and on it goes
"None loves the messenger who brings bad news"
Sophocles
Having thought about the previous post I have realised that I would advise anyone to check out waiting times for examinations, surgery etc through their hospital guidelines depending upon which Health Board you come under.
I talked before about my waiting time and the problems that it brought. I would like to say a bit more about this. I was in touch with breast care nurses at the hospital. I was told that in all likliehood after my surgery I would be referred to the Beatson for radiotherapy. It all sounded really quite straightforward (I had a friend who had ben through this without complication) and I have to say I didn't worry too much. The general feeling was that this situation would be dealt with in a straightforward way. It was with this feeling that I went in to both my surgery and my follow up appointment. The surgery itself was straightforward and I was home that evening. Recovery went pretty well. I returned to see the surgeon a week and a half later. It was interesting to see all of the women who had had surgery on the same day as me all gathered again to find out their fate. As you would expect I was definitely one of the younger women and out of 6 of us only 2 were under 60. One by one we were called in and judging from most of the faces on coming out the news was positive. One woman was happy to tell me that her tumour was grade 1 and she only required radiotherapy. Good for her! When it was my turn I was still not too concerned. Imagine my disappointment when the doctor broke the news that firstly; there was no disease in my lymph nodes, the drill seems to be that they start with a positive, although these would become increasingly hard to find, and then give the bad news. So, no lymph node disease, brilliant. Hmm, the BUT was coming, the tumour was grade 3, very aggressive and non hormone sensitive. The last bit of information was glossed over and I would only learn the real ramifications of this later. So what did this mean? Essentially it meant that rather than the straightforward scenario I had been expecting, instead I would be going through chemotherapy. This, I was told, was a belt and braces exercise. In other words they were confident that they had successfully removed the tumour, however the chemo was to clear up any potential stray cells. I was devastated for the first time. I had gone from looking at a month of therapy which would make me tired to 5 months of therapy which would do god knew what to me. This time I didn't cry for the doctors benefit. I was referred to an oncologist and the appointment was the following week. At this appointment I was given more information about my condition and why chemo was being strongly recommended. Again the whole non hormone sensitive issue was raised but not really explored or explained. Basically what I heard was that my type of cancer wouldn't respond too well (if at all) to the newer breast cancer drugs which are thought to be the wonder drugs, like Herceptin and Tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is a tablet which is prescribed to women who have an oestrogen based cancer and is taken for up to 5 years post surgery. For many women it is indeed a lifesaver. This wasn't the case for me. And so I signed up for the dreaded chemo. I stipulated that I would only begin treatment after the 20th August as I was having my 40th birthday party. They agreed. Chemo was scheduled to begin on August 25th. This was definitely the real test of my endurance.
Sophocles
Having thought about the previous post I have realised that I would advise anyone to check out waiting times for examinations, surgery etc through their hospital guidelines depending upon which Health Board you come under.
I talked before about my waiting time and the problems that it brought. I would like to say a bit more about this. I was in touch with breast care nurses at the hospital. I was told that in all likliehood after my surgery I would be referred to the Beatson for radiotherapy. It all sounded really quite straightforward (I had a friend who had ben through this without complication) and I have to say I didn't worry too much. The general feeling was that this situation would be dealt with in a straightforward way. It was with this feeling that I went in to both my surgery and my follow up appointment. The surgery itself was straightforward and I was home that evening. Recovery went pretty well. I returned to see the surgeon a week and a half later. It was interesting to see all of the women who had had surgery on the same day as me all gathered again to find out their fate. As you would expect I was definitely one of the younger women and out of 6 of us only 2 were under 60. One by one we were called in and judging from most of the faces on coming out the news was positive. One woman was happy to tell me that her tumour was grade 1 and she only required radiotherapy. Good for her! When it was my turn I was still not too concerned. Imagine my disappointment when the doctor broke the news that firstly; there was no disease in my lymph nodes, the drill seems to be that they start with a positive, although these would become increasingly hard to find, and then give the bad news. So, no lymph node disease, brilliant. Hmm, the BUT was coming, the tumour was grade 3, very aggressive and non hormone sensitive. The last bit of information was glossed over and I would only learn the real ramifications of this later. So what did this mean? Essentially it meant that rather than the straightforward scenario I had been expecting, instead I would be going through chemotherapy. This, I was told, was a belt and braces exercise. In other words they were confident that they had successfully removed the tumour, however the chemo was to clear up any potential stray cells. I was devastated for the first time. I had gone from looking at a month of therapy which would make me tired to 5 months of therapy which would do god knew what to me. This time I didn't cry for the doctors benefit. I was referred to an oncologist and the appointment was the following week. At this appointment I was given more information about my condition and why chemo was being strongly recommended. Again the whole non hormone sensitive issue was raised but not really explored or explained. Basically what I heard was that my type of cancer wouldn't respond too well (if at all) to the newer breast cancer drugs which are thought to be the wonder drugs, like Herceptin and Tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is a tablet which is prescribed to women who have an oestrogen based cancer and is taken for up to 5 years post surgery. For many women it is indeed a lifesaver. This wasn't the case for me. And so I signed up for the dreaded chemo. I stipulated that I would only begin treatment after the 20th August as I was having my 40th birthday party. They agreed. Chemo was scheduled to begin on August 25th. This was definitely the real test of my endurance.
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