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Out, damned squatter! Out, I say!
After a long day at the hospital for breast cancer surgery, I was eventually allowed home late in the evening. What a day! I had to rock up at the POCU (Pre-Operative Care Unit) for 7am, before being whisked off to the Nuclear Medicine department to have a radioactive isotope injected to help identify which…
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Some good news, at last
Well, this is exciting! I’ve just taken a call from the hospital and I am booked in for surgery on Friday 16th October, and I’m very pleased this has come around so quickly. After everything that’s happened over the last few weeks, having an actual date feels like a great leap forwards. There have been…
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Seriously ill, still me
The last couple of days have been a rather frightening reminder that I am, actually, seriously ill. I’ve just spent two days in hospital while they tried to get my magnesium levels back to something approaching normal. They had suddenly fallen to 0.34 mmol/L, against a normal range of 1.7–2.3. This was the fourth time…
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A Change of Plan
Well, it seems my body has finally lodged a formal complaint about chemotherapy. I saw the consultant earlier this week and, after everything that has been going on, they’ve decided that we’ve reached the point where enough is enough. The main chemotherapy is being stopped immediately and the plan is now to go straight to…
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Cancer stole my identity
It is now over three months since my diagnosis of an aggressive form of breast cancer, and I had no idea how short a time it would take for this horrible disease to change my life and rob me of my identity. For over twenty years I have been Finance Director and part owner of…
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Lost for words
Since my diagnosis I’ve discovered that cancer doesn’t just come with side effects. It also comes with a script. Almost everyone reaches for the same handful of phrases. They’re not meant to hurt. They’re usually an attempt to fill an awkward silence, offer comfort, or make sense of something that feels really frightening. Sometimes, though,…
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Captured!
The next few days became a whirlwind of tests and appointments at both the main hospital and local community clinics. Looking back at my diary as I write this, I attended six separate appointments in the space of just ten days. Before long, it became a logistical challenge simply keeping track of where I’d been,…
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Lots of words I sort of recognised
My appointment to see a breast surgeon duly arrived through the post a couple of days later. This time, my husband took me to the clinic on the Monday morning and we listened together as, the breast surgeon explained that my “poached quail’s egg” was in fact a 30mm grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma that…
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“D’you think it’s cancer?”
At the time of writing, women in the UK are routinely invited for free NHS breast screening at some point during the three years after their 50th birthday, and then every three years until they reach the age of 71. Breast screening uses a test called a mammogram, which takes two quick X-rays of each…
