Midnight feasts

It's all very well adopting a no wheat, no sugar, no caffeine diet, but these books don't cover what to do at 5am when you find your patient downstairs and feeling great after two mince pies, some shortbread and a cup of tea!

Seriously, Quent's appetite is definitely returning and he is feeling more comfortable now they have removed the clips in his wound this morning.

We don't now get the results of the pathology for another two weeks as someone has been off sick, so we can focus our attentions totally on feeding him up and getting that wound sorted.

Quick update

Quent is enjoying home life. The downside is that he's tired, still on a soups-only diet and his wound remains rather oozy. Sleep is a bit of a hit and miss affair although we had a better night last night.

The upside is that it is wonderful to have him home and I would far rather sleepless nights with him than out for the count on my own. We've found audio CDs very soothing in the early hours.

Oakley is keen to spend as much time as possible with Quent - and is being remarkably gentle with him. We have had a very lazy family day - Oakley could not see any reason to get out of pyjamas and dressing gown if Quent wasn't going to, so I was the only one dressed before lunchtime.

The district nurse came today and spent an age filling out a file full of forms, before changing Quent's dressing. (I'll do the blog if they'll do the blood).

Next update Monday, once we've seen Father Christmas for the pathology report. I am hoping you all have better things to do with your weekend than read the minutiae of a slow but steady recovery, so the rate of my posts will probably slow down for a while.

We are home!

We are home!

List of things to do:

1. Feed up Quent so I can't see every bone any more.
2. Check his "oozy" wound.
3. Make sure he sleeps lots.
4. Keep Oakley away from the above mentioned oozy wound.
5. Administer drugs, arnica, zinc etc.
6. Get the clips out (Monday).
7. See the doctor for the pathology report (Monday).
8. Have a celebratory glass of champagne.

May as well start at the bottom.

;o)

Up and about

All systems go this morning as Quent dispensed with the hospital gown, the nasal gastric tube and the cathater. He ventured outside his room, had lunch and this afternoon saw Oakley. They had a great time together. We had to get a nurse to tell Oakley to go quietly when we left, to avoid an almighty scene and a 2 year old squatter on the ward.

We are aiming for a release date of Friday but there is a rumour Quent may get parole tomorrow. He is very thin, so my job will be to feed him up gradually. I had better get reading those books I bought at the beginning of the blog!

Thanks to everyone for your patience and continuing support. No calls or visits when he's first home, please as he will be needing lots of sleep (I have been told I must be strict on this). That said, I am sure he will be keen to start seeing people in a week or so's time. Watch this space.

Progress

In an attempt to raise the tone of the blog a notch or two, I shall just say that we moved a step further towards getting Quent home tonight. He emerged from the toilet wearing a smile, which can be described as broad even by his standards.

The plumbing is working and Sidney the Remaining Kidney is obviously coping on his own.

Or, for those who need it spelling out a bit more... shit, that's good news!

Oakley

Several people have asked me what we have done with Oakley! He has gone to my parents' for a few days to join his cousins, Amy (4) and Kate (11) who are there for half term.

He's having a great time. We were amused (and a tiny bit concerned) to hear first that he's no longer a boy, but a girl like Amy - and then later that he's been upgraded to a Princess; Disney, no doubt.

Mixed weekend

Quentin continues to do well. His blood pressure, temperature and wound all seem to be fine. He has managed a few steps out of bed.

However, he has been very sick for the last 24 hours, producing scary amounts of bright green bile at regular intervals. The nurses come and take it away to "measure" it - I am beginning to wonder if they are storing it for Halloween.

Apparently the celebrations start when he passes wind. I have to say that spending the day willing Quent to fart is not a situation I usually find myself in, but it's all part of life's rich tapestry here at Charing Cross.

In the meantime, the nasal tube is back in and they will do an X-ray tomorrow to see what's going on. I will keep you posted and apologise to the more squeamish amongst you for "too much detail".

Quent remains in good spirits throughout in spite of being tired and a bit weak with all the sickness. I can only imagine the pain of vomiting on an empty stomach with a large, fresh wound. I know I would not be as cheerful.

Father Christmas kindly came in today. Apparently he cut out a couple of inches of "floating rib" to get to the tumour, but he assures Quent he won't miss it. I know a Sea Scout Group which would definitely miss their floating Rib if it went missing, but maybe this is different.

Other than that, and the terrible programmes on TV, we are doing fine.

Making good progress

Quent continues to do well. He's very tired, but the oxygen mask is now officially off and he no longer has a tube up his nose. Once they take the thing out of his neck, I will take Oakley in to see him. (I gather it's called a "Central Line" so we can expect delays there. Groan.)

All your comments and emails are keeping our spirits high. Thanks for all the wishes and witticisms. I read them out to Quent each day in a best-man-at-a-wedding way.

We are intrigued by the recommended treatments. We have had a new offer over email - genuine Witch Doctor magic root all the way from Equitorial Guinea. Not sure whether to have the apricot kernals as a starter and the root as the main course or vice versa, but it seems clear red wine must accompany it all.

Have a lovely sunny weekend.

Prize for positive vibes

The top prize for positive vibes goes to David Newton, aged 13, based in York (my nephew). How can I put this? He literally bust a gut sending his .....

David, hope the operation to remove your appendix was successful. Quent and I are really sorry that your mum was down here at Quent's bedside rather than yours. What a day!

lots of love to David and best (gentle) wishes for a speedy return to the rugby field.

Helen

ps. Quent is doing really well. Even puts his oxygen mask back on if we nag him. He spoke to the Venture Scouts tonight and said he's feeling "euphoric". I hadn't realised one of those drips was pumping long words into him alongside the blood and other stuff.

Successfully through the operation

The operation went very well and Quentin is now back in his room, smiling through his oxygen mask.

He wants you all to know the kidney was 1.4kg. I'm not sure how much it would usually be, to be honest, but we can safely say significantly smaller given the tumour was approx 11cm. (I did try to look it up online but got lost in the organic butcher sites).

He is having a blood tranfusion and hitting his morphine button regularly but that's only to be expected. He croaked that he was feeling "top notch". I heard this from the floor because I have to admit that all the drips etc. made me feel rather faint. Heaven help me if I have to look at the wound.

Tomorrow morning I will see Father Christmas to understand a bit more, but it seems the positive vibes etc have worked. Thank you very much. Now, back to work the lot of you!

Radical nephrectomy

The registrar refused Quentin's request to keep the kidney, but agreed to weigh it for him.

Apparently these operations take about 3 hours plus time to get him asleep and recovery time. In short he's not expected back on the ward till about 5pm so don't expect any news till late tonight when I am back.

Keep the positive vibes and lovely messages coming. I am sure they are helping.

Hx

Stop press...Op brought forward

We got a little cocky today thinking we were hospital-free. But they rumbled us, wandering round Beckonscot model village and hauled us in to the hospital for 6.30pm.

All good news. They are going to operate first thing instead of lunchtime. Less waiting for us, but I do need you all to pull forward your positive vibes to approximately 08.30am.

Went in this evening to check on the patient and he was very happy, with an iPod in one hand and the bed control in the other. Looked more like a cheeky schoolboy than an ill person.

Visiting

Several people have been asking about visiting Quent. He will be on 15th floor of Charing Cross and, whilst I will be checking his bag for rope and eyebolts, I remain concerned about an abseil attempt. The building is just like Madison Heights only slightly … higher. The hospital is investigating extra security for Thursday night.

We have therefore decided to restrict hospital visiting to family only. Given the size of Quent’s family, that’s still quite a logistical challenge.

Once he is home and ensconsed in his MP3 collection / recovery mode, I will let you know more. Do please keep posting comments and messages as I will take them in for him, when I go to check the windows.

"Webbs"; Please let me know when / if you are planning to visit. Another "big birthday" would be fun, but I am not sure Charing Cross would be happy to host it.

The Operation

(Note, older blogs are underneath this one. Please read "meeting Mr Christmas" before this one.)

Quent will now go in on Thursday at 7.30am – being renally pre-pubescent, they have let him off being admitted on Wednesday.

He will be operated on at lunchtime and should go straight back to the ward (ie. Not to Intensive Care).

He will be sitting in a chair within 24 hours and toddler proof within about 48 hours.

Because he is so young and so fit (you can tell that his geriatric wife was getting tired of hearing this), he should be out in 5 days’ time, although the average is a week.

When he gets home, he should be able to climb stairs etc. After his recovery (approx 6 weeks), Father Christmas says he can go back to work.

Meeting Mr Christmas.

This morning we met the consultant who will operate to remove the kidney. His name is Mr Christmas and, as he had a baby last week, he is now Father Christmas (All corny jokes courtesy of Helen’s dad).

Here goes for the medical detail, as briefly as I can.

There are kidney tumours which don’t go into the renal vein and those that do. The latter makes it slightly more tricky to get it out. (Also means that sometimes bits of the tumour break away and whiz up the vein to the lungs). Quent’s does go into the renal vein, but only just.

Mr Christmas has taken out 475 kidneys, 182 of which went into the renal vein. He did one last week which went all the way up the vein and into the heart so Quent’s is relatively small fry to him.

The process is as follows.

1. Get the kidney out. Remove the enlarged lymph nodes at the same time. These may or may not be cancerous, but will come out. Taking them out is no problem as they work on the kidney and that won’t be there any more anyway.

2. Check out the pathology of the kidney and lymph nodes (Mr Christmas). Recover from operation (Quent).

3. Move under care of Professor Gore (oncologist and specialist in immunotherapy). There are little speckles on Quent’s lungs so they will re-scan the lungs a few times over the next few months. If the speckles don’t grow, we do nothing. If they do, we will move onto …

4. …Immunotherapy and possibly even some extremely new stuff called “sunitinib”. In the words of Mr Christmas “we have lots up our sleeve”.

When I had Oakley, every conversation at the hospital seemed to start “at your age”, including one which told me I was “obstetrically geriatric”. Quent keeps being told the opposite – how young he is for all this. We will henceforth be nicknaming him “pre-pubescent Quent”.

Friday 13th - Good News Day!

Today has been a lovely sunny day and we have had two bits of good news from the hospital.

Firstly, the bone scan Quent had this morning * was totally clear. Hallelujah! I feel like singing - and crying with relief.

Secondly they have decided to speed things along by operating next week. So one less week of waiting.

So that’s a great way to start the weekend. Thanks to those who left comments on the last post – Quent loved them.

Have a good weekend everyone.

* (For those who want the medical detail, they injected Quent with radioactive isotopes and 2 hours later had a total body scan with a gamma camera, to assess if the cancer had spread to the bones.)

The diagnosis

Yesterday, the lump on Quent’s kidney was confirmed as cancer. It’s a little more serious than they thought as it has spread to the lungs and the lymph nodes. The action now is to remove the left kidney (in two weeks’ time) and then move into a new form of treatment called immunotherapy (as chemotherapy and radiotherapy apparently won’t work for this type of cancer). Apparently we have the top surgeon for this (Mr Christmas) and he works with the pioneer of immunotherapy.

I also picked up 6 books from the Post Office. Four about fighting cancer with food, which I haven’t started yet – although we have started following the excellent advice of our friend Clo, who knows a thing or two about nutrition. One about Fighting Cancer with a Positive Outlook (Quent could have written that one!) and one called “What can I do to help” which is written for family and friends.

One of first things the author of “What I can do to help” says is that if the cancer doesn’t finish me off quickly, the telephone will. That made us laugh. Of course we understand that if you love Quent (and that’s a lot of people), you will want to call. But the phone hasn’t stopped ringing and Quent is more excited about watching his Nania DVD than talking about his illness. The author of the book suggested setting up a blog.

I know it’s a bit new age for many of us and it doesn’t mean we won’t talk again, but I hope you will understand if we are feeling overwhelmed and direct you to the blog for news. I am not sure how we will do, but it’s worth a go as it allows people to read the latest and leave comments / thoughts if they like.

The books kind of sum up how we are going to fight this. With great diet (I am in charge of that one), positive thinking (Quent is in charge of that one) love and laughter (We share both of those). We laughed a lot yesterday and that’s how we want it to be. We have a tough time ahead of us, but we will be rushing out of the other side with smiles on our faces as soon as we can.

I will keep you posted.

Lots of love – and sorry to “piss on your evening” as Quent so charmingly puts it!

Helen