Tao in June part 3 - Emergency flight back to London

Part 3

...Tuesday morning started, like Monday, before dawn with Tash doubled over the side of the bed, the pain had returned and it was obvious that we couldn't carry on with our plans.

Throwing money at the situation, left, right and centre, we managed to stay in the hotel past check out time, ditch the hire car and fly into London and arrive at Harley street at 7pm that evening. Dr Lazer went to work on Tash with the CT scanner and eventually reported back that though this problem is obviously painful to Tash, it was not something that looked like it was going to develop into a life threatening illness (or to put it another way, it was not directly caused by the ablation). She suggested it was more likely that the Ibuprofen Tash had been taking had inflamed her stomach lining and so some more belly-friendly painkillers and industrial strength anti-acids were prescribed.

Useful pieces of information number 352: Late opening Pharmacies in London? - though not 24 Hour, there is one on the corner of Marble Arch & Edgware Road. Not the best place to park by a long shot, but Ken admirably managed to extract himself from the 'snug' rear seat of 'Hans', open the door and place himself into the middle of some of the busiest traffic in London in one near fluid movement. When he returned Ken pointed out a small flaw in our SAS-executed-Italian-evacuation-plan, none of us had any Sterling, only Euros, he had got to the counter and realised this, but then, lucky fellow that he is, remembered that he had spotted a Bureau de Change, next door - hey presto, potential show stopper avoided....

Laura, Franccesca, Ulli, Stephania and Lorenzo, thank you again for you support and concern.

So here we are, not in Seville as planned but sitting in London watching Spain loose to France, with Tash on the sofa, feeling a little better than earlier on today.

28, 29 & 30 June

These three days settled into a rhythm of sorts, the day would start, or in Tash's case on Thursday, just carry straight through from the previous day, with her doubled over the bed again in some serious pain. The rest of the day Tash would spend in her room, either asleep or after painkillers, woozy and decidedly odd.

On Thursday she saw 'The Slev' (he also specialises in gastro-intestinal issues) and he told her that is was probably just a muscle out of sorts. After a night with the hot water bottle being of no help, Dr Lazer was phoned again. I was out in the car with Ken when Tash called to tell me she was going back into Harley Street for another set of scans, it was a bit worrying as she was 'dosed up' and so sounded like you do just after leaving the dentist's.

This time Dr Lazer had a different take on things, using all the scanning equipment she seemed to have at her disposal, she spotted something odd, fluid.......

1st July

Opening my Panini sticker book of Natasha's collection of Medical Specialists, I spotted that there was a new entry, 'Dr Liver'.

Dr Liver, or Dr Pierier as others might know him, also lives on Harley Street in, it has to be said, less impressive surroundings than we are used to, 'someone should go in there with a duster' I could hear my mother say....

The most current prognosis for my love's discomfort is that one of the ablation sites has cut through a minor bile duct (apparently you have many, forming a 'root system' draining out the bile from the liver into your intestine). So as the liver tissue has healed this has created a leak, both out into the liver sack (well, who would have thought that we had one of those) and most likely tracking the route of the ablation needle back into the stomach cavity.

How does this happen? Well, so we are told, this root system (think inverted tree) flows into a trunk (main bile duct) that holds the fluid under pressure by way of a muscle valve before excreting it for disposal into the intestinal tract. So rather like a radiator (which is also a closed pressurised system girls, and the rest of you men, who know nothing about cars and should be ashamed of yourself), when there is chance to escape the fluid will always take it.

The pain, Dr Liver theorised, was most likely due to the presence of the bile collecting in this liver sack, bile should be on the inside, not the outside after all.

What are we doing about it? Well on Monday Tash is going for her 15th surgical procedure in six years, her first endoscopy, not she points out a procedure that she ever wanted to have, but what can we do?

Actually if anyone feels that we are hogging the medical limelight and wants to step in and take some of the heat off of us, please, feel free, we could do with the time off.

The endoscopy will end with the addition of a little plastic tube (stent) to this main bile duct so that the muscle valve stays open and, hopefully, without a build up of pressure, give this problem mini branch time to repair itself.

Tash is adamant that we continue with plans to have he party next Saturday and though it may not turn out to be the rollicking drink ladened affair that the last one was for her , she is determined not to let this recent episode spoil these plans. If things do go 'down the shitter' off of the back of today's operation we will post it here Wednesday or Thurday, well thats the plan anyway, but that could equally also change.

<< More fun was to be had in July -oOo- Of course we all know that you are reading this backwards, part 2? >>

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