I Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma In 1995 - Here's What Happened part 2

My 2 weeks in hospital confirming my GP's suspicion of Hodgkin's Lymphoma were quite depressing. I wrote to my GP some time later because actually, after what I read of the the 'condition' subsequently, it is not that simple diagnosing it and so I expressed my gratitude that he like the GP before him (see my previous posting on the subject) had not taken an easy option - else quite simply I would not be here because of the then advanced stage of the disease in my body. As I said it was 2 weeks hospitalised and not being able to get on with dealing with the problem. Poked and prodded being the order of the day. Unpleasant biopsies and doctors doing rounds and me being a 'not very good patient'. My wife was a towering support and daily visited bringing hope as well as some decent food - the hospital food was not designed for nutrition but for the convenience of the hospital catering management but also, primarily, for a budget. Patient considerations within the catering department of the hospital were way down the list. One particular low point was the day I had a doctor give me the confirmation of the state of my body when my next contact with humanity was a lady offering me the food order of the vegetarian option as being fish. I wrote to the catering department and complained from the comfort of home many weeks later and I got a most indignant and unrepentant reply saying that, "a lot of vegetarins eat fish". Dimwit. Probably a highly paid dimwit and so I knew I had been wasting my time! Obviously I was an inconvenience.

I remember quite distinctly a strangeness to the day I was discharged. Relief at being able to go home and tackle life or the endgame to that life but also of the coincidence of buying the Daily Mail newspaer to find an in depth article on Spiritual Healing together with contact details for their governing body. My wife and I had not been religious over the years, she being Church of England baptised and me Roman Catholic (lapsed I think is the description). Anyhow the feeling now was that we should tackle the problem together and not rule anything out. We contacted the governing body and they provided two names in our locality, a man and a woman, with telephone numbers. My wife asked who she should call and my instincts were to telephone the woman which she did but this healer said that she did not deal with things like cancer! Not a very encouraging beginning. So then she rang the second number and he didn't want to know what the problem was and invited us to his home. He was Denis Rouse who sadly is no longer with us.

I'll relate more on what happened in my journey on the path of cancer in my next post on the subject as well as other coincidences or were they just coincidences?