HOCUS POCUS

Here’s a conundrum. How come that as of 15/04/2008 the Consumer Price Index remained unchanged at 2.5% despite prices spiralling out of control? That’s the type of sleight of hand hocus pocus that only an economist can produce! Our assets are diminishing by the minute, our money isn’t safe in the bank, food has become a luxury item but hey, the dodgy CPI has remained the same. Goodie, goodie.

Back to the real world and another conundrum. OG has a decision to make following our meeting with the oncologist on Friday. We were told that we are now in the realm of the unknown. What we do know is that of the 6 lymph nodes removed, 2 were cancerous.

There is a possibility that these two lymph nodes in the area of the tumour were the only nodes affected and that chemo is unnecessary. However, it is also possible that there are other cancerous nodes and chemo could prove to be beneficial. He said that if cancer is still present and OG decided not to have chemo he may feel that he hadn’t given it his best shot.

There has been a study to compare success rates of groups of patients that had chemo against others than had decided not to. Unfortunately, results of this study are not yet available. However, his opinion is that although the benefits of chemo are very uncertain and it isn’t an exact science if OG decided to have the chemo then the sooner it started the better because it would be ineffective if left for more than 3 months after the operation.

So, the conundrum is should OG put himself through this new ordeal so soon after the “major, major operation and major, major reconstruction” (the oncologists words) or take his chances that chemo is not a guarantee and concentrate on building himself up again.