Over the past few days I have been humbled by your stories and again realise how lucky I am. Myself and my fella have had a terrible past five years - after having severe neck pain - I was told I had osteoarthritis & nerve damage in my neck and consequently lost my job as a health care assistant :( I was devastated as I had planned to start my nursing training the next year :( then my fella fell ill with bowel problems and had to have a lot of ops on his bowel which meant he couldnt sit down properly as his wound had to be packed it took months for him to recover from & then in 2009 I found a large lump in my abdomen - I'd lost nearly two stone in weight but I'd put it down to depression especially when it was confirmed as a kidney cyst ! But a year later after lots of tests and being chased by my GP it was decided they didn't know what it was as it didn't appear to be attached to any organs. I was booked in to have this major op when my fellas bum decides to play up again so the early hours before my op I was in A&E with him and whilst I was having a 5 hour op that day he was in another theatre having his emergency op!!! He was in 3 days I was in for 7 days :(( I couldn't believe our bad luck - with two kids at home how would we cope - but we did and 6 weeks later I went for a normal post op to be told it was cancer and referred to gynaecology- they said as the growth and the cancer cells were rare - they couldn't identify where they came from and after loads of tests I was diagnosed with gastro intestinal tract stage 1a cancer as it hadn't spread luckily!
My fella doesn't cope well with any illness - it was bad enough with my neck problems and then this ! Don't get me wrong I love him to bits but I could gladly shake him till his head fell off!
He won't talk about it and when he does he's just so matter of fact and sounds so uncaring so I go on my own to all my oncology appointments and tests - I can't have him there it's too stressful for me
Since then he's had more ops and has been off work himself for over a year so i know hes stressed himself then our son was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic inflammatory arthiritis !!! then last year I had lots of problems with my bowels - bleeding , stomach cramps you name it so had loads of tests - had polyps removed in august and again in January.
It just seems like everytime were getting back to normal bam something else happens - don't think my nerves can take anything else I feel like one of those weeble wobble toys keep getting pushed over but I won't stay down !!
I just feel guilty when I realise how lucky I am as my mum says there's always someone worse off than you are so that's my story so far - I'm 2 & 1/2 years in remission halfway to the all clear :)
I just hope by coming on this site and talking to people I can hopefully offer some words of comfort and give hope and encouragement - I lost my Dad to cancer in 2005 and my younger brother died in a road accident in 1991 so I can understand what people are going through when they lose loved ones and hopefully offer them some comfort
Please feel free to add me as a friend as you can see I like a good natter or a moan depending on my significant other and what mood he is in !! Lol
So here's to staying positive !! :)))
