Author: Neil

Two days to go before my first operation this week and I have had another short pre operation hair cut.

I will need to be at the Kings hospital by 7am on Tuesday for  Embolization operation and hopefully I should be in and out on the same day, Wednesday will then be a day recovering at home, before being at Guys for 7am on Thursday. I will be in Guys for a least a week, possibly 2 weeks. Sue will keep you all up date with progress on this blog.

If any of you might be thinking of paying me a visit in hospital, which your welcome to do, we would just ask that you contact Sue my wife who will be coordinating visiting during my stay in hospital. The is mainly due to the fact that we really won’t know how I will be feeling or whether I’ll be up to see many people.

If you have her mobile can you text her, otherwise email her on sue@beetlebug.co.uk. Please say in your text or email, who you are and that you want to visit me and Sue can then let you know whether I’m feeling up to visitors and when would be good times to visit and what ward I’m on. If you want her mobile number beforehand, then please text or email me before Thursday.

Thanks again for all your ongoing prayers and support.

Movember has kicked off this week and my moustache has started to establish itself on my face although my chin has been cold this week without any of its normal coverings! Already have been given £50 of sponsorship, so you want to sponsor me go to http://mobro.co/neiljeremy1.

Earlier in the week I had a letter confirming the date of Thursday 21 November as the date for the main operation, which will take place at Guys hospital and yesterday 8 October I met up with Mr Obholzer to to review the results from the balloon occlusion test I had on the 24 October and the results as I have already mentioned on previous blogs were good. But he is looking at the possibility of having another procedure similar to the balloon occlusion test, that would block off some of the arteries feeding the tumour before the main operation, but this would need to be done a couple of days before 21. So I wouldn’t know about this till nearer the time.

He did go over some of the issues, one being the small risk of a stroke which has been reduced due to the balloon test and they other being that there is a strong possibility that they will have to sacrifice the hearing in my left ear to get at the tumour. Whilst this isn’t 100% certain it is a real possibility. I’m likely to be in hospital for between a week and 2 weeks and tube feed for at least the first week and I could also have issues with swallowing and talking for a while and the nerves in the left side of my face might also be temporary damaged causing my face to be a bit lop sided, but this could hopefully get better over the next 6 months or so. So at least the family will enjoy the quiet for a time.

So whilst I’m glad to have a date for the operation and to get it over with, I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it and to the time I’ll need to get back to normality afterwards. But I do appreciate all the support and prayers so may of you have given us as a family and I also know that the results of the balloon test was so positive because of all the prayers that so many of you have made on my behalf and my faith keeps me going as I know God is looking after me.

Please continue to prayer over these next few weeks that the operation might go according to plan and that there might not be any complications during the operation and afterwards the healing might happen quickly and that the doctors might be amazed at how well everything has gone so well.

Thanks again for continuing to read this blog and supporting us as a family.