View with a room

Back home after dark, after spending a large part of the day at Auckland City Hospital. On the receiving end.

The lump on my jaw, which I first noticed a couple of months ago, has been palpated, scanned by ultrasound and CT, and I have talked to the surgeon. A lovely chap who explained why he (and the radiologist) think that it has been there or a long time and therefore is unlikely to be nasty. Except that, if left the bone will likely break.

Not only ouch, such an outcome would require much more tricky surgery. First step in avoiding that is a biopsy. Had to be there by 1130, and it was after 1300 before I went to theatre, the procedure took twice as long as this non surgeon expected, and then four hours being observed doing crossword puzzles before they would let me come home.

So far the process has quadrupled the size of the lump, a temporary state I'm sure. Next stage is to plan when more significant surgery will take place. In the meantime, it will be back to work in a couple of days. Fortuitously, I had arranged to attend a conference in Hamilton from today until Wednesday. I'll see how I feel in the morning about a drive to Hamilton.

Looking into the centre of the building from the window in the room I spent three hours, I was able to watch the lifts going up and down.