Godfrey (Geoff) Nelson-Williams GNW Cancer Journey

I’ve resisted doing a blog but it’s time for me to put my stubborn head to one side and put something together. 
I welcome your responses and advice or experiences,  or just say hello happy and funny is best. 

I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in January 2018 after some very irregular toilet visits symptoms started  approx November 2017, which then led to me seeing my GP and he eventually sending me for a colonoscopy (camera up the bum..ouch!!)  which showed a large cancerous tumour blocking part of my bowel. Was I shocked? Yes, but its here and my outlook on life has always been to get on with whatever life has to throw at you and this has been no different, so just trying to do the best of a negative situation with the support of my wife and family. 

I have in my opinion the best bowel consultant team in the UK, and the Healthcare proffessionals at Christie’s Hospital Manchester have been and continue to be fantastic, I really can’t thank them enough for their hard work, dedication, skill and professionalism and although I am a private patient I understand a similar level of service is in place for NHS patients.

I had  “Terence the tumour” (yes we gave it a name) skilfully removed from my bowel on 6th March by “keyhole surgery” which was amazing as all the pre operative scans and investigations indicated that this might not be possible due to previous hernia repair that I had 10 years ago was going to cause complications and therefore I was facing more ‘open surgery’ and maybe having a ‘poo bag’ either temporary or even permanently. Therefore after 6 hours in theatre and coming round to find that the very best outcome was achieved I was happy (no poo bag!) I spent a further 9 days in hospital because I was quite ill a few days after the op and ‘nil by mouth’ for four days. 
I’v been discharged from hospital for nearly 6 weeks and my recovery from surgery is just about complete with the help of a comfy sofa and daytime tv (not recommended and not really got into Netflix etc) for the first couple of weeks but I’m now walking about 6k a day mainly round my local park, I know every dog walker!! 

My consultant informed me that when they removed ‘Terence’ they also removed 34 of my lymph nodes and after testing four of them were cancerous therefore I now need to have ‘chemo’ to ensure that the existing lymph nodes in my body don’t become cancerous. Started my first ‘chemo’ cycle yesterday, will update my blog with details on my next journal. 

Thanks for reading if you’ve got this far!!  Those of you who know me  I’m still smiling as always, I’m extremely positive and refuse to let this set back change me and my families life, so onwards and upwards .