Lung Cancer

How did the consultant explain to you how the cryosurgery actually works?

Yes indeed they use a tip which is in fact colder than liquid nitrogen and actually freezes the tumour which in fact will kill some of the cancerous cells. And in my case at the last, the fourth session I had they did explain that in fact it had been reduced by some fifty percent in size (laughs), of course being greedy I suggested if they kept going could they get rid of it?  But that wasn't something they would be drawn on and quite rightly so.

So the therapy really opens up some of the airways to make breathing easier?

It does, that's the whole purpose.

It has improved my health, I'm not as wheezy and I can do a bit more than I was doing before that. The difficulty is that with cryosurgery it seems to last for three or four months and then the condition starts to come back again and become a bit more wheezy. That, I think we discussed it with the consultant, could be outside influences, it could be pollen, it could be elements that I'm particularly allergic to. The consultant did tell me that after the fourth session of cryosurgery that he had actually shrunk the tumour by some fifty percent which was very good news and at the moment it's just ongoing. And I have just recently had my fifth sessions of cryosurgery and am waiting to go back to out-patients.

Yes it is a typical hospital operation. You're asked to go in and report in by 8.30 in the morning. It is some distance from here so I have to get someone to take me over which means I probably get up about half past 5 in the morning to be taken over there and I get there perhaps about half past 7. But I'm relying on somebody else who's got to go work so that's part of it.  You wait at the hospital until the ward clerk registers you in and you are then sent up and allocated to a ward. Again you're probably up there by 9 o clock. The disadvantage that I found, and it may be that with a number of visits I've become more sensitive to it, is that you go up there as a day case and the expectation is that you will go in, you'll have the procedure and you'll be away by about 4 or 5 o clock. When you get up on the ward the majority of other patients have had open heart surgery and some are still quite ill, some have only just come up, they've got drips and they've got drains and it's a great pressure on the nursing staff. It's not so much that you're ignored but I couldn't help feeling that you do in fact become in the way, to a degree. That's not suggesting that the nursing staff don't care but...

The procedure prior to cryosurgery is obviously blood pressure, they stick a thing on your finger which I think denotes the oxygen levels in your blood. You're visited by an anaesthetist who'll have a chat with you and ask you if you have any allergies and he's going to put you to sleep and he'll see you later. The doctor then comes round and you go through a whole list of questions, do you feel well, have you got any heart problems, do you have blood pressure problems, did you smoke and it goes on like that. The other down side of that is of course you can't eat anything from midnight the day before and the last fluids you're allowed are probably about 5 o clock in the morning. The next hitch then I'm afraid is to sit about for quite a long time. All this has taken place and it's all over probably by 10 o clock.  I normally ask what number I am on the list to go down and although they tell you that particular number you may be four, you may be five, most of the larger operations are carried out before you go in and obviously if they run over or are delayed then you can be there quite some time. But I'd normally have gone down by about 2 o clock in the afternoon, they send a porter for you and they take you off one bed, pop you on the other one, having already dressed you in your party gown which I find impossible because I can never tie the strings up at the back.
 

And then next thing you know you're back in recovery. I invariably finish up with a bit of a tight cough and absolutely parched and they offer you some water but obviously sipping is a good idea, not try and drink it, which I do. They keep you in there until you look as though you've recovered, somebody will come and talk to you and ask you what you did, what your name is, how many children have you got, to see if your brain is working presumably. I would appear to be affected by anaesthetic in so much that my blood pressure drops quite low and I understand it can be a normal occurrence with an anaesthetic, but it's usually back up again within about quarter of an hour. They then ring for the ward, who sends a nurse to come and collect you plus a porter.  

And you're wheeled off again and you finish back in the ward where you were and you get on your bed and you sit there. They invariably offer you a drink which is very welcome and so you probably spend half an hour sipping water or tea or whatever you can get hold of. The first time I went they actually were very kind and offered me something to eat and that wasn't a good idea.  I tried eating a sandwich and I nearly choked on it so I've never accepted any offers other than that, it's a good idea not to actually eat anything.  The next thing probably within the next hour is the doctors will come round and they'll say the procedure went well, if and when you feel well enough and you can pass water you can go. I always hop up very rapidly at that point and get dressed and go and pass water if I can and say to the nurse "I'm off, I'm going." I then pop down and ring up for my lift to come and get me.
 

My first appointment for cryosurgery was just before Christmas 2002, the year 2002. I was going to stay in for one night but if I was well enough I could be an outpatient and just come home late afternoon. I travelled down to the hospital, very nervous. (Pause)

It's alright.

Went to the ward, the nursing staff were very, very good. I was talked to by lots of registrars and explained what was going to happen. There was no pre-med, they take you straight down to the theatre, but they do give you an anaesthetic, which, you know, you just go off to sleep. So that's fine. I think it lasts probably about twenty minutes and, you know, you're brought back up to the ward when you've had your recovery time. I was a bit groggy but feeling not too bad, very sore throat, very sore throat, but I was told that it would be, you know, pretty sore, and I was doing okay. I was drinking water, you know, I was okay, I wasn't sick, feeling quite well you know. 

The disadvantage; there's no real recuperation period required after that [cryosurgery] but from a personal point I did finish up with a very sore throat and that lasted for at least a couple of days. And you are told to expect to cough up blood and little bits of tissue and a lot of phlegm, again for two or three days. It never resulted in me having to go to bed, the following day I managed to get up and take the dog for a walk even though I'd got a sore throat. And that was largely repeated for the next two, it was the fourth session when I assume they used different doctors and different consultants, it's not the same person every time, whoever had me that particular time I actually lost my voice for about two days, plus the sore throat. And it was very difficult to eat, drinking was fine but eating was almost impossible. But that is the only time and again I've had a fifth one within the last few days and again apart from a sore throat for a couple of days that was fine.
 

I then started to chat to one of the other patients in the ward - the ward's very small, it's only two beds in each ward, and I coughed, and I felt this enormous lump in my throat. And I was just so scared, I really thought, crumbs they've left something in my throat or, I don't know. But I was very, very frightened and I could really feel something in the back of my throat which I then went to the Ladies to try and, sort of, spit it out. Anyway it would not come out, so I had to pull the cord, by which time I was beside myself.

Anyway, one of the male nurses came in and took me back to the ward and the surgeon came round to see me. I mean, I just didn't stop holding my throat, and it was explained to me that there was a little flap at the bottom in your throat, at the bottom bit, which was so swollen that it had flapped up, and it would go down, and I was not to worry, it was just my throat. My whole throat was very red raw, ulcerated, you know, from having the tube down, and it was just that it had swollen. And I took real relief into that, I believed what he told me and I did calm myself down, and I did come home. I was well enough to come home. I came home, felt like I'd sort of had a few rounds with Frank Bruno. That was okay. That night when I went to bed I had terrible, pains in my chest, my throat was very sore, the lump was still there' 

I just thought, crumbs, I'm worse now than what I was before I went. [Sighs] But after a few days I gradually got better, you know, sucked lots of lozenge things for my throat. It went down and I started to feel a lot better. I could breathe a lot more easily, I've got two dogs - I can walk the dogs, so it really was worth the first of the cryosurgery.