Breast Cancer - Part Two

The day of the lumpectomy we had to be in Chichester by 7.30am which meant a very early start and I wasn't allowed breakfast, just water or black coffee/tea till 6.30am. On arrival at the surgery suite we were surprised that it was patients only and that Mr LG wouldn't be allowed to wait with me until my time to go to theatre, so off he went for a long long wait! There was a comfortable waiting area once the booking in procedure had been completed and I waited with an older lady also having a lumpectomy and a lady who was in for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy 18 months earlier, and the three of us had a good chat and a laugh. I was due to be going to theatre at around noon but didn't actually go till around 3pm, by which time I was ravenous and had a headache from lack of fluids. Having seen various episodes of various hospital programs on television I wasn't expecting to walk into the operating theatre and to climb onto the operating table with the huge lights overhead! My last experience of hospital had been with my eldest son who had been wheeled into an anti-room for his anaesthetic, which apparently they still do as they don't want to scare the children! However, I had a lovely all lady team and the last thing I remember before waking up on the recovery ward was chatting away about something and nothing, probably making absolutely no sense at all ;-)

The sentinel node was removed and sent off to the lab along with another tiny node next to it, to be analysed whilst the lumpectomy was taking place. Although it did show signs of cancer spreading through it the decision was made not to remove a further batch of lymph nodes as the second one had been so tiny they didn't think the cancer had gone any further (it was too small to analyse properly on the day so had to be looked at in more detail afterwards). Unfortunately at my two week follow up they told me that the tiny little node had indeed had microscopic signs of the cancer so I ended up having to have another band of nodes removed. I completely understood the reasoning for not removing more nodes at the first operation as it could have meant unnecessary invasive surgery. You don't realise how much work your lymph nodes do until you have less of them. I had eight removed in total in the end, the second batch showing absolutely no signs of the cancer spreading thankfully. A few weeks ago I was stung on the foot by a sleepy wasp who had crawled into my slipper - in the past that would just have been sore for 24 hours or so and then I'd have forgotten about it, but with less lymph nodes to produce white blood cells to fight infection I ended up with a very swollen foot and a blister the size of half a golf ball which took ages to get rid of with the aid of anti-histamines and antibiotics. 

Last Friday I started a six cycle course of chemotherapy and that will be followed by a course of radiotherapy and 5 years of hormone therapy tablets. The after effects of the chemo haven't been too bad although I have been feeling absolutely exhausted at times, even after hours and hours of sleep. This is just something that I have to get through to have the best chance of the cancer being eradicated and not returning. I feel I have been very fortunate to have a very treatable form of cancer and six months of treatment are a small price to pay for being able to enjoy many more years with my family and all the people I care about.

For information on cancer in all its forms Macmillan are excellent, also Breast Cancer Care and I would urge everyone (men as well as women) to check themselves regularly and if you do find something unusual get it checked out immediately - ignoring it won't make it go away and early treatment will give a much better chance of survival. 

Breast Cancer - Part One

Now and then life throws you a curve ball. Mine came just over a month ago when I discovered a lump in my breast. Last year a friend of mine had a mastectomy and chemotherapy and is now in the clear, and since then I have checked myself more frequently. At first I couldn't quite believe that it was a lump, but it was definitely different from the other side that Sunday morning. First thing on Monday morning I phoned the medical centre and requested an urgent appointment - the first available was on Thursday afternoon. My doctor reassured me that it was just a cyst and fired off an email on the spot to refer me to a breast care consultant. I did relax, especially as it had become rather painful after all the prodding and poking around, as I'd always thought that breast cancer was painless.

I received a call from the hospital appointments department on the following Monday and ended up with a cancellation appointment at a hospital about an hour's drive from home but just 36 hours later. Between finding the lump and arriving for the consultation at hospital my right breast was sore, itchy and I was experiencing shooting pains through it. The mammogram came first, not the most pleasant experience in my life, but neither was it the worst! The consultant was very nice and down to earth, examined me and then sent me for a core needle biopsy and an ultrasound scan of the breast and armpit. Done under local anaesthetic, the biopsy was far more unpleasant than the mammogram - it didn't hurt, but as the sample is taken it sounds and feels like a large staple gun going off inside your chest! After they'd peeled me off the ceiling and slapped on a little plaster I went off for another chat with the consultant.

Having been reassured by my doctor that it was just a cyst you can probably imagine how utterly floored I was to be told that there was a 90% chance that it was cancer. At first I thought he was saying that there was a 90% chance it wasn't nasty, but he calmly disabused me of that notion! The results of the biopsy were due back the day after I was to leave for a week in Crete so we made an appointment for the day I arrived home. Feeling physically and mentally shattered I then had to make the decision as to whether or not to tell anyone. I decided that I would tell my family and very close friends before the results and before my holiday to prepare them. I kept it all very matter of fact and upbeat - I realised that the thing that most concerned me was that I might lost my hair through chemo which I was really rather hacked off about as I feel it's my best feature! A lovely week with my friend and her daughter in Crete did me the world of good, although I have to admit to being a bit of a nervous wreck on the evening before we were due to come home.

The wait to be called through to see the consultant was stomach churningly nerve wracking, slight element of surprise as the original consultant was off sick so I was seeing someone different, however I instantly liked her. The news was swift and devastating, it was definitely cancer - level 2 invasive carcinoma. After the original consultation I'd resigned myself to the fact that it would be cancer so the initial shock didn't last too long. An appointment was made for the following week for another type of scan, pre-op assessment and the op and we discussed what the procedure would be. The sentinel lymph  node would be the first thing to be removed and sent straight to the lab for assessment while the lumpectomy was taking place, and based on the results the consultant would then either sew me up or remove more nodes to see how far the cancer had spread. 

Clutching a folder full of information leaflets and appointment sheets Mr LG and I left feeling a bit overwhelmed, and started the process of confirming the diagnosis to family and friends. 

Breakthrough Breast Cancer

Last year I became aware of a lovely blogger through Twitter, and other fantastic #groovymums (#groovingmums). Sometimes we all struggle to cope with life on a day to day basis and the #groovymums are a great bunch to connect with - some days it's possible to offer support to someone who's not having a great day, other days someone might offer you support, or a blog post from one of them might cheer you up and make you realise that you're not alone. Each week Kate suggests things that you might do or think about to help you to get your groove back - some weeks you might not be able to join in, or it's not for you, or you might find she inspires you to do something you've never before considered. I haven't been particularly great at joining in as I'm often up to my eyeballs in work, but I do try to read the blog posts of others as often as I can. 

Last week Kate asked for  support for raising awareness of Breakthrough Breast Cancer by  getting other bloggers to write about a woman who matters to them, which I am more than happy to do.

My relationship with my mother has not always been an easy one and as a teenager I didn't fully appreciate everything that she did and went through to keep the fabric of family life together. She married a widower with four sons when I was six, and they ranged in age from six to eighteen - which as a mother myself now with two sons of eighteen and nearly sixteen I can see was a mammoth task! I doubt that any of us made life easy for her and I know that I resented the time and effort she put into the boys. We were never the sort of mother/daughter partnership who played with make up and hair - mum never really had the time to spend on herself with five kids, a husband and a house to look after!

I see now that she did an incredible job under very difficult circumstances and although we don't always see eye to eye even now, she is very much a good friend to me, and I hope I am to her. Women of my parents generation don't seem to have had the kind of friendships and support networks that we do, that they could turn to to have a bit of a gripe now and then or to receive an encouraging few words from to help them through the bad days. I am very grateful to all my friends, both long standing from childhood and newer through blogging and social media such as Twitter, as well as my mother who continues to hold the fabric of our family life together!

Pink Ribbon Bingo have pledged to support BreakthroughBreast Cancer all year round with 15% of the gross revenue accrued through online play on the site being donated to the charity.  Visitors also have the opportunity to donate a percentage of their winnings directly to the charity.  Along with the fundraising element, Pink Ribbon Bingo and The Daily Mail online will be helping the charity to raise awareness by promoting their vital health messages such as TLC (Touch, Look, Check).

Celebrity supporter videos on the Pink Ribbon Bingo website including Jessie J, Melanie C, Tom Ellis, Macy Gray, Sharon Corr and Kelly Hoopen - http://www.pinkribbonbingo.com/ .  

If you click on these YouTube links, you can hear Kate Thornton and Tamzin Outwaite's support.

Kate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brz793lgb_g&feature=youtu.be

Tamzin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCh671wnj2o