News to date

The news of my squatter arrived grimly late Monday Dec 19 just in time for Christmas. (Sorry Sue Raynor for overlooking your birthday.)

I don’t recall ‘squatter’ being on my Christmas wish-list but it sure was a surprise. Dazed and shocked M and I exited the bumoscopy rooms in Ballina processing what to do next. Do we go home? Do we go to ma & pa’s to share our early Christmas gift? Do we sit in the car and allow the news to swallow us up? What to do?

Since we were in Ballina, it felt right to go to ma & pa’s and after a few tears, we filled them in on what was apparently to happen next – a visit to M’s surgeon Austin Curtin asap.

The bumoscopy doctor (David Whittaker) had already contacted Austin’s rooms and being a highly recommended surgeon, we weren’t surprised that he was fully booked – especially given how close it was to Christmas. However, a few strings were apparently pulled (thank you David) and we were told to be at Austin’s Lismore rooms from 2:30 the next day (Dec 20) when his staff would try to slot us in.

Austin Curtin, David Whittaker and their staff, are angels. The next morning prior to our departure, we got a call to say ‘we have an appointment available’ if we can get there by 2:10pm. Wow, amazing.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to Lismore we go. Exactly 10 years to the day, we drove the very same road to admit M to Lismore Base for the removal of his Tommy tumour… this time for me. WTF???

According to Austin, the squatter is large and in a tricky place for a scalpel and advises an MRI. Of course, due to Christmas we couldn’t get an MRI till the new year.

Jan 11 we’re back in Austin’s rooms receiving the MRI results. Not fabulous, but not devastating either. Yes, the squatter is a big fat fucker virtually occupying the whole space at my back door preventing me from enjoying a big fat pooh. I never appreciated how good it is to do a big fat pooh and now dream of the day. Fortunately, the squatter (at this stage) has only sublet to a couple of dodgy types who are hanging about in the tissue outside the bowel wall. There’s no evidence of squatters anywhere else – yet.

So, tomorrow we meet with Patrick Dwyer a cancer care dude to map out a treatment plan. Stay tuned.