Thora who?

We saw Mr Jones yesterday and he confirmed he can cut out the new lesion in Quent's right lung. Apparently it is in a deeper, more awkward place so it definitely won't be keyhole surgery. He has to go into the back of the lung this time.

The operation, a thoracotomy, will involved "stretching" the ribs apart (how stretchy are ribs?) and the recovery will be longer and "more sore" than last time. (Or, as Wikipedia puts it, "post operative pain is universal and intense".)

We have to check in on Tuesday 10th Feb, with surgery on Wed 11th. Which means that in two weeks, Quent will be recovering on the intensive care unit. And Valentine's Day will be spent in hospital - again!

I don't have much more to add, so I shall leave you with another little thought from Wikipedia...

"Thoracotomies are thought to be one of the hardest surgical incisions to deal with post-op, because they are exquisitely painful and the pain can prevent the patient from breathing effectively, leading to atelectasis or pneumonia."

Or as Quent would say, "a walk in the park".

Good news

Good news! Quent's scan result is "stable" (still the one spot, growing a bit but not much). So it's just another operation to take that section out of Quent's right lung - within the next few weeks. I know major lung surgery is not on everyone's Christmas list, but we are very pleased.

I do have one concern. I'm worried that, when they do the lung surgery, Quent's immune system will turn its attention to repairing the hole and take its eye off splatting the spots. (The last spot appeared sometime between end July and early Nov, when Quent had two operations.) I realise I won't win any Nobel Prizes for such a hypothesis, but we could get ourselves into a bit of a vicious circle if I'm right..."There's a spot in my lung, dear Liza, dear Liza."

And of course, I still have a few questions for Prof, who is a Professor of Patience as well as Medicine. When we saw him on Monday, and I put my theory to him, he didn't dismiss it totally. He said we might be able to do a shot of low dose IL-2, to supercharge the immune system before the surgery (Think Red Bull before a long journey). But then he and Quentin talked themselves out of it - Quent said he thought his immune system felt fine after the surgery (His theories are at least as ridiculous as mine.) I still think it's a great idea and will ask just one more time if they'll give it a go. And there's the German vaccine, raised last year as a possibility, if we do surgery. (They would use the tumour removed from the lung, to create a personalised vaccine, which has had some, albeit few, incidences of success.)

I mention the above to pre-empt questions from those of you studying for Mastermind; Specialist Subject "Quent's blog". And to reassure the rest of you that I am as inquisitive (exasperating) as ever and that we will still pursue every possible avenue / series of avenues, to find a cure for Quent.

Still waiting

Quick post just to say that we are still waiting for the radiologist's report. Will let you all know as soon as we hear.

By rights I should be thin

Happy New Year to everyone. We had a great Christmas and New Year. Very relaxing family time. Perfect.

Oakley loved the whole Christmas excitement - seeing his grandparents and cousins, opening presents, staying up late, socialising. He even enjoyed doing his thank you letters for a while, although they became "those blooming thank you letters" by the end! And his flirting continued throughout the festive season. He sent a note and some music (!) to one of his Year 6 (10 yr old) girlfriends and suggested to one of our attractive, blond friends (30 yr old) that she might like to sell her husband on ebay. I think he has just a year or two before someone thumps him.

Already 12th January - which means we are off to Manchester this morning for another scan. We won't get the results until the end of the week this time. I read an article saying that partners of cancer patients often lose weight too, due to the stress. I read another article saying that the best way to lose weight is to turn the heating down by one degree, so your body consumes more energy keeping warm. By rights I should be thin. Very thin.

Please keep all your positive thoughts focused on Quent this afternoon. I will let you know as soon as we have some news.

Meanwhile, we hope you are having a very happy, healthy start to 2009.