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Update September 2016

Written by Neil

Again it’s been a while since I’ve shared any news, so there’s a bit to fill you in with.

Healthwise

Mr Richard Oakley appointment 16 June 2016

Just to fill you all in about my conversation with my consultant at my last hospital appointment. My consultant, Mr Oakley started our conversation by looking at me and saying.

“You’ve had a remarkable recovery and you know you’re a bit of a miracle!” He then went on to say “and you’ve dodged a lot of bullets in the process and survived”. I told him “I’m here by the grace of God” after both Sue and myself had a number of conversations with him about our faith over the last couple of years.

He went on to say ‘he was an ardent atheist’ but he said “your faith and the support your family and friends have given you, have got you through” and he smiled. I replied to him “then how can anybody, seeing the marvels of the human body and how it’s been put together, then doubt that somewhere out there is a creator who has put all this together!” he then smiled at me again.

I did come away feeling pretty good and after 2 and half years, I thought that maybe I can start to look forward to a brighter future. So thank you all again for the love and support and prayers you have given me and my whole family. Thanks Neil.

Other News

For my 50th birthday in February our goods friends Martin and Dawn Pointing gave me a white water canoeing adventure at Lee Valley White Water Park, where the Olympic canoeing and kayaking was staged and in May we had the day out, with Sue and Dawn taking all the action photos. Being not sure if all my old canoeing skill could be rekindled, I was pleasantly surprised when they did all come back in the midst of the cold white water. We had a great adventure together and felt I had coped well with the physical challenges of the day. Thanks Martin and Dawn.

At the end of July I finished an 11 month contract at Burberry and choose to have the rest of the 6 week summer holidays off with Sue and the family.

Our first week off was spend with our church friends at the New Wine conference in Shepton Mallet, in Somerset, with 12,000 other people. We then jetted off to Fethiye, Turkey for 10 days in 35 degree heat, just relaxing in the swimming pool and enjoying our family break together.

On return to the UK, Dan, Sophy and Amy, went back again to Shepton Mallet for another week at Soul Survivor youth camp.

Whilst Martin Pointing and myself went on another 2 day canoe adventure in an open-top Canadian canoe on the river Nene near Peterborough and again we had a great time as boys away together.

On 14 September was our 25th Wedding Anniversary and we had a party to celebrate this and my 50th birthday earlier in the year, with an old friend’s Nick Beston‘s live jazz band and a hog roast by @FFFCatering.

Update February 2016

Written by Neil

They often say ‘no news is good news!’ well it has been a while since there has been any news to share, but I thought it might be a good time to fill you in on what’s been going on since last Augusts update.

The BIGGEST NEWS is that today is my birthday! and it’s a big one! 50, and yes I hear you all say ‘you don’t look that old Neil!’ and when I was speaking about my birthday this with a colleague on Friday saying it was a big birthday on 15, he thought I was going to be 40! Which made me very happy. But sadly the truth is I was born on 15 February 1966 and my mum has just told me I was due to be a Valentine baby, but my mum was due for a caesarean section, but they was too busy so I was born a day later in the 15, but to my mind the 15 better as my family can never forget the date!

The other thoughts this days bring, is that 2 years ago I couldn’t see myself reaching 50, so I’m thankful to all the medical teams who have looked after me and blessed by our family and friends who have stood by us and prayed for us through this difficult time. We are also grateful and thankful to God he has been there every step of the way and that I can say that I’m here enjoy my day.

We are celebrating my birthday by going away for 3 days away in a Spa Hotel near Southampton where will be meeting up with our son Dan for a birthday meal.

2016 is not only a big year for me but a big year for our whole family, as I have been married to Sue for 25 years in September, Dan is 21 in December, Sophy is 18 in May and Amy is 16 in April, so we’re going do something bigger to celebrate all these events later in the year.

Health wise, I had a review with one of my consultants My Oakley in September and he was very pleased with my progress and commented that I was looking very well and have made remarkable progress considering what I had been through in the last couple of years and he was happy to sign me off from his care to now be managed by my other consultant Mr Obholzer.

In November I had my 6 monthly MRI scan and review with Mr Obholzer and the scan showed nothing had changed and everything was all stable and he was very happy with my progress and they only thing he still wanted to sort out was my voice, to see if we could get this improved. He then referred me to vocal specialist consultant to see what could be done. My voice is still pretty quiet and he was hoping to improve my volume.

At the beginning of this month, I saw the consultant and they did a video of my vocal cords are decided they could again do another injection to move my left vocal cord out to close the gap between the good one and bad one, which again should give me back some volume. I have a date for the day operation which will be on Thursday 3 March. This is a straightforward operation and I should be out the same day, but again won’t bet able to talk for a couple of days. So anything that can help to improve my voice is great and I’m hoping and praying that this will significantly improve the volume and quality of my voice.

Work wise I mentioned I might have an extended contract to work in a well know global brands in-house design apartment. Well its now been 6 months since I started working in Burberry’s head office near the Houses of Parliament which is still ongoing and am booked till April. Its been good to been the same place for a while and get to work with a team on longer term projects. Long may it last.

So thats my brief update and hopefully I can give you all some further update in the next month or so. Thanks again for all your love, prayer and support. Neil

Update August 2015

Written by Neil

Blog Update 13 August 2015

It’s now nearly 6 weeks since my last small operation, which I didn’t really explain about much in my last blog post. So I’ll just briefly explain. In Feburary’s operation which was to attached an titanium abutment into my skull to create a fixing point on my head for a BAHA (bone attached hearing aid) hearing aid. I also had an injection into my left vocal cord to hopefully improve the volume of my voice, as my voice has been pretty quiet since all my operations and treatments last year, as a nerve was cut in one of the operations meaning I have lost the use of a number of neck and throat muscles which controlled my voice and my swallowing, which in turn means only one of my two vocal cords now moves, leaving a gap, which in turn didn’t give me enough breath to talk very loudly at all.

The February operation went a long way to improving my voice, but the speech therapist felt it could be improved further, so this is what the last operation was about and I can say that after I had rested my voice for 48 hours, there was an improvement again. I’m still not back to a normal level of volume, but this now is as good as it gets and I’m happy as I now have enough breath to even sing, a bit, but it’s not quite the angelic tones I was able to output to years ago, but far better than it’s been.

Life is now at a new normal and as good as it gets. Work has been a bit quiet in July and we’ve had a 2 week family holiday at the end of July and first week of August. Our first week was our 11th year camping at New Wine christian summer conference at the Royal Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet, Somerset, camping with 12,000 other people and churches. The weather wasn’t great with heavy rain meaning we started off the week pretty wet! But the weather didn’t spoil our week and we had great fun with lots of old and new friends. Our 3 kids spent the week working in on the youth teams looking after groups on 16-18 7-8 years olds. So although they had a busy week they loved every minute of it.

Our second week was far more luxurious one, as we drove on to St Brides, Pembrokeshire in south Wales to stay with another family the Heaths, in a very nice cottage. Again the weather was mixed but that didn’t stop us having a great week.

Now we’re backing and getting use to normal life again. The kids are off again next week to Soul Survivor. Dan then has a further 2 holidays before his back down to Southampton at the end of September for his second year at uni.

Sue and the girls return to school at the start of September and work wise, I am then booked from the beginning of September for a potentially extended contract in a well know global brands in-house design apartment. Which I’m looking forward to.

That’s our news for now and hopefully we looking forward to a fairly non-eventful autumn. Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support.

Neil

Operation Update July 2015

Written by Neil

Hi guys. this is not a new blog posting, it’s just my blog site has been down and out of action for a couple of weeks. But it’s has now been restored from my last back up in May, which didn’t have this last post from July on it, so it’s all old News, not new News, is just I’ve re-published this last blog post again to keep the blog site up to date. I will give you all the latest update soon.

Thanks Neil
August 2015

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Just to give you all a quick up date on todays events.

I arrived at Guys Hospital at London Bridge at 9am, but didn’t get into theatre till 1.30pm, so a long wait! But was only in Theatre about 30 mins and I was back on the ward by 3.30pm.

Everything went well and feeling good, but I’m now of a forced & strict NO TALKING routine for the next 48 hours. So not allow to speak, much to my families relief. I’m not really going to know how successfully this current operation has been until Sunday onwards. So watch this space to hear my voice!

My friend Pete Doorey came up to the ward just as I arrived on it and stayed till there till they let me home at 7.30pm. Fortunately London bridge station is only 5 mins walk from the ward and the fast train was only 18 minutes to Orpington and my lovely wife then picked us up from the station.

So I’m now home and feeling pretty good and have now adopted a new way of communicating with everyone! My mac has the ability to convert type into speech, so I type what I want to say and the computer speaks it out loud! This is fun and I can speak in many different voices and accents. Sue is already sick on my new voice!!! But I’m enjoying my new computer voice as it’s far better than my pre op voice, as I’ve been so use to have such a quiet and weak voice and I’m hoping, come Sunday the strength and volume of my voice will be improved! Watch this space as I might even record a message with my new voice in a blog to everyone!

Thanks again for your prayers and support today!

Update May 2015

Written by Neil

Blog update 6 May 2015

Another long over due update and lots has happen since February’s operations. One to improve the volume of my voice and the other to attached an titanium abutment into my skull to create a fixing point on my head for a BAHA (bone attached hearing aid) hearing aid. As I said in my previous post.

All went well on the day and I woke up feeling pretty good and not feeling too tired or sleepy from the anaesthetic, but I was talking a lot louder straightaway. But as I found out later, I should have been resting my voice for a couple of days after the operation. But no medical staff had told be this. A speech therapist should have come a see me whilst I was in hospital, but it took another 4 weeks for this to happen. After emailing my consultant after 4 weeks one morning not speaking to anyone about it. I actually got an appointment with the principle speech therapist on the same day. She was great and then told me that I should have rested my voice for a couple of days after the operation. Hindsight is a great thing! I then had 4 speech therapy session over 4 weeks with her which did really help me to understand how I could help my voice through different exercises. After the 4 sessions it was then decided that although the injection had improved my voice, their was still a gap in my throat between my good vocal cord on the right and the one that had stopped working on my left, which in reality is only about 1mm gap, but I have been told that I could still have another injection to push out the non working vocal cord to meet the good vocal cord better then hopefully I would get another increase in volume, which I definitely noticed after the first operation.

The BAHA abutment did take a few weeks for the settle down and for the skins around it to start to heal which did mean weekly visited to see the nurse, but after 5 weeks it was looking good. I was then booked in to get the actual BAHA hearing aid, which did take another 6 weeks for the appointment, but those finally happened on 27 April. So after getting my bonic ear clip on last week it’s been great and I have now got back my full hearing. The sound isn’t quite the same as my other ear, but with both ears working together I get a great surround sound, which also gives me back the ability to hear which direction sound is coming for. It has also help me in term of when I am anywhere where there is a lot of background noise and I have found even at parties I can hear well. So another thing to tick off as sorted.

At the beginning of April I had another one of my regular MRI scans to check on my neck and to see what’s going on in there and today I had an appointment with Mr Rubert Obholzer my consultant to review the scan and catch up on my progress. So Sue had the morning off school to come to Guys hospital with me. We was both feeling a bit nervous, as we had been told last summer there is still a very small trace of the tumour in my neck, but from August to December if anything it had reduced in size. So in the end it was a very positive appointment. Mr Obholzer explained a bit more about the tumour, that many people who had my sort of tumour often had small traces left, but often these are a very different sort of tissue and other people have lived with this sort of thing for 20 years with no problems. He has also booked me in to have another top up injection which will again be a general anaesthetic, as he believes this will again improve the volume of my voice, this should hopefully happen in the next 6 weeks and should only be a quick 30 minute operation. So with not great expectations for the appointment, we came away very happy.

As for everything else, eating is still slow, but improving slightly and I’ve halved the amount of shakes I’m still taking and generally my health is good and life is fairly normal. Work wise, I was a bit quiet in February, but this did pick up from March and I’ve been very busy since and I’ve had some great projects working on a Kronebourg beer and bottle packaging and an Orangina juice bottle and can packaging project for one agency for 5 weeks, which have been great projects to work on.

I must sign off now, but I once again want to thank all my family and friends for all your prayers and support as we as a family have got through this last 18 months together and we also believe that God has been watching over us and looking after us, every step of our journey. Thank you Jesus.