The kids and I tried to spoil Mummy and make her day as best we could. This was quite tricky as the shadow of Mondays pending surgery was heavy and at times overwhelming. The Sunday night feeling was terrible! However, Grandad Mikes arrival was most welcome and helped brighten the mood. It was great to have him over and know that I can focus on Julia’s needs this week as the kids would be covered. Thank you Grandad.

Surgery day inevitably arrives even though sleep was fleeting and all to soon it’s up and at them. Julia & Mike take the kids to school while I try and do some work. Its hard to concentrate so I focus on easy housekeeping type work.

Text messages come in during the morning from friends and these help keep spirits up. Julia’s facebook has exploded with well wishes and its hard to quantify how much these help and spur us on but thank you all!

We arrive at the hospital on time and after the obligatory wait (we are in a hospital after all!) things happen quickly enough and I walk Julia to the operating theatre. The next few hours drag and I fret, work is out of the question as I can’t focus on anything, so I watch netflix. Four hours later Julia is wheeled back into her room. She’s a nauseous shade of grey, cold and clammy and still high from the anesthetic and the morphine. After a while she’s sick and slowly colour returns. Mr Crane the surgeon pops by and tells us everything went perfectly and he was also able to work round Julia’s Chemotherapy port. After a while I head off home to get some food and let people know that surgery went well and Julia is on the mend.

Its fantastic to think that Julia is now Cancer free! The rest of the treatment is belt and braces and that will take another 6 months to be done.

The rest of the week, I’m generally at the hospital for 9am and spend the day there working and keeping Julia company. Julia brightens to see the kids Tuesday evening and friends visit on Wednesday. However, for some reason Julia is still very nauseous and struggles to eat - there’s not much I can do about it but it makes me anxious. The anti-sickness medication keeps going up but Julia still struggles to eat and keep food down. She’s also suffering from extreme headaches also making her feel nauseous and what’s hardest for me is theres no apparent cause of this.

Thursday is a low day, I take Mike over in the morning but Julia is too ill to see friends in the afternoon and is struggling. I worry that she won’t make it home on Friday as she wants. Her drains from the surgery especially the one from the node clearance side are still filling full of fluid. There has to be 50 ml or less in a day to be ok for release. Extra painkillers, and anti sickness get her through the day. By this point I’m exhausted and really hope for some good news friday morning.

Huzzah! 52ml in the drain - all good Julia can come home! She looks happier and taking bucket loads of anti sickness medication is helping, choosing the mushroom and bacon soup for lunch was not though! The drains are removed and the Mr Crane pops by and is happy that things are healing well and Julia can go home.

Huzzah! We get home and that night after we get the kids to bed, I take Mike for a couple of beers at the Orange Tree.