We moved house early in 2021 and all the time I had these annoying piles. They were itchy and uncomfortable. I ride horses so even more so after few hours in the saddle. I must get registered at new GP and sort them out, I thought. But we always seemed to be busy to just kept going to pharmacy for more ointments that did nothing.
Then one day I called for an appointment and week later saw a lovely doctor who said there is only one thing for those - surgery. Because of Covid I was looking at wait time of 2-3 years but we are very lucky to have private medical insurance so I was seen relatively quickly.
June 9 2021 Met the surgeon who was quite brisk and functional but I didn't mind, I just wanted them gone..
July 14 2021, I went in for a routine operation. July 30, 2021 I was called back to see him for post-operative consultation and was told they had found squamous cell cancer. A Macmillan nurse was in the room and I couldn't really understand why she was there..In my mind they had cut it out so I didn't have anything to worry about.
That weekend we had arranged to go to theatre with my sister Ally and her husband Eric to see Pretty Woman. I didn't want to spoil the night so I said nothing..We stayed overnight and the next day at breakfast, I decided to tell her as I wanted to do it face to face. Honestly it was really hard but we didn't really cry, I think we were all just in shock and hadn't taken it in.
After that I ended up going back and forth to hospital for scans - MRI, CT , looking for secondary cancer. Suddenly I realised this could be much worse than I thought. The worst stage was finding lump in my breast. I'd only had a breast screen in May so initially I was thinking it would be nothing..But a flippant comment from.doctor saying scans are not always definitive sent me into a bit of a spin.
The thing I would stress is that scans take ages to organise and book..This was a horrible time not knowing. It took until 9 Sept 2021 to final get breast clinic and biopsy done which proved I didn't have breast cancer as well.
Then my first oncology appointment was not until 1 October - 2 months after diagnosis.
During this time I was lucky to have distraction of project managing our new house which kept my mind busy. However the day I walked into the oncology ward was really hard - I just couldn't believe this was happening to me.
Macmillan were great at helping to coordinate medical things and Maggie's were just the best emotionally. I went for walk one day with dogs along the Ridgeway in Oxford and was on the phone for over hour and half crying down the phone to Maggie's and asking how I went about telling my boys. The funny thing is I found was I sort of accepted that it could be bad for me but I just couldn't accept what that would mean for my close family, I felt desparate need to protect them but at the same time didn't want to lie to them or over dramatise the situation. Boys have their own issues to deal with and I didn't want to burden them with mine.
Anyway, the oncologist said they had clear margins and no spread so cancer free so just 5 years of monitoring.
