Free at last!

I did not enjoy my time in hospital.  Who does?  So I was very glad when Joe came and picked me up at 10am this morning. As soon as I got out, Joe and I went and had Sunday morning breakfast together as we usually do. Routines must be observed! We talked mainly about American politics as we usually do.  Politics is a great interest for both of us. There was no point in saying anything much about my health as what is done is done.

An unexpected blessing while I was in hospital was that there were a few things things on TV -- mainly history -- that I found interesting. That helped with the boredom.

The Brisbane Private Hospital on Wickham Tce. is a VERY good hospital.  In some respects, it even pipped the Wesley, to my surprise. Each room had its own temperature control, the meals were first class restaurant standard and the TV controls were better.  Such things may seem trivial but they are not trivial when you are in there.

My captor who kept me in hospital for four days was the pretty and gracious "Emily" (Dr. Emily Perry), the highly regarded head and neck surgeon.  Outside the office, she dresses like a young woman about town rather than the very serious professional that she is.  So her daily visits to check on me were definitely a bright spot in my day. See her  below with Chris Perry, her father, also a distinguished surgeon.  They are both very self confident people.  She is in mufti there, not at all glammed up, as she can be.




I had an aggressive tumour on my neck which had metastasized (spread) from one of my skin cancers (SCCs). SCCs are known for spreading so my luck just ran out eventually.  That I had something like 100 SCCs removed that did NOT spread is the wonder. I always said that cancer would get me one day.

The tumour was in my parotid gland (one of the salivary glands) and was wrapped around my left facial nerve so I lost both the parotid gland and the left facial nerve, which was an unexpectedly bad result.  It was a two hour operation and Emily said she tried for half an hour save the facial nerve but it was just too entangled.

My face looks much as it did -- no saggy features -- but I do have to be careful eating and my left eye is rather watery so it is still no fun.  But it is certainly not fatal so I plan to carry on as before until something else gets me.  I do expect to live to help celebrate Mr Trump's second inauguration.

A small update: When I was being interviewed by the anesthetist prior to the procedure, he asked me what medications I was on.  None, I said perfectly truthfully.  He did not believe me at first. He said I was one in a thousand at my age who was not taking anything regularly.  That was rather pleasing.  It suggests that I might have had a long life span without the cancer.