Did you ever think of getting in contact with a support group?

Not really because I had so much support anyway. You know I was very lucky, you know I had people who were prepared to come and pick me up when I couldn’t drive. You know literally from ferrying me around, you know friends picking me up, taking me home after you know the uh, the operations and the treatment you know I had friends who would you know come and sit with me if I wasn’t feeling, you know if I was at home and wasn’t able to sort of go out and, and they were all more than happy to talk about it as well.

That’s good.

Yes, and that was, that CT scan was, I think it was probably two months after that – I imagine – but in February 2000 I went, they found a um, is it a PND I think is the name, it’s a node, para-aortic node and I was in hospital for ten days, they had to remove that and that was towards my back. But to get to it they had to go in from my front so I had another operation which I suppose was a bit more worrying because the reason why they had to take it out was, it turned out to be a benign tumour was, they weren’t sure if it was cancerous or not.

It wasn’t cancerous?

It wasn’t cancer no, but they had to remove it.

How long, how big was the incision?

I think its about fourteen, fourteen inches long the actual, I call it my shark bite! But I had, I was in hospital for I think for nearly ten days, twelve days I was in hospital for and I came out of hospital and I mean again once I had the operation I was, it was uncomfortable. But because, there wasn’t any of the drugs you know, it wasn’t too bad. And, and they stapled me, I had forty odd metal staples in my stomach when I came out which I thought was quite amusing!

How long did they have to stay in?

They only had to stay in probably for about a week afterwards and then a nurse came to remove them. But that, that, that took time to, to get over because it was a big cut and a big operation I suppose and even now I mean this was what nearly two years ago I had this operation now, um, you know its still, its still taking time to heal. It takes time for the scar tissue to heal as well. Even the first operation you know when I had my testicle removed, I still get aches in that area but you know you speak to doctors, I mean I go back every three months you know to the hospital for my check-ups, they said that’s, that’s fairly straightforward you know its fairly normal.

And you say you had, there was a problem after the operation, can you explain what happened?

I think, yeah I developed a haematoma. I think it’s a blood clot as a result of that, and I was kept in for you know longer than normal. Literally I think I was there for two weeks.

Where about was the haematoma?

It was in, in the region, it was again, I can’t pinpoint it exactly.

Was that very uncomfortable?

I suppose at the time it was yeah, again I can’t really remember. I suppose in a way because a lot of that you know, as far as I’m concerned is, I say a bad memory, I’ve tended to shut a lot of it out of my mind.