Sadly

Colin passed away peacefully with family by his side on 23rd December at St Richards Hospice after a short battle with Septicaemia and Pneumonia. He will be greatly missed by Me, Kieran, the rest of our family and everyone who knew him and was instantly liked by virtually everyone who met him and even the Nurses & Doctors said what a nice man and fighter he was and they did everything they possibly could for him.

I will do another update as soon as I know what Colin's funeral arrangements are.

Regards

Sandy

2nd Update

Colin still has very low white blood cells and platelets. He pulled 2 Canulars out of his arm over the weekend but the nurses managed to get another one in. He now has pneumonia and fluid in one lung and is on oxygen as his oxygen levels are low without it and he is being sedated as he is very anxious and struggling to breath.

He will be moved to St Richards Hospice at some point today.

Update

Colin is in hospital in Worcester and has Septicaemia, Very low white blood cell count (the ones that fight infection) and low platelets (they stop you bleeding), he is being given antibiotics intravenously and hopefully they will do their job. I will update when I have any info but at the moment we are hoping and praying he gets through this, as we all know what a fighter he is.

Medical Assessment Unit

Colin was admitted to MAU (Medical Assessment Unit) yesterday afternoon after I called out our GP because I couldn't get him to get out of bed to go for his radiotherapy, he kept saying his back hurt, but most of what he was saying wasn't making any sense.

They took some blood and it seems he has an infection of some sort. He was dehydrated partly due to not drinking much because of his severe mouth ulcers (side effect from Sutent) so they have put him on a drip and have given him antibiotics. When I saw him early he was making a bit more sense but is still very poorly, hopefully he will improve quickly now they know what is wrong.

Radiotherapy again

Colin went to the QE on Wednesday last week for the planning meeting for his 10 Radiotherapy sessions, which start tomorrow, Fri 11th, then all of next week, Mon, Tues, Wed Christmas week and then the last one on Tue 29th just in time to start Sutent again on 3rd or 4th Jan.

He is suffering from the side effects of Sutent at the moment, the main one being a lot of mouth ulcers, which make eating very difficult so I have been a very good wife and made him home-made soup and a beef stew which I have puréed for him. This made Kieran laugh when I told him it looked like the baby food I used to make for him.

Appointments and even more appointments

After having had both Flu jabs (normal and swine) and checked that the scar from his operation had completely healed, Colin started taking Sutent again on 20th November.
On Monday 23rd we went to ROH (Royal Orthopaedic Hospital) for Colin's first check up after his Op.

When we arrived in the car park it was very windy and as Col let go of his wheels (walking aid) to put on his coat - they proceeded to go off down the car park on their own with Col trying to run after them shouting (very quietly) HELP!!!! I didn't know anything was wrong as I was getting his phone out of the car for him until I saw him trying to catch up with them (not very successfully) HA HA!!! Thanks to a nice lady who was crossing the car park they didn't hit any cars on their travels and the man in the security cabin might have stopped them if he hadn't been laughing so much.

Anyway back to the reason we were there, first he had to go for an x-ray and then we saw the Oncology Nurse who checked Colin's reflex's - yes there were some - ha ha, she said he is doing very well and should gain muscle tone back in his thighs eventually.



We now have photos of Colin's spine and the work that Mr Stirling did to it, the first is of his spine from the back and shows the titanium bracket and the second is the side view which shows the bracket and two bright patches which are cement.



We have also been to the QE today to see Prof Nick James to discuss Colin's treatment plan and starting a course of 10 fractions Radiotherapy on the spine as soon as possible. He suggested having the Radiotherapy in the two week break between cycles of Sutent but I pointed out that that would be over Christmas and New Year and probably not a good time. He agreed with this and is arranging for a Planning Meeting hopefully for next week with a CT Scan asap and starting the Radiotherapy sessions very soon.

Steroids & Sutent

The steroids seem to be doing their job and Colin is back to his normal self (normal as far as Colin & steroids are concerned).

His back has healed well and his walking is improving tremendously (he can almost keep up with me now) which means I don't have to keep stopping and waiting for him to catch me up ;)

Now that his back has healed and he has had his flu & swine flu jabs he should be able to start taking Sutent again, just waiting to hear from Dr P if that's OK.