A Lifetime of cancer - Today

2 minute read time.
Well hubby is back in hospital for his second cycle of this regime ( never thought I would be hearing myself say that 14 yrs ago), which is now having ITs dreaded effects, you know, nausea - vomitting - sore mouth - piles etc etc. The two of us are feeling pretty low at the moment, this is something you never get used to even after seven relapses. It is like having your left arm cut off when you are apart, my brain which is usually quite intelligent suddenly becomes mush and I feel like a little child who is lost somewhere unable to find their way home. This bubble that surrounds our life can be suffocating at times, someone else is in control of everything you do, they make the decisions for you. I did however lose it last week at the hospital - I was fed up with the way hubby and others seem to be treated at times - so I ended up in a meeting with the consultant and the nurse manager and boy did I vent my spleen, but they did listen and they are doing something about the issues I raised. Like I said to them, I am not just fed up because of my hubby but I sit with patients day after day for 14 yrs and listened to them and their worries and yet the people who could help them do not seem to hear their worries. Simple things like having to pay to park at a cancer hospital, or being made to pay £2.35 for a cup of coffee from the new machine which was installed to generate monies for the hospital fund - seems daft to me that a fund for cancer patients is being funded by cancer patients, alot of these people have money worries due to their circumstances, it is not a day out and should not cost people to be treated. I sat for the first time last week in the area for patient transport and I was with an elderly gent who had had 5 mins of radio and then had to wait over 6 hrs for transport, which seemed insane as people he lived by had already been taken home early, he told me that some week they were together and other weeks it was like this. The man felt very unwell and uncomfortable and yet was sitting around for hours when he should have been tooked up in bed. There must be a better way for these people. Gosh I could go on forever but at least the hospital listened to me and seem to have taken on board some of the issues. I was told that the hospital wished more people would speak out because until they do nothing will change. These are people who are scared and lonely, they are not a comodity and the hospital should not treat it as a business. I do understand the need to raise monies for the hospital, I do not feel though that people who are already undergoing financial pressure should be made to suffer. 14hrs at the hospital can become quite expensive! A worry most of us do not need.