Private healthcare in Portugal is marvellous. My appointment at the clinic for the CT scan was for 1730, we got there five minutes early and were out of the door at 1745 with the images and the CD rom in my hands. Returning to Dr Habeck’s surgery he was pleased my infection was getting better, he had a quick look at the images and announced he could not see anything suspicious. Result, onwards and upwards.
Then, an hour later, a phone call. I was to return to the surgery that evening to meet the doctor. We got there early, Bren sat in the car, I walked up and down, knowing something was wrong. He arrived, opened up the surgery and sat us down. I was shaking, so was Brenda.
Being German, Dr Habeck cut straight to the point. The radiographer had called him, he had seen from my scan that I had colon cancer and secondary cancer in my lungs. It was very serious, we had to move fast. I needed a biopsy and colonoscopy which he could arrange locally, and he could get me treated by the best cancer surgeon he knew in Heidelberg in Germany. There was no time to loose. We walked away in total shock – we were totally unprepared for this latest bombshell. I had no symptoms of any of the above, how could it be ? We drove to Gerry & Sue’s house, sat down and cried our hearts out.