So I though I might write a brief little history of my cancer so far. Just in case I have accidentally managed to not tell someone absolutely everything (I don’t over share that much do I???)
So anyway, turns out my family is good at cancer. Two aunts and (I think) all four grandparents died of or with cancer, and numerous others have had or are still dealing with the hideous disease. Oh and two of my sisters have had precancerous growths removed this year.
So it should be something I knew stuff about. But really, no, I knew nothing.
Following some recent tissue sample tests on my dad’s side, my sisters and I were advised to start getting colonoscopies done. Woohoo fun times. So off I went to the doctor to get that started.
While there I happened to mention that my nipple was acting up. Kinda retreating a little into my boob. I couldn’t feel a lump – and to be honest I don’t think she could either. Maybe the texture was different, but not a lump.
So a few weeks later (after a fabulous trip to Hawaii, well except for that weird pain in my side that randomly turned up), off I went to get a mammogram: a.k.a a great way to pass the time while you wait for someone to stick a camera up your bum! The team there did a very thorough job. And concluded that I absolutely, definitely, did not have cancer.
I was relieved. (I’d just moved house and resigned from my job. Not great timing.)
My GP however was not so easily convinced.
So she sent me to hospital for a second opinion, where I got to sit half naked, while the registrar, the trainee, and then a very glamorous surgeon all took turns squeezing my boob. Needless to say I was getting a bit short with all this sudden attention. Particularly when the conclusion was that I’d need an mri.
Scroll forwards two weeks and, this probably shows my ignorance, it turns out that mri’s are really really noisy. Magnetic resonance imaging. I imagined magnets moving. Didn’t expect the noise, even through earplugs AND earphones!
Scroll forward two more weeks and I’ve just started an amazing new job. And I’m back at hospital getting biopsied. Yeah that hurt. They promised to call about ten days later to discuss.
So when the glamorous surgeon called two days later telling me to come see her. Well, we all know how this story ends.
At that point no one realised how advanced things were, so I really thought I’d dodged a bullet. I mean I couldn’t feel it, how bad could it be?
(The tumour was six cm, it had progressed into 14 nodes. And that random pain in my ribs that I couldn’t describe. Yeah hello bone mets.)
And that’s how I ended up on chemo….
Oh, also. The hospital called this week to say I finally had an appointment for my colonoscopy. Using my wonderful powers of persuasion (“so um I’m doing chemo right now…”) I have managed to get it postponed.