My angel and his awful ordeal

It's been a very long, exhausting and emotionally draining week. And it bears some introduction.

About 2 months ago, Ben developed an ache in his lower belly. Initially we just thought it was poor digestion, and a bit of a bug. After a couple of weeks had gone by and the pain hadn't gone away, he booked himself in for an ultrasound. The results indicated his organs all looked ok and there 'might be some excess bowel gas'. All sounded fine, except the pain persisted.

We were then distracted by some reflux and chest pain, which was overcome by taking antacids. This lasted for a few weeks. In the meantime the bellyache was still there, and was getting worse.

Ben then made an appointment to see a gastroenterologist, and got some blood tests done which indicated there may be some inflammation in his bowel. He was told to get a colonoscopy (a camera up the back passage) just to be sure.

When he had the colonoscopy done, instead of seeing inflammation they found a big ugly lump in Ben's large intestine. They took tissue samples (biopsies) and told him to expect a follow-up consultation in the next 2-3 days.

In the consultation, Ben was told the lump was a tumour and that he had bowel cancer. Needless to say, this came as an enormous shock for both of us, as well as for family and friends. I'm still not sure we've come to terms with it yet. It seems so wrong that he should get bowel cancer at the age of 31 (or at all!!!).

The consultant (who is the top surgeon in his field, I might add) was about to go on holidays, so he offered to operate on Ben this week.

Ben had surgery on Wednesday. It went very well; the tumour was removed and all involved seemed happy with the procedure. Ben's been recovering in hospital this week, and I've tried to be there as much as I can with him. The poor thing has had so much pain and discomfort, but there has been a noticeable improvement every day, and he is now off all his drips and is walking around and looking a darn sight better than he was a couple of days ago. He even ate his first meal of solid food tonight.

He gets discharged in the next day or two, whereby I'll go into full-time nurse duties (I may have to work from home for a while). It should take about a month for him to recover from the operation, but it will be at least a few months before his abdominal muscles are fully healed and he's able to lift (heavy) things. And there are some follow-up exams and procedures he'll need to have done too.

But at least he's young and fit, and the tumour was caught in time, before it could do irreparable damage. We were lucky that he'd lost a lot of weight (3 stone) in the past year, otherwise the prognosis could have been a whole lot worse. We will overcome this, and we'll have a healthy happy Benjy back in no time. Thank God.

This whole thing has really reminded me about what's important in life, and health is definitely up there in the top 3. And so are family and friends. Thank you with all my heart to all our wonderful family members and friends who have texted, called, emailed, facebooked, sent cards or flowers, and visited Ben in hospital. We couldn't have got through the worst without you. We love you very much.

And for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time, we hope you understand why it was difficult to let everyone know right away. We love you very much too, and know we also have your love and support to help carry us through the next few months.

Far far far too long between posts

Wow. I can't believe my last blog post was in March. Jeez. Time for a big catch-up then, eh?

Let's start in March, in bullet points; anything more would be silly.

March:
- the baby girls finally got to go home with their Mum and Dad
- saw Jonathan Coulton perform and I got his autograph!
- threw our first dinner party at the flat, with Kat and Andy the lucky recipients of a 3-course meal and loads of booze!
- went to our first 2008 wedding - Chloe & Tim (Chloe went to school with Ben)
- worked on a console game which was different, and fun!
- it snowed in our garden! (And in other parts of London, apparently)
- Saw Avenue Q which, because it had been made out to me to be amazingly funny, ended up inevitably disappointing
- went to the usual spate of lunches, brunches, drinks and movies


April:
- was busy busy busy on a project for the Freemans website - a fashion retail site that I did an expert evaluation, competitor review, user testing, interaction design, client workshopping, prototype testing and wrote a UI Spec for. All in 8 weeks. And not without help, either - I was working with a great team from Flow, our client, and our partner design agency Splendid. You can see the outcome here.
- tried 'Bollywood' dance classes which were fun and energetic, but the sharp wrist-twisting hand movements proved to be painful for my (still recovering) wrist
- went to a climate change meeting which left me feeling hopeful about the future and forever cynical about politicians at the same time


May
- had a long weekend away in the Lake District, a beautifully picturesque part of North England. Ben and I managed a 7-hour mountain hike on the first day, with lots of stile-climbing and lambsie-spotting (it was lambing season). We decided to relax, shop, and wander only on flat land for the second day.
- had a cocktail party (where my lovely bf's talents as a cocktail maker were on show) for my birthday. How old? Don't ask!

- Connie (my cousin) and Antoni became proud parents of little Thomas over in Athens
- sat through my first Eurovision final. It's apparently a rite of passage over here. Well, I've done it, so I never have to do it again. Thank God.
- earned mega gf brownie points cheering on Ben doing a 10k run, in the pouring rain.


June
- sang two hymns at our friends' Maria and Robin's wedding - Amazing Grace and Be Still (for the Presence of the Lord). It was lovely to be asked, and lovely to be singing again.

- had a 10-day holiday with Ben in England, which was bookended by weekends with friends. The first weekend was down in Pagham on the South Coast, at Claire's grandparents' house. The second weekend was in Elveden Forest in a leisure park called CentreParcs. It was literally in the middle of a forest and had a big pool complex with rapids, slides and wave pools, as well as loads of outdoor activities and wildlife to gawk at. In between the two weekends Ben and I drove around South-East England, ticking things like Stonehenge and Windsor Castle off my tourist list. We also saw some beautiful countryside and cathedrals.


July
- hit 3 years with Ben and 3 years in London. Wow! It seems to have gone by so fast! But I know I have changed immeasurably for the better, and I know it was the right decision to move here :) Especially as Ben got me 3 bunches of flowers and took me out for a superb gastronomic meal to mark the occasion ;) He done good.
- Mum came to visit! I unfortunately couldn't get time off work as it was late notice, but we got to spend some nice time together and she got to traipse about London and see some touristy stuff. And of all things, she seemed most taken with Selfridges!
- Ben and I had a long weekend in Athens with my parents, and Gary & Barbara (who were in transit). I also got to meet gorgeous baby Thomas, who is a delight.
- saw West Side Story beautifully performed and relived the fantastic songs we learned when I was a schoolgirl at Fintona
- started reading books again! I'd had a long absence from reading which I was getting worried about but I've thankfully caught the bug again


August
- did my first international travelling for work! Ok, so it was only Hamburg, and only for a day, but still! I've decided I really like the German language and would like to learn it in some capacity. Ja! Fur sure! hehe

So that's the run-down. In ongoing news, the baby girls are growing and becoming more alert and more gorgeous by the day. In less happy news, Ben has had belly trouble for some weeks now which is being investigated. We have two weddings and a Portugal/Spain trip planned for September, but nothing else of a big nature on the horizon. Photos, as ever, to follow (or so the legend goes).

That's it from me. Love to y'all. Iakovidis out.