Wednesday 7th February

No news here, we're going to phone the hospital at 9.30am to see if the docs have been round.

I'm hoping to get home tonight depending on what (if any) news we get. But then I don't want to get stuck over there (because of snow) and not get back over if I need to. Unfortunately there is a "mountain" range (The Pennines) separating me and my family! So in bad weather it is NOT a good drive. Americans: note that I say mountains but really they're smallish hills

Update: No results... they'll be back "within 24 hours". And no doc visit yet.I'm prob going to head home later so will try to check in when I can.

Update following afternoon visit to hospital: We didn't get good news today. I will send an email. If you don't get it, ask one of the others to forward on - I am not sure I have everyone's address.

Email to friends on Prevention: They found a lump on my dad's pancreas. They are going in next with a camera to see if there is "anything else". Not good news, we are seeing the registrar tomorrow to find out more about the scan results. Unfortunately they told my dad when he was on his own today and he had to tell us. So I saw the nurse tonight and asked to make an appointment for tomorrow and asked them not to tell him any more detail without us present.I thank you for your concern so far - can I ask for your prayers/positive thoughts or whatever over the coming days and weeks.

Comment added in May:
What happened that day was, that mum and I went in for the 3pm visit. Car park was manic (as usual) so I'd dropped mum off and followed her up. When I got to Dad's bed they were just chatting. We had a letter for dad that had arrived in the morning, and as he opened it he said "They found a lump" and his face crumpled and he started to cry. We didn't know if we'd heard correctly but he repeated it "They've seen a lump - on my pancreas". Mum got upset and I went round to the other side of Dad's bed. I'd been avoiding touching him or kissing him for the week due to my cold but he got hold of my hand. I said "Don't be scared Dad" and he said "Oh I'm not scared, it's just....". We interrupted him and I haven't yet got round to asking what he was going to say, I suppose it would be something about worrying about mum? He was saying things like "Oh well, I guess it happens to the best of them" and being really brave. We all agreed that we'd have to wait to see what the next set of tests revealed.

That night I went to my sister's house to tell her what had happened - didn't want to tell her by phone. Screwed that up a bit though, as she'd found out I was there and so feared the worst all the time she was driving home from work! Then I went to pick my brother up for evening visit and told him, too. We all were very shaken, but at some point in the evening, mum said "Look, we've got dad in his box and we don't even know what's wrong with him yet". So that calmed us down (a bit).

All through the "testing" process during his 6 weeks in hospital, Dad was patient and kept saying "Well we'll have this test and then we'll see what the next stage is" - or words to that effect. Bearing in mind that he went in on 2nd Feb, and it was 8th March before they finally pinpointed what was wrong, I think he was incredibly patient.