Thighs like wood. I have had five operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I have been admitted to hospital with Sepsis, and I’ve had plenty of scans too. That means a lot of needles for tests and thinners over the past few months. I’ve had plenty of cannulas too. Every time something is given intravenously, or for […]
“you lay down, it takes about a minute and you won’t feel a thing” Just hold on, because that’s only really half true. I’m not sure how many radiotherapy machines they have at The Royal Marsden. It’s a lot though! Between the two sites, they will almost certainly operate the largest radiotherapy facility in the […]
There are loads resources online for male cancers. Many of them are built by charities and focus on the technical details. They are all reliable, well put together and fantastic places to start. If you want the plain, unvarnished, medical facts, accept no substitute. The NHS – The UK wide health service and a long […]
Meet the robot The procedure is called a robotic pelvic lymph node dissection, and it’s really impressive. At St George’s, they have a DaVinci robot and it’s one of 70 in NHS hospitals across the UK. When pelvic node dissections for cancer surgery are done the old fashioned way, it’s very dramatic. The surgeon cuts […]
Get used to it. Cancer treatment means lots of scans, it’s just a fact of life. I usually get a CT scan every 6 to 9 weeks, but different doctors have different needs. In the course of treatment, I had ultrasounds, radiotherapy planning scans and even, because I was really lucky? I had some nuclear […]
In 2019 and 2020 I had lots of major surgery for cancer. My penis, both sides of my groin and my pelvis have all been under the knife. In truth, I probably couldn’t have handled many more operations. The 9 inch scars each side of my groin are really neat and tidy, and the hairs […]
A cautionary tale. You really don’t want sepsis, or septicaemia, or a septic episode. I don’t say this lightly, it’s absolutely horrendous. Cancer surgery often means big wounds. Wherever they might be, that also gives a lot of opportunities for infection. At one point, I had two huge wounds in my groin which were not […]
Stress. Cancer is often stressful, and more than anything I think it’s just fear of the unknown. It plays on the mind, I know it’s not just me. Sometimes I feel completely fine too, like all this is happening to someone else. Believe me when I say this, that a whole family suffers with cancer, […]
It’s not a church. Healthcare in the UK can be an emotive subject. After all, a significant proportion of the UK population seem to believe the NHS is some kind of religious institution. I am going to start with a big statement. If I didn’t have access to private healthcare, I might be dead. Or, […]
Penile cancer will, (as the name suggests) start with a lump on the penis. Usually, the lump is on the head or glans of the penis but it can be anywhere. If it spreads, (or metastasises) the next place it goes is the groin. Tumours, or more specifically the ones on the head of your […]