'm in Love (and I am, on every day of the week).