Rena's Blog

Queen of English Harbour

Rena

Our thanks to Phil Wade and his nephew, Terry Clark, for insisting that we put together some information about Rena and the serious illness she is now fighting here in Antigua. We will try to keep you up to date with her news and progress.

____________________________

On 14 May, Rena underwent abdominal surgery to remove a malignant tumour that was blocking her colon. The lymph glands in the area were also affected and the operation confirmed the suspicion that she had cancer secondaries in her liver.

Dr Kelvin Charles operated on her, with Nick Fuller assisting, in a three hour operation, finishing at 1.30am here at the Adelin Clinic in Antigua. The operation was a great success and she has recovered from it very well.

But then a crippling blow; at 1am on Monday 18 May, Rena suffered a stroke that has left her pretty much paralysed on her left side. Perhaps, her feisty spirit had her dancing just too energetically to the ‘concert’ blasting away a few hundred yards away from the hospital! Or, more realistically, she found it just as infuriating as I did!

Now she is home, or rather back to the house we are renting in Piccadilly, while we finish the rebuilding of ‘Nightingale’, her lovely house up the hill from the Antigua Sails loft. Progress on the redevelopment is good and we hope to be back in the house again within the next two months.

Rena first started feeling a bit under the weather in April. At the time, friends here were suffering from dengue fever and imported viruses, and with her low grade and intermittent fever, we rather thought this was just another one of those bugs. But, by the middle of the month she was cancelling out of her twice weekly tennis games.

Then, at the end April, we were having chest X-rays, and CT scans. And, by the end of the first week in May, after follow-up MRI’s, we knew that she had suffered a number of infarctions in the brain and had very suspicious lesions in her liver. The radiographer reckoned these were metastases, or secondaries, from a primary cancer elsewhere. The problem was where. We knew the lungs were clear and she had had a colonoscopy 7 months before, so that seemed to leave the stomach as the most likely source of the primary. But by the start of the following week, 11 May, she was feeling very poorly indeed and our dear friends who operate the ABSAR ambulance whisked her into the Adelin Medical centre for more evaluation. On Wednesday, she had a gastroscopy to check her tummy – clear, no problem. But she was by now vomiting and it didn’t smell good – sure sign that something was blocking up her gut. BUPA were by now organised with an air ambulance arriving on Friday morning. But this was going to be too late, for it became obvious in the course of Thursday 14^th, that we had to go for immediate emergency surgery to find out what was happening.

She went into theatre and at about midnight, the surgeon removed a large malignant tumour from the top end of the colon, presumably just a bit too far up for the colonoscopy to have identified it. He also found that the lymph glands in the area had been affected and confirmed that in his view the lesions in the liver were indeed cancerous secondaries.

Rena recovered well from the surgery, and the lengthy scar on her tummy is one of her prettiest! I don’t go in for kissing men, but I felt like it at 1.30 in the morning when I saw Dr Charles after the operation.

I should also say how grateful we are to the lovely people who rallied around at midnight to get out of their beds and bunks to slog in to town to give blood for Rena – of course she has an interesting blood group. Thank you again, Sandy, Jane, Nettie and Xander.

__________________________

The stroke, 48 hours later was a cruel blow. Rena was left with a paralysed left side. Since then she has recovered pretty well. Her speech is much better now and we are seeing the first signs of voluntary movement. But she still has problems sitting up for any length of time – probably because the muscles on one side of the spine are having to do all the work.

_______________________

It would be invidious to single out any one person from all our friends in Antigua who have provided so much help and support during Rena’s hospitalisation. But we absolutely have to record our heartfelt thanks to Sandy Burridge who managed to keep Graham and I fed in fine fashion throughout our 24hr vigils at the hospital. Without her – I would be a lot thinner! Also to Ann Ayres, a friend for so many years, who came in to the hospital many times to give me a chance to get home and ‘re-group’ for a while during the day.

______________________

In the meanwhile, we are now pretty well organised in our ‘rental’. ABSAR (Antigua and Barbuda Search and Rescue) once again came to our aid and transported Rena back to Piccadilly from the Adelin medical centre. The Hospice, in the person of Agnes Meeker, got us supplied with a hospital bed, commodes, walking frame and good advice. To those yachtsmen who have supported Rena’s charity work over the years with donations of unwanted clothing and ‘stuff’, – thank you, for the hospice has figured high among the charities Rena has helped with your generosity. PLEASE KEEP IT COMING NEXT SEASON.

__________________________

On our return to Piccadilly, Eggie Van der Poole joined us as our ‘nurse in charge’. She is with us every morning, organises our schedule of trained carers and provides all the day to day medical advice and support we need. We also have a physiotherapist who ‘beats Rena up’ five or six days a week!

Rena is finding her progress very frustrating – particularly in overcoming the effects of the stroke. Worst of all, she no longer enjoys her champagne! But while progress may be slow, she can do a lot more than she could when she first arrived home and continues to do well. Our big drive now is to build up her weight in order that she can cope with the next phase of her treatment.

______________________________

Not surprisingly, Rena has had many, many messages of love and encouragement from all over the world. I must also say that Graham and I have had huge support as well from all our and Rena’s friends and this has meant a great deal to both of us.

We will try to keep you posted with developments.

David Cadogan

Rena Knight

Queen of English Harbour

Our thanks to Phil Wade and his nephew, Terry Clark, for insisting that we put together some information about Rena and the serious illness she is now fighting here in Antigua. We will try to keep you up to date with her news and progress.

____________________________

On 14 May, Rena underwent abdominal surgery to remove a malignant tumour that was blocking her colon. The lymph glands in the area were also affected and the operation confirmed the suspicion that she had cancer secondaries in her liver.

Dr Kelvin Charles operated on her, with Nick Fuller assisting, in a three hour operation, finishing at 1.30am here at the Adelin Clinic in Antigua. The operation was a great success and she has recovered from it very well.

But then a crippling blow; at 1am on Monday 18 May, Rena suffered a stroke that has left her pretty much paralysed on her left side. Perhaps, her feisty spirit had her dancing just too energetically to the ‘concert’ blasting away a few hundred yards away from the hospital! Or, more realistically, she found it just as infuriating as I did!

Now she is home, or rather back to the house we are renting in Piccadilly, while we finish the rebuilding of ‘Nightingale’, her lovely house up the hill from the Antigua Sails loft. Progress on the redevelopment is good and we hope to be back in the house again within the next two months.

Rena first started feeling a bit under the weather in April. At the time, friends here were suffering from dengue fever and imported viruses, and with her low grade and intermittent fever, we rather thought this was just another one of those bugs. But, by the middle of the month she was cancelling out of her twice weekly tennis games.

Then, at the end April, we were having chest X-rays, and CT scans. And, by the end of the first week in May, after follow-up MRI’s, we knew that she had suffered a number of infarctions in the brain and had very suspicious lesions in her liver. The radiographer reckoned these were metastases, or secondaries, from a primary cancer elsewhere. The problem was where. We knew the lungs were clear and she had had a colonoscopy 7 months before, so that seemed to leave the stomach as the most likely source of the primary. But by the start of the following week, 11 May, she was feeling very poorly indeed and our dear friends who operate the ABSAR ambulance whisked her into the Adelin Medical centre for more evaluation. On Wednesday, she had a gastroscopy to check her tummy – clear, no problem. But she was by now vomiting and it didn’t smell good – sure sign that something was blocking up her gut. BUPA were by now organised with an air ambulance arriving on Friday morning. But this was going to be too late, for it became obvious in the course of Thursday 14^th, that we had to go for immediate emergency surgery to find out what was happening.

She went into theatre and at about midnight, the surgeon removed a large malignant tumour from the top end of the colon, presumably just a bit too far up for the colonoscopy to have identified it. He also found that the lymph glands in the area had been affected and confirmed that in his view the lesions in the liver were indeed cancerous secondaries.

Rena recovered well from the surgery, and the lengthy scar on her tummy is one of her prettiest! I don’t go in for kissing men, but I felt like it at 1.30 in the morning when I saw Dr Charles after the operation.

I should also say how grateful we are to the lovely people who rallied around at midnight to get out of their beds and bunks to slog in to town to give blood for Rena – of course she has an interesting blood group. Thank you again, Sandy, Jane, Nettie and Xander.

__________________________

The stroke, 48 hours later was a cruel blow. Rena was left with a paralysed left side. Since then she has recovered pretty well. Her speech is much better now and we are seeing the first signs of voluntary movement. But she still has problems sitting up for any length of time – probably because the muscles on one side of the spine are having to do all the work.

_______________________

It would be invidious to single out any one person from all our friends in Antigua who have provided so much help and support during Rena’s hospitalisation. But we absolutely have to record our heartfelt thanks to Sandy Burridge who managed to keep Graham and I fed in fine fashion throughout our 24hr vigils at the hospital. Without her – I would be a lot thinner! Also to Ann Ayres, a friend for so many years, who came in to the hospital many times to give me a chance to get home and ‘re-group’ for a while during the day.

______________________

In the meanwhile, we are now pretty well organised in our ‘rental’. ABSAR (Antigua and Barbuda Search and Rescue) once again came to our aid and transported Rena back to Piccadilly from the Adelin medical centre. The Hospice, in the person of Agnes Meeker, got us supplied with a hospital bed, commodes, walking frame and good advice. To those yachtsmen who have supported Rena’s charity work over the years with donations of unwanted clothing and ‘stuff’, – thank you, for the hospice has figured high among the charities Rena has helped with your generosity. PLEASE KEEP IT COMING NEXT SEASON.

__________________________

On our return to Piccadilly, Eggie Van der Poole joined us as our ‘nurse in charge’. She is with us every morning, organises our schedule of trained carers and provides all the day to day medical advice and support we need. We also have a physiotherapist who ‘beats Rena up’ five or six days a week!

Rena is finding her progress very frustrating – particularly in overcoming the effects of the stroke. Worst of all, she no longer enjoys her champagne! But while progress may be slow, she can do a lot more than she could when she first arrived home and continues to do well. Our big drive now is to build up her weight in order that she can cope with the next phase of her treatment.

______________________________

Not surprisingly, Rena has had many, many messages of love and encouragement from all over the world. I must also say that Graham and I have had huge support as well from all our and Rena’s friends and this has meant a great deal to both of us.

We will try to keep you posted with developments.

David Cadogan