Parents' Worries Don't Stop With Age

It's hard for me to concentrate today. I'm worried about my 46 year old son. Before going to work this morning, he went to see a consultant at the hospital to hear the results of recent scans.  He was going straight to work afterwards, but I made him promise to call and let me know what happened.  It turns out he has a small, slow-growing tumour at the back of his head, not life threatening as it hasn't metastasised, but it needs to be checked as it can affect the brain.

Last July was when the symptoms first became obvious, and it has taken all this time to get the diagnosis.  I really feel it was an unnecessarily long process.  He first went to his GP and reported numbness in his left hand (and of course he is left handed).  The doc said to come back in a month if it's not better.  Then he was sent for nerve route tests.  A month later there were blood tests. Meanwhile the numbness crept up his arm and down the left side of his torso and into his left foot.

In October, he was referrred to a neurologist, but the first available appointment was not until January.  I went with him to that and the consultant gave us lots of info, and sent him for an MRI scan.  It was another three weeks before he was called for that to an evening appointment.  After the scan, he was told he probably needed another one and would be contacted.  Another three weeks passed before he had to go again, this time during the day when a doctor was available so that he could have a liquid injected.  That was ten days ago, and a week after that the consultant phoned him and asked to see him this morning.

The tumour needs to be analysed, and for some reason a biopsy is not recommended.  Now we have to wait for a call from a specialist unit in Southampton to hear what they have decided to do and when he has to go there.

My mind keeps switching between fury at the excruciatingly slow turning of the NHS wheels, and terror about the future prospects for my boy.