the long wait....

After yesterday's afternoon sunshine, today dawned grey and misty. Steve was wide awake by 6.30 am, up and sorting out some money matters before my eyes were properly open. Even so, we left the house later than planned and crawled most of the way to the hospital in the morning traffic jams. Not the best start to Steve's assessment day.  


However, there were spaces in the hospital car park; the X-ray was taken quickly; we arrived at the day clinic well before for his 9:40 appointment and were called in to see the doctor bang on time.  Our spirits lifted a little as we were told we would be seeing Dr Church the registrar, rather than the consultant.  If it was bad news, surely Dr Talbot would be the one to break it to us himself....


However, as time passed we became increasingly anxious, sitting alone in the consultation room - five minutes, no doctor....ten minutes no doctor...fifteen minutes later, still no doctor....oh dear, I thought, the registrar has spotted something ominous on the X-ray and is waiting for advice from the consultant about how to break it to us and what to do next.... 


And then.  At last.  Dr Church appeared smiling, accompanied by a student doctor, and asked whether Steve minded her observing.  My mind flew back to the first appointment I had attended with Steve post-diagnosis in 2009, where the consultant was being shadowed by a teenager on work experience and how I had fought hard to hold back the tears as we broached the subject of prognosis.


But today the atmosphere was different, thank goodness. After first asking Steve how he felt, the doctor didn't keep us waiting on tenterhooks any longer.  There was no sign of any change on the X-ray, the mesothelioma still appeared to be stable.  The physical examination by both doctor and student revealed nothing untoward and as Steve still feels good, he's be signed off for another three months!  No need to go back to hospital until 14 June, unless he experiences any problems in the mean time.  


So here we are, with big smiles on our faces, thinking about what we would like to do in the next three months which will include another big milestone - our Ruby wedding anniversary on 1 May.  


Tomorrow it will be exactly two years and nine months since Steve was diagnosed with mesothelioma and he's still going strong.  Woohoo!