Thursday 10 April

OK, well Prof. Choong was looking at the results with us for the first time which somehow makes it seem scarier because you are waiting to see his response to it all, to see if he is shocked or horrified or screaming or something.

Here is what he said...

The results look the way he would want them to look. The tumor doesn't seem to be any smaller in the bone but is definitely less aggressive than it was in the first scans in January. It doesn't appear to have spread. He was all busy saying it was a good, even great result (which is a pretty big deal for a doctor to say) then realised he hadn't checked the chest x-rays which he said would be the most important, so then we were all scared again as he went to another room to look. He came back saying he wasn't too fussed about them. I was confused, wondering did that mean it was all clear, or simply that he wasn't fussed about it?! But that was all he said.

Next Thursday or Friday they will operate. Choong's part will take a bit over 2 hours where he will remove the affected area in the tibia, about 15 cm, from just under his knee to just above his ankle. He will replace this with two fibula (which are next to the tibia, but apparently not used for anything) and will join them with a rod in the middle to hopefully grow into a new tibia. This part will be followed by a plastic surgeon doing something, not sure what yet, Simon thought higher cheek bones perhaps?

He showed us an x-ray of someone who has had this done and you could see a few big bolts holding it all together. He also showed us a photo of this patient walking on the great wall of China just over two years later. He will have an epidural (yes, that's right, more pregnant woman things) for 3-4 days after the operation, then able to get up about 5 to 6 days. He will be in hospital for 10 days after the operation.

He will have two weeks at home after this before the chemo begins again and we won't know the condition of the tumor until two weeks after they remove it. Then they will be able to tell us exactly how effective the chemo has been and if it will be 20 or 30 weeks of chemo to follow.

He will be on crutches for months (not sure how many) and for the next two years will have to take it pretty easy and wear different kinds of braces on his knee.

So it is amazingly good news. We are really happy but also like with most of the news we've had, it seems a bit overwhelming when you get it and are thinking about getting through the whole of the next two years rather than just each day, but we know this will pass and we are really, really thankful. This is exactly what we prayed for. And thank you to all of you who were/are praying for us.