More updatey thoughts

[selenay]

I mentioned in my last post that it's been a weirdly mild winter. So mild, in fact, that I went for two long walks early this week. Usually the weather isn't good enough to do that until April! They might be my only March walks (hopefully not), but that's still odd.

It did feel good to get outside and walk in the fresh air. I've missed that. I'm sure it's why I slept a bit better this week, despite having the kinds of days at work where breaks and finishing on time just don't happen.

Today I've got someone coming to fix the window. Last week, a new freezer arrived to replace the dead one. I thought the rule of threes might take effect (broken soffit, broken window, broken freezer) and things would stop breaking, but no. Last week, my furnace died. Thankfully we have a service plan so someone came out within a couple of hours and the repairs were covered by the plan rather than costing us EVEN MORE MONEY on a house we're selling soon. But it took the repair guy a long time to fix the furnace because it had died so spectacularly and he did comment that it's getting a bit old and might be due for replacement soon...

Argh. No, we're not replacing it. The new owners of this house can do that if they want.

One of my uncles in England was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few days ago. It's been caught incredibly early, because he's been getting regular check-ups, so he should make a full recovery.

(Any men reading this - please get yourself screened and checked regularly!)

The main reason he gets so much screening and checking done is because he has a severe form of osteogenesis imperfeta (brittle bones) and he's one of the oldest people with this type. He wasn't supposed to live past his teens, so his generation of people with it are the first to reach this age. Nobody knows what effect the disease will have on them as they age, so he gets lots of tests and baselines and screenings done as a precaution.

So thanks to the OI, his prostate cancer got picked up as early as this stuff can be. But the OI is also causing complications for treatment. Due to his fragile bones, radiotherapy is not recommended. They don't know for sure what effect it would have, but it can cause bone loss and his bones are weak enough already. It's not a risk they're willing to take.

Uncle P is 4'2" tall and has odd proportions due to his OI. The surgery for prostate cancer is done using robotics now, and the robotic arm is calibrated for 'normal' sized men and can't be adjusted to his size. Apparently the surgeon got very uncomfortable as he tried very hard to delicately talk around the fact that P is the wrong size for surgery. P found it rather amusing. If the surgeon knew P better, he'd know that P wouldn't take comments on his size (in this context) personally.

So the third option is the one they'll have to go with: doctors will create some kind of radioactive 'seeds' and implant them in the tumour. The seeds will kill the tumour from the inside over the course of a few months. It will take a few weeks to make the seeds and he'll need monitoring after they're implanted. P and his wife have a holiday booked in May so he'll start treatment in June. Apparently the cancer isn't doing anything exciting right now so they've got lots of time and the survival outcomes are excellent at this stage.

Even though I know he'll be fine, it's brought home to me how relieved I am to be moving back to England. Missing my family is the main reason I'm doing it, and this kind of illustrates it. My uncles (and parents) are getting older and things will happen. I don't want to regret all the time I didn't get to spend with them when things happen. I'm always picking and choosing which relatives I have time to see when I visit and there's never enough time for all of them, or for more than a couple of hours with the ones I do see. That's not enough to feel connected and it won't be enough when the time comes and I have to start saying goodbye to them. So I'm relieved to be going back, because I'll be able to see all these people I care about regularly, instead of maybe getting supper with them every other year.

I'm trying to find a less depressing note to finish on. Hmm. I finished a short fluffy Berena fic yesterday, so it looks like I might actually post fic soon. Go me!

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

So I'm relieved to be going back, because I'll be able to see all these people I care about regularly, instead of maybe getting supper with them every other year.

*nods*

It's really hard when you can't. I also hope things do go as well as possible for your uncle. :-/

(Fic is always a good thing, though. <3)

[selenay]

I also hope things do go as well as possible for your uncle. :-/

Thanks. We're telling ourselves all sorts of positive things and P's daughter has just moved into a new flatshare with a girl who's dad went through the same thing a couple of years ago and he's fine. So we're really optimistic. But knowing I'll be back and seeing P (and everyone else) regularly makes me feel much better.

It's been fun to write fic just because, no agenda, and it's reminded me that I enjoy writing. I'd kind of forgotten that for a while.

[havocthecat]

My dad had the radioactive seeds. They are very exhausting and can cause you to be tired for six months to a year after implantation. But they work! You should also let them know to ask about long-term side effects, because my dad was starting to get some ~20 years later (before his death from other causes). My dad was actually really hardy and survived a whole lot of things that would kill a man who wasn't a tank.

I can understand why you want to move back. I never moved terribly far away from my parents because of Dad's health and, yeah. I don't regret that too much. It meant I was nearby for all of the good years and there to help with the hard ones.

[selenay]

I'm sure they asked about long-term side effects, but I'll check in with them. Although, considering P has lived for around fifty years longer than predicted, I think he counts each extra year as a bonus and doesn't really expect to have twenty more years in him. And given that the options are not treating the cancer (and dying rather painfully in a few years) or having the the treatment and maybe getting some side-effects twenty years down the line, I know he won't regret picking the radioactive seeds option. He's been through a lot in his life and being very exhausted probably can't be worse than the years when he broke his legs and arms multiple times over. Can it?

That's the thing - I want to be near to everyone for their good years rather than just rushing back at the end. I want to help with the hard years rather than leaving it all to my sister. I want plenty of good times with them before the hard times come, so on that front, there's no way I'll regret deciding to move back.

[umadoshi]

I hope your uncle's treatment goes smoothly and works well. *fingers crossed*

[lilacsigil]

Best wishes to your uncle. Current studies are tending towards the radioactive seeds being the best and certainly least damaging option for most people with non-metastasised prostate cancer (much to the annoyance of the expensive robot salespeople!) so he may have lucked into the best option anyway!

[selenay]

Thanks. We're really hopeful.

[selenay]

Ooh, that's really good to know! I feel much better! It's not often that OI lucks you into something :-)