Getting Ready

Thursday 13^th September 2018

Once again at LGI, meeting a number of people who form part of Fergus’s care team. They all know who he is & what he’s here for. It’s only now that I really start to acknowledge that this operation is kind of a big deal.

We spend a long time with the Physiotherapy team. They will be with Fergus during the operation, asking him to perform tasks that will enable them to be as precise as possible about any changes to Ferg’s physical capability. For example, they ask him to look away and put objects such as coins in his hand – which coin is that? They record baselines of reaction times & abilities so they know what to aim for post-operation.

We then have a look around the ward where he’ll be admitted, and the ward he’ll stay on afterwards. Everyone has head injuries of some kind, which shouldn’t really be a surprise, but somehow is to me. There are some very, very ill people on this ward.

We are then led down to the MRI scanning rooms once more, where Fergus now has to perform the physiotherapy tests while under the scanner, which creates a map of his brain function. This will be used to determine how close to each function this tumour is & will provide critical information to the surgeon before the operation begins about the likely outcome. Success will be measured as the % of tumour removed, the higher the better, and the scan will show what % is likely to be removable. I later learn that if the surgeon doesn’t believe they can get the majority of the tumour out, they won’t operate, as the risks outweigh the benefits.

We’re not finished in town yet either. Fergus has asked me to arrange a professional family photo-shoot & it’s scheduled for this evening. He wants some pictures before he has scar covering much of his scalp (and possibly some other long term impacts of the operation that no one wants to vocalise). We head to Primark & find bright coloured clothes that will ‘pop’ in the pictures. We find Harry Potter hoodies that the girls will love & arrive home laden with baggage.

My folks have arrived. They live about 1.5hr drive away & have come to see us before the operation. We all pile into the photographers together & are swept along by the experience. He’s very good & we enjoy posing & laughing along with his banter. There should be some good pictures. We finish the evening with a much needed family meal at the local Toby Carvery.

It’s a long day and we are both exhausted by the time get home. But it feels good to be able to soak up so much information, and we are both really impressed by the level of care that is being taken to prepare for this operation on Monday. I Google how much it would cost in the USA & once again, take a moment to appreciate the NHS.