Graeme Elmore admitted to Southmeads Hospital, Bristol

Graeme Elmore goes to Southmeads

Tomorrow is the day!

Into Southmeads Hospital in Bristol on Tuesday afternoon and the operation to remove the tumour on my thyroid – and the thyroid gland is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. I was told I would need to be in hospital for four-to-five days after the surgery, so anticipate that I will be discharged early next week – hopefully on Monday.

I will need a week or so for a post-op recovery period so I will not be returning to my new job with Combat Stress for the remainder of this year. Which is terribly unfair on Combat Stress seeing as I have only been with them for a month. I hope they will keep me on – but it’s a tough call for them, because…

Three or four weeks after the surgery I will be starting a course of radio therapy to attack the carcinomas on my shoulder (scapula) and my rib cage and to address the carcinogenic cells discovered in my lungs. This will involve a daily visit to the hospital over a six to seven week period (excluding weekends). I’m hoping this might be able to take place in Dorchester, Exeter or Taunton rather than Bristol. Bristol is only 50 miles away but the roads and traffic and difficulty in parking mean that one has to allow two hours each way for a treatment that lasts but a few minutes. I’m not counting the proverbials on that though!

I have been told that it would not be appropriate for me to drive myself whilst having this treatment, so I have two options. It may be possible for me to be accommodated in Bristol during the week, but that’s not really an overwhelmingly exciting prospect! The other possibility is to make the journey daily. One or two chums have rashly offered help and assistance if needed – so if you were one of them standby! We may be taking you up on your offer, ‘cos if half a dozen kind souls would do that for us in he New Year, it wouldn’t amount to doing it more than a couple of times.

That’s enough about me. Now my Christmas Appeal. Many of my friends and family will know that I am trying to support a wonderful young Anglican priest in Tanzania. Fr Tim Chiboti is a young priest with lots to offer the Church and his country and I am currently sponsoring him through college in Dar-es-Salaam. He is in desperate need of funds to pay his fees, buy his books etc and support his young family. If you haven’t yet decided where your Christmas gift is going this year will you please consider helping Fr Tim? Please send a cheque to me as I have a bank account ear marked for him. And please e-mail me if you would like further details: graememartinelmore@hotmail.co.uk

Fiona will be keeping the blog updated for the next week or so, but I’m off to pack my hospital bag – and I’m told that the little locker beside my bed is not – as I had imagined – a cocktail cabinet afterall. I’ll be having words with someone about that!

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