Roger's 4 year Summary

In November 2007 I had what at the time was put down as an allergic reaction, but it is probably more related to an undetected tumour that even then was probably growing in my back.
There were several similar incidents over the years but as they all seemed to come after eating, no one suspected the real reason was that the growing tumour was pressing on my spine. Anti allergy pills seemed to control the incidents which only confirmed the allergy theory.

I had backache and was treated with pain killers and also even took part in a Osteopath trial which was meant to illustrate that Osteopath treatment was preferable to taking pain killers.

After we retired in August 2010 we went to America to stay with our son and family for 3 months and I soon started to have pain, I went to a GP in America who diagnosed rib strain (the pain was in the rib).
The GP was not happy with my breathing and sent me for an X-ray.
Nothing was discovered and we continued our stay as planned until November.
I had 3 potential incidents of the "allergic reaction" (link to full details) while in America having had none for the previous12 months.

On returning to the UK my GP prescribed stronger pain killers but after some 3 weeks the pain got so bad I was admitted to hospital as an emergency to investigate the pain. I had a CT scan the same day which revealed a tumour growing in my back and possibly pressing on my spine.
I had 25 sessions of radiotherapy from December to January to try and shrink the tumour but it did not succeed and eventually the spine became compromised and for a while I was virtually unable to walk and in a wheelchair.

At the end of January I had an operation to support the spine, titanium rods were screwed and bolted to support the 5 levels of damaged vertebrae, and part of the casing of the spine removed to allow the spine to move.
The spine carries so many vital functions the surgeons were concerned that I could end up worse rather than better, so were quite reluctant to operate.
They were very nearly proved right when after a few days my blood pressure dropped dramatically and I ended up in the Neuro Critical care unit where I had 4 units of blood!
Possible cause was the medication causing a bleed.

My follow up appointment was a bit of a shock when the surgeon expressed surprise that I was walking!
After the operation it was not planned to start Chemotherapy for some months and may not have been necessary at all but as I was suffering abdominal pain it was unexpectedly decided to start the treatment sooner.
The chemotherapy treatment was mostly home based with dozens of pills each day (including pain killers).
This continued with 28 day cycles of medication for 6 months until 6th September when I was allowed to stop the Chemotherapy, (at least for the time being).
The Chemotherapy was a nightmare and I felt so ill.
I have to go back in 3 months to check my blood levels are still all right and an infusion to prevent osteoporosis.

It could be a few months or even years before it is likely to come back, they just don't know.
It was such a relief as I was really getting fed up with feeling so unwell, but I am now feeling a lot better, just 20 pain killers a day now.

This disease is determined to get me!
Exactly a year to the day I was first in hospital. I woke up at 6-30am and I had a real pain in my left side and difficulty with breathing.

I thought it had returned and once again had to call out the Doctor on a Sunday. He came and said "it is my job to keep you alive for 24 hours!" His diagnosis was Pleurisy, but could not rule out a Pulmonary Embolism and to see my GP on Monday.
I got an appointment with Dr Bailey at 10am and he sent me straight to Addenbook's where I had tests all day. The embolism was ruled out, quite a relief, it could easily have been the end!

However the tests revealed damage to one of my lungs which was a surprise and only revealed by tracing radio active elements that were infused in to me.

More bad news is that it seems my tumour has woken up already, next appointment will confirm this in March.

Thankfully the March visit to Addenbrook's has indicated that my blood tests are now steady and means I am still in partial remission. Quite a relief!

For a more detailed version of this time see Life Changes my daily blog