A busy day with my Son.

Yesterday was expected to be decision day for my son, regarding impending Surgery, to deal with his brain tumour. Having a consultant based in London when you live in Manchester adds to the challenge. So I arranged to pick him up and travel with him by car to London.

I set off home in Bolsover just before 0700, with an estimated journey time to Manchester of two hours. I had allowed extra time due to possible ice conditions passing over the Pennines. Weather was not however a problem but Monday morning traffic heading to Manchester was with Long queue, so the journey extended to two and half hours.

I picked up Stephane and after a couple of false starts getting orientated with the GPS on my phone we were heading South. My plan was to travel down the M6 and then turn off onto the A50 and join the M1, however, however when Stephane was checking his phone is showed two blockages on the route. Then Traffic news confirmed the Junction off the M6 was closed, so we reverted to plan B and took the M6 Toll road. We needed to catch the 1407 train at Milton Keynes to travel into London. News then came in to say that trains between Milton Keynes and London were being delayed for 30 minutes due to an Accident in the morning.

We started to panic as we had a tight schedule and did not expect delays. By this time we knew we would arrive at Milton Keynes park and ride, early so decided to get top the rail station as fast as possible, so that if trains were still be delayed we could catch an Earlier one, but we would need to buy new tickets.

As things turned out our planned train was due to arrive on time. So panic over. Once again we got a little lost orientating our selves but finally arrived in good time at the Neurological hospital. We had to wait some 30 minutes for Stephan’s consultant to see us. The Consultant showed us Stephane’s previous MRI scans and explained that the tumour was touching his brain stem and there is a high risk of further damaging the optic nerve. I would seem that Proton therapy is not an option at the moment wlist the tumour is so close to brain stem as it would damage the brain stem.

The consultant asked Stephane if he was ready to commit to surgery Stephane replied by saying that his sight was very important and he would only risk damaging his sight if it was necessary. The Consultant examined his eyes and made notes about his existing restricted fields of vision. We had some discussions and it became apparent that another MRI scan would be needed to see if there had been any change with the tumour, If the tumour is not growing it may be possible to delay operating and instead try radio therapy as an option. If the tumour is growing them probably an operation would be required earlier.

Unlike Stephane’s previous consultant, his new one is prepared to operate, but warned that he needs to see what kind of tissue the tumour is made up from and this can only be discovered by an exploratory procedure which may result it in one of two outcomes, backing out of the procedure to avoid further damage or completion which might open the door for future proton therapy..

Whilst we we there, he arranged a blood test and we tried to see is the MRI machine was available later in the evening, as it was not, we turned to plan B and are arranging an MRI Scan in the coming weeks to be completed in the morning with a consultation later in the day to plan the way ahead,

The slow progress is a little disappointing and will mean another trip to London before matters can be resolved. We left London during the rush hour by train and were concerned about the amount of traffic leaving Milton Keynes, however as it turns out little was going North so it took some one and half hours to drive home to Bolsover.

We had been on the move all day apart from grabbing a Subway sandwich at the station and so we went out for an evening meal and a pint at 2100 hour.

Stephane stayed overnight and I drove him home this morning and we are now awaiting an update from the Hospital

David O