Two phrases should be banned for ever from all medical establishments...

(1) 'We got it all!' (Surgeon to post-op cancer patient)

(2) 'You're too young for cancer!' (GP/doc to undiagnosed cancer patient)

Julie

PS - could probably add 'It's just IBS'....

How about this email from my consultant!  I asked why my sense of smell still hadn't returned after 12 months.

Jo -

Not sure that I know where to take this. Loss of smell can be due to damage in the olfactory nerves which come from the front part of the brain to the back of the nose. There is no good reason in your case for them to have been damaged. It can be due to a frontal lobe tumour or trauma, but we are not suspecting either in your case.

I may well not be at the clinic on *th Apr as I am currently working at **** **** hospital. See what my colleagues think.

Best wishes,

I have removed hospital deatils to protect his identity!

To say I was a little shocked to receive this, is an understatement.

Jo

its so sad. I despair! My mums gp was the same. rubbish. I had just started nursing and knew fluid on the ,lung on a 44 year old meant cancer. He wanted to send her home!! she was so ill and I stood in the reception and said 'i'll stay here til you get an ambulance for her' and he had to back down.

I reported his conduct and it did get taken seriously (she was dangerously ill and had i not forced his hand she would have died at home) but he called me ' an overemotional young lady who should have known better)!!!!

there are no words other than swear words for this man. My mum was desperately ill and died witin a month. His conduct would not have changed the outcome but it was his attitude and pomposity that I knew more than him and i was merely a student nurse!!

I say to people time and time again. Go back to your gp and keep going til you get a satisfactory answer and dont stop!

This happens time and time again. Always with cancer sufferers. They are too quick to dismiss symtoms as something else. As I said my dad was told he has IBS like lots of other people. It's coming up to Dads birthday on Friday 9th April. He would have been 82 this time. I miss him and wish if he had been diagnosed earlier then he would have had a chance to see his birthday. He had a good life with a good family which we have been deprived of. This for which I cannot express my disgust at the doctors dignosis of Indigestion in the beginning. His whole journey started only a year ago until July 09. This is not a long time to be told you only have a short space of time to live with this terrible disease. The doctors will never learn that each case of cancer is individual and they should treat everyone respectively. I agree if you have to ask too many questions don't stop unitl you get the answer you deserve to know. And if you think something does'nt sound right ask again. XXX

hi all

this happened to us with veronica i was back ward and forward for a year i wouldnt give up because veronica had special needs she couldnt do it her self

they said it was wear and tear on her body give her parcatmol

i must say  she did have a ct scan on her head has she was having lots of headaches but that came back negative in the end she had a  x ray on her shoulder that when they found the tumor and it was all go from then sadly we lost v 3 months ago

but keep going back

love janice xxxx

they bloody do!! i am so sorry to hear about your brother, its just not fair, our lives are in the hands of these people and they are failing us.

I have been going to the docs for two years!!!! with blood in my urine and passing blood clots and was sent home with antibiotics each time.. ive just been diagnosed with bladder cancer, they think its quite advanced, ive just had a baby, they may have given me a death sentance, im 27.

they need to start taking notice of people and not fobbing them off with medication every single time.

I'm sorry no one has answered you, and I think it is because yours is such a terrible story that we don't know what to say. It's absolutely dreadful what has happened to you, and that you weren't investigated properly. I suspect you have fallen victim to the dreaded 'you are too young to have cancer' which seems to be the stock answer in all too many cases. Sometimes it seems that GPs behave as though they've never heard of cancer. I have read, I believe, that GPs see very few cases of cancer in their working career, and, as we know to our cost, the symptoms of cancer are more likely to be that of something else, less dreadful.

But somehow, we have to find a way in the UK of getting people diagnosed in time, before the disease progresses.

I do, do hope that you can be successfully treated. Therapies are making some dramatic improvements in quite a lot of cancers now, with new drugs, and if there is one 'upside' (I speak figuratively....) of being so young, it is that PCTs have even less 'justification' (in their own eyes, even if no one elses) of denying you the drugs you need on the grounds of cost. If there are new drugs available for your cancer, it can become a matter of using them as stepping stones, one after another, as more come out of the labs, to keep you going. I can't speak about your cancer, but with my husband's cancer, for example, (renal cell), there are patients with advanced (metastatic and spread to lungs, liver etc) cancer who have been kept alive for a good few years now, moving from one new drug to the next.

My thoughts with you in this nightmare - Julie. 

Im so sorry to hear about your loss. I know exactly how you feel as i lost my mam on 14th september 2009 to Renal Cell Carcinoma ( Cancer of the Kidney).

My mam visited her GP on 23 January2007 with abdomal pains, nausea, blood in her urine and pain in her right side. Her GP examined her and said that there was nothing to worry about and  sent her for a urine test. When the tests came back there was no sign of infection.

On a number of occasions my mam kept visiting her GP complaining of the same symptoms and her GP kept telling her that there was nothing wrong with her. After a few months of going 2 her GP with the same symptoms and the pain (which was getting more and more intence as time was going on) she asked if he could send her for a scan as she knew her own body and she knew that there was something seriously wrong with her as she had been passing blood in her urine for months and the pain was getting worst. Her GP refused to send her to hospital and said that she was suffering from Gallstones.

On 20th march 2007 my mam visited her GP again and her GP examined her and agreed to send my mam for a ultra sound scan and told her to wait for an appointment from the hospital with an appointment for the scan.

On 2nd july 2007 my mam rang the surgery and said that she still haven't  recieved the appointment from the hospital and what was happening regarding the scan. The GP said that he would send a new request to the hospital for my mam to have the scan. As the pain and blood in her urine was getting worst she kept going to the GP and he kept telling her to wait until the scan appointment comes as there was nothing he could do until then.

On 6th august 2007 my mam attended the surgery again and her GP examined her and said that it was gallstones. My mam said that she was still waiting for the appointment for the scan and asked if the GP could see what was happening and to chase up the appointment as she had been waiting over 5 months for the appointment.

On 28th august 2007 my mam had an appointment for the scan and was told that there was some abnormalities and not to worry to much and that she would recieve a letter in the post to go back for the results of the scan.

On 12th september 2007 she had the appointment where she was diagnosed with renal cancer which devistated myself and my mam. The specialist asked my mam how long she had been having pain in her side and how long she had been passing blood in her urine for as the tumor was so big. When my mam said she had been passing blood for 8 months the specialist was shocked and said that my mam should of been sent for a scan months and months before she was and that the tumor was so large that he couldnt understand how it took the GP so long to refeer her for the scan as the symptoms she had were the classic symptoms of renal cancer. We were then told my mam would need an operation asap and that it was very important that no more time was wasted she would have to be made high priority and she was being put at the top of the list for the operation and when she went home she was to pack a hospital bag straight away as she would recieve a phone call telling her to go straight up to Cardiff Hospital where she would be operated on.

On 14th september 2007 she recieved the call  and we went straight up to Cardiff for her to have the operation. The operation to remove her right kidney was estimated that it would take up to 5 hours but because there was some complications during surgery  it took nearly 15 hours and and a team of over 80 medical staff for the operation. My mam was put into intensive care after the operation as she needed 24 hour 1 to 1 care until she was fit enough to go back onto the ward.

After the op the surgeions were 70% sure that they had got all of the cancer and was hoping that the tumor hadnt spread anywhere else.

After a few weeks my mam had to have scans regularly to see if the cancer had come back. A few months later the scan results showed that the cancer had come back and that it was spreading very rapid. After various treatments to stop the cancer spreading it had spread all around her body and she ended having 12 tumors in all different parts of the body and in all her main organs.

My mam started on a trial drug and the cancer stoped growing for a while and it seemed to be shrinking the tumours. Then after a few months the cancer started to get bigger and my mam started getting weaker and in more and more pain until she was addmitted to Ty - Olwen which is a respite for cancer patient. As soon as my mam was admitted there we knew that she was sent there and that she didnt have long and she was going to die. After having the results of a blood test she was given weeks to live which really devistated myself and my brother. My mam was given another blood test and within a matter of three hours she was given days to live. When she had the third blood test we were told that it was going to be hours and that she wouldnt last till the next day and we was to contact the family and tell them to make there way up to Ty-Olwen as she wouldnt last till the next day. My mam's health drematically changed and you could see her getting weaker as the hours went by and you could see her deterioatin very quick. At 07:15 on 14th september 2009 she sadly passed away. Aged 55. We were all devistated and couldnt believe within a few days she had deteriated so much and how quick it all happened. We are just so greatful that we had the chance to be there at her bedside and had the little time we did to tell her how much we loved her and to say our last goodbye's because alot of people dont get the chance. It was such a relief knowing that she wasnt in anymore pain and that she was at peace. Seeing my mam go through so much pain and seeing her deterioate so fast and knowing that we couldnt do anything to help her has affected me and my brother so much and will for the rest of our lives.

I made a complaint to the NHS and i was told that if i wasnt happy regarding the lenght of time in which my mams GP took to send her for a scan i was to contact the Ombudsman to make a complaint and ask for the Ombudsman to investigate the complaint. After a year and three months the investigation reveled that the GP had made a mistake and that if he had sent my mam for a scan when she first asked then my mam would still be here now and she would of had at least a 15 years extra on her life and that the cancer could have been treated and she would never had needed the operation and would still be here now.

The GP has offered to pay £3'250 in compensation and to write a letter of appology as he made the wrong desision and cost my mam her life and the family so much heart ache and sadness. He is still practacing and has not had any disciplinary action taken against him what so ever. I think it is discraceful that he can still practice as a GP and nothing is being done. Nothing will bring my mam back and nothing can take away the pain we all are feeling at the loss of my mam. We dont want the money so we are going to donate every penny to Ty-Olwen because the staff there had such a hard job to do and done their jobs so well and the staff were so caring and took such good care of my mam and made the last few days  she had left as plesent and as comfertable and pain free as possible. Myself and the family are so greatful for what they did for my mam we all agreed that the money should go to Ty Olwen so that the money can be used to help other pacients who need the care and support they need just like the care and support my mam recieved.

R.I.P MAM. MISS YOU SO MUCH, THERE'S NOT A DAY THAT GOES BY THAT WE DONT THINK OF YOU. YOUR ALWAYS IN OUR THOUGHTS. YOU WERE THE BEST MAM WE COULD EVER ASK FOR. WE WILL NEVER FORGET EVERYTHING YOU DONE FOR US AND WILL NEVER FORGET YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE TO GOOD TO BE FORGOTTEN. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX