When Trevor, my partner of 14 years, first mentioned that he was seeing a specialist about an ulcer on his tongue, the word cancer did not enter my head. However when MRI scans and biopsies quickly followed, I began to realise that it may be something serious. So when we met Mr Cheng for the results I think we were prepared for the worst and it wasn’t too much of a shock when he confirmed it was cancer.
Mr Cheng was very honest from the start and I felt completely confident about him treating Trevor. He explained in graphic detail what would be involved (cutting away part of the tongue and ‘plumbing in’ part of the forearm to replace it). I must admit I felt a bit queasy at this point and thought I might throw up in the hand basin we were standing in front of! But Mr Cheng was very positive about the outcome and spoke with such enthusiasm about what he was going to do that we were very reassured and felt very lucky to have been referred to him.
The operation was to take place in a couple of weeks and I think we both came to terms with things pretty quickly. Although we would never have chosen for it to happen, it was basically a matter of getting on and dealing with it as part of ‘life’s journey’ – but only a temporary phase. We were also determined to stay positive throughout, which I’m sure helped in a lot of ways.
The day of the operation came around quickly and we had to be in the ward the morning before. After checking in we basically had the rest of the day free, so we just wandered around looking at all the different restaurants with Trevor trying to decide what to eat for his last meal for a couple of weeks! We ended up having two meals out that day.
The operation went completely to plan and Trevor was back on the main ward within about 12 hours. I was a bit worried about what to expect when I went to see him but I was amazed that he looked so good. He had a few tubes in and stitches around his chin and neck but apart from that he looked fine. He recovered really well and was soon up and about and home just under two weeks later.
When Trevor was first diagnosed I assumed that he was going to be quite ill for some time and need looking after completely, but this was not the case at all. He was back on his bicycle the day after he came home, with me, his mum, a friend and our dogs all trying to keep up with him and you did have to wonder who was the patient!
I think Trevor was slightly worried about eating when he came out, but it wasn’t a problem and he was able to eat ‘mushed up’ food quite easily. The best thing I can recommend is to buy a hand blender – I bought a Braun one for about £25 and you can mush up absolutely anything – even roast dinner. It’s also great for milkshakes and soups – you can cook fairly hearty soups and then just blend them. I became quite an expert at making soups – I actually bought a soup cook book and there’s loads of different recipes – but I must admit that by the end of the radiotherapy I was getting a bit sick of it! Soft puddings are also good such as trifle, custard etc. as well as scrambled eggs/omelettes and mashed potato/mince.
The six or so weeks of radiotherapy passed by fairly quickly and it was only really the last couple of weeks that Trevor started to get a bit sore and we had to go back to the soups whereas he had been eating reasonably beforehand. But a few weeks later he was getting back to normal and started getting out on his bike and even doing a couple of epic rides. Apart from a few scars he looks as good as new and his speech is really good and he is eating fairly normally apart from just taking a bit longer. He is incredibly cheerful (more so than before!) and enjoying life to the full and is making the most of his time before I make him go back to work!
So it’s just fingers crossed for the future thing and if anyone would like to speak to Trevor(07879 663700) or myself, Mandy(07900 183248) please feel free to call anytime.
Mandy Jubb
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