Wednesday

7. The Long Journey To Recovery ?


On arrival at the hospital Tony was just coming out of the bathroom, I can see him in my mind now. His skin was a ghastly mix of yellow and grey, he was in horrendous pain and tried his best to look the brave young man that he was.
While waiting for the ambulance to take us to Bristol he had to make several trips to the bathroom to vomit. This ‘disease’ was taking a grip so fast it was frightening, but as Mum I had to stay calm and focussed for him so as not to frighten him anymore than he must have already be feeling.

We left Plymouth at 8.45 am for the long journey to Bristol Children’s Hospital.
On our arrival instead of a large ‘State of the Art’ hospital that I was expecting it was an old building and we were escorted to Ward 13.


Not a room on his own as he had in Plymouth but a Ward full of extremely ill children, beside each bed there was just enough room for 1 plastic little chair.
Hey what did the surroundings matter ? This hospital and these fabulous people were going to make him better …
We were bombarded with what seemed like 100’s of questions and were then introduced to the specialist Mr.Spicer.

Again we were given a glimmer of hope as he told us that his first impressions were that it was a cyst as Plymouth had suspected and possibly some sort of infection.
We were then shuttled off for Scans, Barium Meals and X-Rays. By now the pain was so intense that Tony had great difficulty in even getting from a wheelchair to the bed .

Later that day we were told that the X-Rays had confirmed that there were 2 lumps, one in the liver and the other in the bowel. An operation for a Biopsy was booked for the following day and I had to sign a consent form for a biopsy, lumber punch and epidural.
David arrived later in the day and we decided that I would return home as there was nowhere for me to sleep ‘apart from the plastic chair’. It was agreed that I should leave him to rest as much as possible as tomorrow was going to be a big day.

This decision broke my heart, I didn’t want to leave him in pain on his own but I was out-numbered , in a daze. So many emotions even now they are so real… God who said putting this in writing would be therapeutic, sorry readers will have to continue another day
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