I’m so thankful right now and I want to share some good news. Yesterday I had a voicemail message from the Urology Consultant’s secretary to tell me the recent biopsies have not revealed anything untoward or sinister. I take that as being told no cancer was found.
I was here at home on my own when I picked up this message and so I then sent a text message through to Rachel, who was at work in the church finance office. I also said a “praise God, thank you” in prayer. Apparently Rachel burst into tears, tears of joy. Naturally this caused a number of nearby colleagues to wonder what was going on but thankfully Rachel was able to say it was some really good news and left it there.
In previous blog posts I have been a bit cryptic about what was going on, so I probably ought to put things in context now. As you might know I am due to have an operation on my prostate as it has grown somewhat (happens to some older men, although it’s said I’m a bit young for this kind of thing!!!). As a step towards the operation the Consultant needed to take a closer look at my prostate, which took place back in August. This was so a number of measurements could be made which and needed to determine how long was needed in the operating theatre. He thought there were some irregularities and thought it was prudent to investigate this further in order to rule out cancer.
So pretty quickly I had some MRI scans followed by a CT scan of my entire urinary tract. The MRI scans showed up some suspicious areas which resulted in the need to have some biopsies to be taken on 17 September. A biopsy is, or so I am told, a definitive way of seeing if there is cancer present. I can tell you there were several samples taken and the bruising has only just gone after two weeks, although I am still just a little tender “down there”.
I had only shared the prospect of cancer with a few close friends and some family members. Everyone has been so supportive, thank you all so much!
I know the prostate operation should be happening fairly soon now, so hopefully I will get a date for this over the next few days. That should then take care of itself. Otherwise the main thing for me to concentrate on is taking care of myself generally which will be a pleasure to do. Having messed up kidneys means that I need to hang on to the kidney function I have remaining. The key to this is maintaining a normal blood pressure, staying at a good weight, not becoming diabetic and avoiding the Ibuprofen family of medicines.
So this morning I went for a run, only a very short 1.3 miles and it felt so good. I am looking forward to building up my fitness once again and who knows, I might be running another marathon next year!
Wrapping up, I’m so thankful!
God is good and all praise and glory to Him who is able to do all things! Thank you Jesus!
Yes indeed, thank you Philip!