I had two appointments at the General hospital today — one each with the Department of Radiation and the Chemo-Therapy Department.
I don't remember what happed with the Chemo therapy people and as far as I know I never saw them again.
For the radiation, I met with Dr Stromberger — a very pleasant lady doctor. She explained what would happen before the radiation started and also warned me if some of the possible side-effects.
This is an extract from the first large distribution email I sent out. I run an English Cinema Club here in Vienna and wanted to share the news with the members (they'd have noticed my somewhat stiff face following the tattooing operation and this was also a way to get that out in the open.
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We will continue with light-hearted movies (there's no real choice actually) with 'Death at a Funeral'. You can read more about it on our website
On a more serious note, a chance visit to the dentist has quickly led me into a treatment for a malignant tumour in my mouth. The chemo and radiation therapy starts in a week or so and the operation will be in December it seems. The prognosis is good as it was found small and early. The club will continue to operate but Helen might on occasion be your vote gatherer if I'm unable to attend on any particular event.
See you Tuesday
David
I was released from the hospital around noon. The whole morning was spent just hanging around waiting for the release paperwork to get to me.
At about 8:00 in the morning I was wheeled off to the operation floor. I don't really remember much of this now — I remember the later operations more vividly. I do remember coming around in a large recovery room and the Professor telling me it had all gone fine.
This is my first tattoo — and they are going to cut it out later in the year.
When I got back to my room I was immediately sick all over myself. It is surprising how embarrassed one (or me anyway) can get when something like this happens in a hospital — I'm mumbling abject apologies and they've probably had this happen hundreds of times and know well it is just one of those things.
Sarah and Ben left some time early in the morning today.
I was asked to present myself at 12:00 at the Cranio-, Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery (Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie) ward at the AKH in preparation for the tattooing of my mouth. This was ward 'D' on the 18th floor of the green tower known as ward '18 Dora' for short.
The patients I could see (not so many as I had a single room) mostly had big bandages wrapped their heads — a little scary, especially as I knew this was the type of thing that was to happen to me later on in my treatment.
I just had to hang around waiting for the odd doctor and the anaesthetist to come to me.
This one was a simple one. A CT (Computed Tomography) scan of my head. Apart from discovering what a hot flush must be like when they inject an iodine solution into your blood stream CT scans are pretty routine and not all exciting. It was certainly not claustrophobic like the 'nuclear' scan.
Either because of my family name or because of my accent when speaking to the receptionist I was given an English language leaflet and form to fill out. It was a general purpose one that included instructions for lung CTs — was very interested to note that 'einatmen' (breathe-in) and 'ausatmen' (breathe-out) from the German version had been rendered as 'inspire' and 'expire'. It was a shame that my scan was of the head and so I missed the opportunity of a machine telling me to 'expire now'.
Absolutely nothing to do with tumours and the like, but my daughter Sarah and her boyfriend Ben arrived for a few short visit. It is always a delight to see Sarah — Ben too. Their visit slotted just nicely in between my various activities at the AKH.
I thought I was scheduled for just a full body scan but it turned out to be that and a 3D scan of my head. For these I had to take a radio-active material (I can't remember now whether it was something I drank or something dripped in through a needle) and then wait for a couple of hours. I was allowed to wander around the hospital but asked not to leave it.
When the time was up they did the full body scan. When it was over I saw the picture — a really cool picture of my skeleton. I later asked for a copy of the picture — they seemed dubious about this and I never did get it, but it would have been really cool on my web-site. Not everyone gets to see their skeleton.
Then I had the head scan. This was the pits. I'm not particularly claustrophobic but I was close to panic in this. The device was a in the form of a equilateral triangle which rotated round my head. When the flat side of the triangle was directly above me it actually touched my nose — there was that little space inside. It lasted for 20 minutes or so (I'd been told this but there was no way to know how much time had elapsed and how much was left. It got very hot inside and I was about to pull myself out when it finally was over.
My earlier appointment with the Professor was in his private surgery — this was in a very busy out-patient department of a very big and crowded hospital.
I had the obligatory waiting period — one thing I have learned over the last year is the patience and serenity to accept the long waiting periods that every medical appointment seems to involve.
Then I was called in to see Dr Schopper. He explained very thoroughly what they suggested be done. He told me that the Department had very good results with my type of tumour and had adopted a programme of chemo and radiation therapy followed by surgery. The first week of the therapy would be chemo and radiation together and would be done with me as an in-patient. The remaining four weeks of therapy would be radiation only and would be done as an out-patient.
The surgery would probably involve not only removing the tumour in the mouth but also one (the left) lymph nodes in my throat. Depending on the result of the operation it might be necessary to have a second operation to remove the lymph node on the other side.
Before all this there would be a et of tests and scans and also a small operation to tattoo around the tumour. This is because the radiation therapy could well actually make the tumour disappear and without the tattooed outline they would not be sure what to cut out!
For the major operation they would build a new floor to my mouth using a graft taken most probably from my wrist.
When he was sure that I understood and agreed to the treatment he outlined the whole thing swung into action. Blood tests were made (well the blood was taken for the tests), a mouth X-ray was made and I was sent to the photography department for photos of the inside of my mouth to be taken.
Lastly a set of appointments were made for further tests and scans.
Just after lunch time and I was picking up my camera from the shop where it was being serviced when my mobile rang. The shop was noisy but the message was clear. I had a malignant tumour in my mouth. Professor Ewers apologised for giving me this type of news over the telephone but said that as he was on holiday he was not able to do the face to face discussion that he would normally do.
He had, however, arranged for me to see one of his deputies the next day at the Vienna General Hospital. Professor Ewers is the Head of the Department of Craniomaxillofacial and Oral Surgery in the hospital (www.meduniwien.ac.at/maxillo-facial/home.htm). In German it is the Universitätsklinik für Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie.
The Vienna General Hospital (the Algemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien or the AKH — pronounced Ah-Kah-Hah) is Austria's biggest hospital and is also a University teaching hospital.
When I got to the hospital I was to go to the seventh floor, find his secretary and she would see that I was taken care of.
I had to wait quite a while to see the Professor and when I finally did he was everything I ever imagined a Professor to look like. Tall, balding and sporting a bow tie — there was nothing else he could be.
He looked inside my mouth and told me he would do a biopsy straight away. So, a local anaesthetic injection and he did a bit of scraping and cutting inside my mouth. It was actually rather unpleasant but then I've always hated everything dentist types have ever done to me.
He told me the results would be back from the laboratory in a few days and that he would contact me even though he would be on holiday.
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