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Dave Versus Thymoma, Derby (2025)

18/08/2025

Friday 8th August - Sunday 17th August

Hi guys.

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Things are a bit mad here at the moment.

Regarding my recovery and ongoing treatment things have been going reasonably well. I've certainly had more good days than bad which is pleasing.
I had hoped the last few days and the next couple of weeks I could chill recuperate and build up gradually. I'm doing that to a certain extent but I'm not doing much of that at home and I'm doing a lot of travelling. It's got to be done but I do wonder if I'm helping or hindering the recovery process. It's still going the right way so thankful for that and I'm luckier than a lot of people.🙏
I have spoken to one of the lung nurses on the lung cancer team over at Kings Mill and I have an appointment to speak to one of them on Nov 26th. I have another chest x ray booked in for the 3rd of Nov which they will discuss and any other concerns I may have. It's a small world because the nurse I spoke to was one of the nurses who was looking after mum when she was there. A bit chilling to think 8 months later it's come around again. I also received a letter from her with all the teams names and numbers if I needed to contact anyone. Which was great. Seeing Macmillan cancer over it all sort of brings it into perspective.
Like I say generally good days and doing well. I still have a bit of pain in and around the pec still. The last stitch dropped out a couple of days ago and the wounds are getting there and not pulling so much. I am getting a spot on the left side which hurts every now and then. I can't put my finger on it particularly but it can be annoying but then goes. Maybe one for discussion if it carries on.
I did weigh myself the other day and it does look like I've put a bit of weight on. Not much but hopefully that will carry on, well until I go back to work I guess where it will no doubt drop off again.
My taste is still screwed which is not great. What I'd give to get that back and be able to enjoy food and have an appetite. Another discussion for another time.
I did drop in and spend a bit of time with some of the work family one afternoon late on. That was good. Sort of needed it more than they know. Having a chat and laugh about other stuff besides this. Being called di****ad again was pleasantly normal haha. Thanks guys 😂😘
Overall things are going well and like always we'll deal with what gets thrown in front of us.
🙏😃

08/08/2025

Monday 4th August
Tuesday 5th August
Wednesday 6th August
Thursday 7th August

Just a quick run down on how these last few days have played out.

Monday and Tuesday were thankfully just a carry on of the previous days. Nothing really to report, just steady take it easy and do a little bit type of days.

Wednesday was Results Day !!! I did mean to post on here way sooner to keep everyone up to speed but it will become clear why things have taken a while to get to posting. But I digress.

We arrived like requested around half an hour before the appointment which was 4:10pm. Once we initially arrived we were booked in and told we need to go and get a chest X ray. Hence the 30minute before to give time to have this done. So chest X ray completed back to outpatients where we were directed to another waiting area.
Dr Jadoon came and collected us and sat us down. At this point the old anxiety was going full steam.
He confirmed it was definitely a Thymoma (cancer) and that they had done a complete resection(it's all come out) and had got clear margins ( basically there was a clear transition from dodgy tissue to healthy. There was always a worry that this wouldn't be possible just down to the thymus gland itself ). The actual grade/ stage came back as a B1 which although not the least malignant it is still classed as a fairly low one ( thank f*ck). He then said that because of all this then he didn't feel the need to do any other treatment other than regular scans for the next 5 years. Again this is the best outcome from this whole process. I was expecting radiotherapy just for a boot and braces approach but no, so again super thankful for that. What I wasn't quite ready for was the actual size of the mass and the amount of tissue they removed to entail the clear margins. Apologies for not knowing all the sizes so far through I stopped processing. However the mass was 50mm x 50mm x 35mm , which is wow and they took 100mm x ? x ? to get it clear. That is some tissue. I'm hoping they'll send or I'll request the report just to clarify. At this point all the questions I'd thought about and wanted to ask went right out of my head.
I really do need to thank everyone at Nottingham City Hospital who I came in contact with. Every single person was great. So if you have anything that needs those guys to be involved in I can assure you're in good hands.
I did have a bit of a wobble as we were walking out. Shed a couple of relief tears in the main corridor. Which I'm sure seeing a grown man cry went down well with people walking past.
Clear and scans🎉

Thursday well you'd think would be a day of optimism and positivity. Unfortunately not to be.
Not many people are aware that my mum moved into the hospice about 10 days ago and is not doing great. So we went over to see her which is a bit of a trip around a hour away. At the moment the car feels like a workout. Well she is going down fast from sitting in the chair a few days previously to now in bed sleeping and hardly awake so the outlook is not great.
Plus Thursday didn't get much better. Again not everyone is aware but my brother died totally unexpected last October. We took in Chocco his old Labrador. She hasn't been doing too great lately so we had an appointment at the vet. She had a bit of a turn getting to the car and when checked out she was deemed to be in heart failure and her breathing went down so unfortunately she was put to sleep.

Although I should be buzzing with the outcome from Wednesdays results there is so much s**t still going off around us it's difficult to feel too great. However we'll just push on and deal with everything.

This bad run will end at some point, right?🙏

04/08/2025

Thursday 31st July

Friday 1st August
Saturday 2nd August
Sunday 3rd August

Unless something happens that I think needs a separate post I'm going to bunch the days together going forward.

Overall these last few days have been pretty good. I had one day where I felt a bit off it, but generally things are going ok. I have managed to get out a couple of times. Nothing too amazing but it all helps. Although I probably did too much Sunday and in the evening i didn't feel so good.

I do think the sensitivity and pain in and around the pec is actually diminishing slightly. Which is good because that is the main source of irritation at the moment. The lower incision still feels tight and pulls a bit. I think some of the stitches have come out on part of that. There are still a few more in there and in the top incision which I'm hoping will go in the next week or two.

I'm hoping the current run of good days continues, it makes a big difference especially for your mental state. The wounds are healing well looking at it, so keep going. 🙏

04/08/2025

Wednesday 30th July

Today was a day just taking it steady and getting back to where I was before.

Nothing much to report.

I did get in touch with Nottingham City to find out if they know when I'm going to get my results. Apparently they sent a letter out on the 11th. That never arrived. However I'm glad I called because I'm in on the 6th August. So at last a date to find out what happens next.

Fingers crossed 🤞

30/07/2025

Tuesday 29th July

Well I actually woke up with only mild pain compared to yesterday which is a better start to the day straight away.

After yesterday's drama, which left me feeling like a bit of a fraud and made me question if I'd do the 111 thing if I felt like that again. I know I should do the same thing but not sure I would. I'd probably wait a lot longer if there's a next time. Is that a typical bloke response, I don't know haha.

So the day was spent again doing very little. No walk around the block, just sat about. If anyone knows me they know that's not me. I did do a couple of posts on here and sent a few emails that I needed to.

The detective in me decided I'd consult Dr Google haha regarding yesterdays turn of events and to see if I could find any reasoning behind what had caused the issue.. I know I shouldn't but you know idle hands and time on your hands, what do you do.

Well interestingly I found something but again Dr Google probably isn't the most reliable but.....
👀

It is possible to experience Postpericardiotomy Syndrome (PPS) after a thymectomy where the heart or pericardium (the sac surrounding the heart) has been scraped or injured.
Here's why:

PPS is an inflammatory response: PPS is an immune-mediated inflammatory response that can be triggered by surgical trauma and blood entering the pericardial space, which can happen during a thymectomy, especially when the pericardium is involved or adhered to the thymus. Thymectomy involving resection of a portion of the pericardium has been associated with PPS.

Thymus and pericardium proximity: The thymus gland is located close to the pericardium, so procedures involving the thymus can potentially affect the pericardial sac.

Relatively rare after thymectomy: While PPS is a well-known complication after cardiac surgery, its occurrence specifically after thymectomy is less frequently reported.

However, awareness is crucial: Clinicians should be mindful of this possibility when patients develop symptoms after a thymectomy involving the pericardium.

Typical symptoms: The typical clinical picture involves fever and pleuritic chest pain appearing days to weeks after surgery.

👀
So maybe that could be an explanation. Who knows but I'll hang on to the info and see how things go over the next few days.

The pain has reduced but maybe that's the meds doing their work. I will have to take a step back and try not to push too hard. Maybe I was trying to do to much too soon which hasn't helped. So back to baby steps and meds for a while.

Still haven't heard anything regarding biopsy results so will need to chase that again.

I had hoped to be further along now 4 weeks after the op but we are where we are I guess. I'm still here and it can only get better so hang in there 🙏

30/07/2025

Monday 28th July

The worse day so far.

It appears my body doesn't like Mondays.

I woke up about 6 am with chest pains. I thought it was just a bit of cramp or something. However through the course of the morning it didn't improve. In fact laying on my back seemed to make it worse.
So after a couple of calls to 111 it was off to hospital to go get checked out. Luckily 111 made an appointment at the local urgent treatment centre for me. After a bit of a wait we managed to get in.
To be honest they were very good and did a thorough check up and ECG. The ECG came back fine with no sign of heart attack which I case was the main worry.
Nothing else showed up so talk about feel like a fraud and was told to go home and rest up. Off home we went but I still felt kak and the pain was still there. So another wasted day feeling terrible sat doing nothing. I did as I was told and started back on the pain meds and decided to rig up a mountain of pillows so I could try and sleep pretty much sitting up and see if that helped.

So Monday was a bit of a nightmare. At least it isn't a heart attack 🙏

29/07/2025

Sunday 27th July

I actually got up and didn't feel too bad considering how I felt the night before.

We had a couple of visitors too. Helena and Ted from work came round. They brought a card from the work family work which was cool and they'd also had a collection for me too which was totally unexpected and a bit humbling to be honest. What an amazing gesture and took me by surprise. More surprising was the fact there weren't any buttons or random objects included. If any of you guys are reading this then seriously thank you!!! You bunch of mad heads !! 😘
It was good to see Helena and Ted, had a catch up and had the p**s taken out of me because of a recent acquisition I've made. 🧑‍✈️✈️

Later that same day we had another couple of visitors Dom and Shannon. They came round to pick something up to take to Jad when they go over to Japan in a couple of weeks. They are going to love it.

Another pretty normal day on the recovery front. I do seem to have dropped off on my eating the last few days. So I need to try and get that back up again.

Keep going 🙏

29/07/2025

Saturday 26th July

Today we decided to try and go somewhere local in the car just to get out.

Ended up at Belper River Gardens. It was actually nice to get out of the house and the weather was kind too. We weren't out too long to be honest and had a bit of scenic route ride home via Matlock. We didn't get out to walk around I'd done enough. I sound like a proper oldie. I've no idea how I'll cope when I go back to work. Standing up for 8-10 hours a day. Definitely not ready for that.

Got home and later that evening for some reason felt awful and struggled not to throw up. No idea what that was about so had an early night. Maybe doing too much?
🙂🙏

29/07/2025

Wednesday 23rd July
Thursday 24th July
Friday 25th July

Another post where I'll put a batch of days together. Pretty much all the same. No major issues to report.

I'm not sure if there is anything in those Fortisip drinks ie. stimulant wise but I was starting to get palpitations. So as an experiment I've decided to remove there for a few days and see how I feel.

I'm still trying to do my morning walk. Not really taking any meds at all now. Still healing well. Not sure when the remaining stitches should dissolve. The pec is still tender and sore but it will probably be that way for a few weeks.

Keep going.🙏

23/07/2025

Tuesday 22nd July

3 weeks.

Well today is 3 weeks since the op. To be honest it's actually gone pretty fast. I know there have been a few days where I've had a bit of a crap time but overall nothing too drastic for which I'm grateful for. So fingers crossed we keep going in the right direction and get the fitness back over the next few weeks.

I did my walk again this morning and went pretty well. Might try and do it twice a day if I can although I did get those fluttering sensations after so might keep an eye on that.

Other than that rinse and repeat. 😃🙏

23/07/2025

Sunday 20th July
Monday 21st July

I've done these two together because both days were pretty much the same.

Just a case of taking it steady and doing nothing too much. Although I did manage to hoover up today and have a bit of a tidy up. Try and start helping where I can.

I might start doing a post every couple of days or so going forward just to stop pinging everyone. I'm sure you guys don't care that I've done the hoovering haha😂

🙏

23/07/2025

Saturday 19th July

I left the village today. Freedom !!!

I went to Tesco about 4 miles away and about a ten minute drive if that. It was good to get out even if it was shopping. So we had a bit of breakfast in the café and then set about grocery shopping. I'm not going to lie I got about half way round and I was struggling. Which is ridiculous considering at work I stand up for 8-10 hrs a day and just get on with it no problem.

Just goes to show that although I'm doing pretty well I have a way to go yet to get back to 'work' fit. I must admit it did take me back a bit as to how my fitness, stamina levels have dropped so fast. Another thing I found was the ride in the car. Again it's only a short trip but every bump and pothole (which there are many) I felt rattling through my right side. So the idea of going over to Newark to see my mum and family got dashed pretty quickly.

That was a bit of a negative but then we had friends Gabi and Pav come over and had a catch up which was good. Always great to see those guys 😘

Other than that it's another rinse repeat day. Try to eat often as best I can, chill and try and recover a bit more each day. 🙏

Dave Versus Thymoma

18/08/2025

08/08/2025

04/08/2025

04/08/2025

30/07/2025

30/07/2025

29/07/2025

29/07/2025

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23/07/2025

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23/07/2025

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