Update

So things are moving pretty rapidly now (and not just because I'm driving a Jaguar - although that helps). 

Had a lovely time in Sheffield with Jane & Bill. Always good company and they helped me work out some of the controls on the Jag so I now know how to set the cruise control and the speed limiter. Thank you guys :-)  And the Nest shop in Sheffiled just does the best furniture - we were all agreed on that.  Lunch was a little less successful simply because my pain situation meant that I couldn't really eat and didn't have an appetite.

However, it was when I returned to Manchester that things started to hot up. How long have you got?

Firstly, having parked the Jag, when I got out of it and tried to walk across the garage towards the lifts, my legs gave way beneath me and I just fell to the floor (luckily not injuring myself in any way). But it just happened out of the blue.  I couldn't explain it. So I picked myself up and continued my journey and then it happened again, just outside the lift. Again no other injuries but I was beginning to think that it was going to take me a long time to get through the flat door!  In actual fact, it hasn't happened again thank goodness.

So I was straight onto the NHS Out of Hours service (why do these things always happen at weekends?) as well as an email to my oncologist just to be on the safe side.  And I have to say this is one of those occasions when the NHS came up trumps.  The out of hours people advised me to speak to their GP who would (and did) phone me back within 20 minutes. The GP said I probably needed an assessment at an A&E and advised me to get to either MRI or Wythenshawe (since I was already receiving treatment there). She said she'd ring an ambulance for me but I said I was happy to get a taxi.

In the meantime my oncologist had phoned me (she is so good Yvonne) and said that she was trying to get me a bed at The Christie so that I could be assessed there.  She said the on call medical oncologist at The Christie would phone me. Which is exactly what happened. She said that she thought I needed a scan to assess whether the tumour on my back was causing "spinal cord compression" which is what had led to the weakness in my legs.  Unfortunately The Christie didn't have the facilities, out of hours, to carry out the scan and therefore I should attend one of the Manchester A&Es. We agreed eventually that I should attend the A&E at Salford Royal hospital since they were the hospital already being consulted over whether or not to carry out surgery on my back.

So I went to Salford Royal and they did all sorts of tests to assess whether I had feeling throughout my lower limbs, which I did, and my back passage, which - oooh Matron - I did.  They therefore didn't want to carry out a scan since there were no indicators that I needed one urgently. So they discharged me eventually with a prescription for some steroids to relieve swelling.  Unfortunately as soon as I arrived home I began a night of vomiting which lasted from 2300 until 0900 the following morning.  Since I hadn't eaten anything there was nothing to bring up but my body insisted on going through the motions anyway. Meanwhile of course my Dad, in Swansea, DD, in Brompton Lakes and Mrs T in Coldstream were all frantically trying to get information out of me as to the current state of play.  Well I had no signal in A&E and, once I'd started throwing up, very little opportunity to text or phone.  I was exhausted in the morning and just about managed to get out a round robin text to them all that I wasn't dead but was trying to get some sleep.  DD was cutting short her break (that woman is such a star but I hate doing this to her) to come and look after me.  Which is what happened.

I got steadily better and stronger on Sunday and managed to keep down a few Ensure Pluses and today I feel almost back to normal although still a little weak.  Have exchanged a few emails and phone calls with different medical personnel today and the current position is as follows -

* First port of call is the surgeons.  Do they want to (or feel they are able to) operate? If the answer to that question is "yes" then we go ahead with the operation.  This may put my place on the trial in jeopardy (they aren't going to 'randomise' me today for instance) but the redoubtable Yvonne will talk to the trial sponsor to see if they are willing to keep my place open.

* if the surgeons say "no" then it's full speed ahead with the trial, they'll 'randomise' me tomorrow and I'll start whichever of the treatments the randomiser decrees I'm to receive on Wednesday.

* In the meantime I shouldn't take the steroids (had I mentioned those yet? Whole different story, don't worry) unless I have another "episode" of leg weakness. 

So you're now all as up to date as I am.  I had intended on boycotting watching the Winter Olympics on account of the gay thing but given that I'm likely to be stuck at home for some time now I may just go ahead and watch it anyway. And we've won a medal. And the Russian's ice dance was just so beautiful even if they didn't score more than the Canadians (anyone got any idea what happened in Vancouver by the way - they're all talking about it without saying exactly what happened. Maybe what happens in Vancouver stays there?). So if there's a Gay God up there I hope he'll forgive me....

That's all. J x