News for 2012

Oops, been offline for a while....Since diagnosis Jan has now had four years of active live, and this year we have had the joy a grand daughter beside our three grandsons. All visited 10 days ago when we visited local zoo, what a joy. Thank you God

In the last year Jan has also had a further 2 checks, this time all clear.

Last night there was a mainstream UK TV program done on BBC1 looking at Leicester University work on Tumeric = Curcumin = indian curry and its effect on cancer. They suggested indian diet in UK residents cut cancer rate to a third, particularly for bowel cancer. Far better than the 20% improvements from typical chemo.

They were running trials of patients taking 4 curcumin tablets a day, so it looks like curcumin could become more mainstream. Great 

Progress to date

Oops, been offline for a while....a lot has happened. mostly good. Since diagnosis Jan has had three years of active live, and in those years we have had the joy of three grandsons. so fast as 2 were twins. All visited last weeekend, what a joy, yet also what utter hard work. Had cancer taken Jan earlier we would have missed so much, and I think the twins really need our help. Thank you God

In the last year Jan has also had a further 2 checks, and again on form our dear NHS yet again raised a false alarm meaning yet again our summer holiday plans were ruined as Jan was at beck and call of hospital staff who insisted on doing further tests. In the end she was pronounced clear, but only after a very stressful time spanning weeks.

The other amazing items of news on cancer seems to be greater concern on our treatment. Last week the TV and press carried an article suggesting that all our screening for breast cancer was making no improvement to cancer death rates. Tonight a channel four program entitled "Food Hospital" suggested changing diet could be more effective than drugs, and interviewed several patients whose improvements seemed to prove their case. Unfortunately I thought the program was very superficial, but at least it is a start

Aother check up due

To keep followers up to date, all going well. We have returned from a lovely holiday in France, HOT.

Jan is scheduled a 2 year check up mammagram this month, followed by an appointment with the surgeon. We expect and pray that all will be well...

But for statisticians the 2 and 5 year checks show peaks in recurrenc rates.....

Politics, elections, and cofunding

England seems to be in turmoil now that elections are just 2 days away. Both Gordon Brown for labour and Nick Clegg for the Liberals bang on and on about fairness......

The more we hear and think the less fairness there seems to be. We always wonder why we pay far more tax as a married couple, we could save money by divorcing. Is that fair, yet when Conservatives try to partially redress this imbalance they are slated as robbing the poor to subsidise the rich?

Why do our taxes pay for the police to crack down on heroin abuse yet at the same time our NHS prescribe it free to registered addicts in Brighton? Crazy! Is it fair that my taxes fund this waste?

I saw a paper showing how chemotherapy costs more to treat "large" people. Specifically those with larger body surface area, or more skin, as they need higher doses of expensive drugs! Is it fair that thin people pay the same or more taxes as they are more likely to be in work than overweight lay abouts who cost the health service more?

It seems we will be in for a period of austerity after the budget. It must affect health service funding. A TV program last night suggested a possible solution might be "co-funding" where the patient pays part of the cost of treatment. Amazing how something so obvious and now necessary has so far been rejected and in one breast cancer case barred a lady from further NHS treatment!

Ah, we must vote! But is our voting system fair? We live in a safe seat area, so in fact our vote counts for nothing! Fairness????? We need an investigation into our rigged elections! I was pleased to hear Anne Widdecombe MP talking on the radio two days ago. As a Christian she was standing down from parliament, but said it was now a "house of ill repute"

Thank God our main loyalty is to our heavely home!

Great news on grandson

We received very good news on my grandson last week. He has had a difficult start, three visits to hospital in the first 5 weeks of life, once in intensive care, and an initial diagnosis of 10% mortality rate and 50% risk of brain damage.

We were aware of the risk to his hearing caused by gentamicin, but other wise the risk of brain damage hadn't really sunk in. Fortunately or is it an answer to many praying on his behalf he was seen by the children's specialist hospital at Great Ormond Street in London in April 2010. They confirmed the diagnosis on CMN but reckoned that from the way his CMN satellites had developed he had a very low risk or neurological involvement, in other words a cautious all clear.

This is great news, an answer to prayer, and also a tribute to the work of Great Ormond Street hospital. I need to praise them for their excellence, in spite of my regular protests in this blog about socialised medicine!

The hospital recently featured on BBC TV. A tribute to the hospital but it hghlighted 2 issues to me:

1) So many of the doctors interviewed seemed to be aged 55 - 75...who is training up the younger replacements?

2) The horror of brain damage in children. They showed a young girl a few months old who entered hospital as an apparently normal healthy active child. Parents were warned and accepted the risk of brain damage as she had a general anaesthetic to allow a probably fatal aneurysm to be removed. She suffered brain damage whilst under anaesthetic, and was returned to the tearful parents as an inactive blind child.

My grandson had similar risks, but as far as we can see has been spared such horrors. He smiles and coos, follows sights and sounds, so we expect his brain is undamaged, thank God.

Awful decisions - faith, alternative medicines

I received a comment yesterday from a father whose son has serious cancer. How does one respond?

I was hit within 24 hours of that by news that my new born grandson has strep B infection, 10% mortality rate with associated risks of awful complications. We are told that he is responding positively to antibiotics.

I have no easy answer. I believe in a sovereign God, and believe we release our loved one's into his final care, and death is not the ultimate tragedy. In the meantime I fast and pray that God will mercifully heal and also thank God for the antibiotics.

Twice this week I have been referred to Fanny Crosby's story. Blinded at the age of 6 weeks by a quack doctor, she went on to write many of our hymns. So one sees from her life the dangers of quack medicine, yet also how a life can still be devoted to God and pleasing to him in spite of blindness.......

Why has God led me to these stories? I trust and pray grandson is not blinded by the strep B, though doctors have already said he has a 50% chance of brain damage.

Sorry to fellow sufferers, I have no easy answer but prayer and fasting.

Shambolic NHS appointments system

Today we go for our fifth attempt to get a mammogram and its result. The process has so far taken well over a month, the Xray was taken on 20th August and it is now 25th September. It needed 5 interactions with the hospital. What a comment on the organisation of our NHS!

The Xray was taken on 20/8/09 and an appointment booked for a consultants visit to follow up. We expect ths to be all clear so should not take long. In fact a simple phone call to say "all clear" would suffice.

The NHS set an appointment for 4 Sept. But we had a phone call on 2 Sept to cancel this.
Rescheduled by NHS, not us, to 18 Sept, which was canceled by a phone call on 16 Sept.
Rescheduled again for the hospitals convenience to 24 September, an appointment at which we attended, a return journey of 30 miles. On arrival at reception we were told it was impossible for us to have been given an appointment for that day as no consultants, and not even a nurse trained in Xray interpretation was available that day. Jan showed them the confirmation letter they had sent, why sent it if the appointment was "impossible?"

Surely we need a management shake up, not more funds for cancer research?