Oh Dear...

Sadly, the lady who lives two doors down from us has been taken away to hospital in an ambulance.

Earlier in the year she'd spent approx six weeks there but we had no idea.

Then a few weeks before Mum was diagnosed, she was taken into hospital and spent roughly the same amount of time there. To cut the story short she had never really been ill all her life or one for being seen by Doctors.

We believe she has something similar to Mum and has had a few operations and was unable to eat.

She answered the door when I was going to tell tell her husband how Mum was doing, she really looked weak and vulnerable but said that her consultant reckoned it would take around 6 months for her to make a full recovery.

Today, I looked out of our window and the ambulance was back...and Mum thinks it took our neighbour away. Its a worry and I am sure that they must be going through all the worry and concern that we are feeling.

Seeing another person going through such a worrying time does bring your own situation home.

We've just lost another neighbour but I don't think that is connected to anything connected to what anything associated with this disease.

He'd had a stroke a few years ago and he wasn't doing so well. I mentioned him in an earlier post.

Meantime, Mum has had a letter today confirming the follow up appointment to her Radio Therapy treatment and it will happen on January 4, 2012 just before lunchtime at a local satellite surgery the Oncologist holds. I so hope its good news...

I saw Mum's tumour today...it is amazing how much smaller it is(it also makes me realise how large it originally was and a nuisance)it has improved greatly and that pleases me.

I hope that it continues to shrink but I assume the effect will slow down in the second and third week.

I don't know if it will continue after that or if it will start to regrow immediately so when the Oncologist sees it early January, will it still look as good. Its unknown territory.

For now we must be thankful how things have gone and take it one day at a time. As things stand still more to be positive about.

I should have mentioned this earlier...this is a very positive story...I don't know widespread it was reported in the media. In Mum's case this looks good but then again the 17 fold survival rate of 9 years can only be a generalisation and people surviving that long instead of months may be affected by other health matters, age and whether you are getting a combination of treatments rather than just one. Still good though...