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I had this lump in my neck, not sure how long it had been there or even how I noticed but it was just there one day and I remember thinking to myself 'that doesn't feel right'. Never thought much more about it being so busy with life until one day I met a lady through work. She was telling me about her thyroid cancer she had some years before and the lump she had in her neck. Got me thinking about mine again and I told her I had a lump. Go to the doctors and get it checked she advised. So I did....
Hi, My name is Alec I'm 22 years old from London.
I'm not really sure about blogging or if this is even the place to be writing this, but I needed a space of my own for my thoughts.
In August 2016 my father was diagnosed with Terminal Lung cancer and given a life expectancy of 18 months. Now To say we didn't see it coming would be a lie, dad was a heavy smoker and still does smoke, so it wasn't a complete surprise that this had come around.
But for me at the age of 22, I didn't know...
Well I am back home following my axillary clearance surgery on Saturday - the hospital staff were so lovely, every single one of them, and as I had to stay in overnight due to my ridiculously low blood pressure, I met quite a few.
It was strange as I spent almost five hours in recovery - apparently the ward won't accept you until your BP is above a certain number - but there was music playing and the recovery nurses have to be some of the happiest people in the hospital.
I feel okay at the moment...
I've just realised that it's exactly 1 year ago that I started this blog and my journey.
I've had 6 months of chemotherapy, the removal of my large bowel and my bum and I'm sitting in a hospital bed with less than half my liver.
I'm still here and I intend to be here a damn sight longer!
Thank you all for your love, support and positively.
Apologies for not writing sooner but other things got in the way.
It's a couple of months since I wrote a blog entry. That's because I had two months between appointments this time. It's been great taking some time off from hospital and in the interim I have been trying to get back to work (partially successful - I've managed a few jobs and it's been good getting my brain back into gear but the fatigue still gets in the way).
This week I got the CA125 test result from the bloods taken in February and it's now in the normal range. Hurray...
Wednesday 5th April 2017
I'm sitting on my hospital bed waiting to be discharged. The operation went very well and the best bit was that the sentinel node that they biopsied while I was under was clear of any cancer cells, so no need to remove any more and do the auxiliary clearance, what a huge relief. I am still on cloud nine about that! I had totally convinced myself that the cancer had gone to the lymph nodes because of all the funny twinges during chemotherapy. When I woke up after the operation...
Less than 24 hours before I go under the knife again and my anxiety levels are through the roof. I’m scared of what will be found when they open me up and rescan me. But as I keep telling myself what will be will be. I can’t control it and if they find that they can’t operate then that is what will happen. If they find nothing additional out of the ‘ordinary’ (apart from the known lesions) then they’ll take away up to 75% of my liver and we move on.
My journey...
Had my results appointment today following lumpectomy & SNB on 14th March and there was good news and bad news.
Good news = clear margins, tumour 1.8mm and stays at Grade 1.
Bad news = 2 of 3 nodes had micromet so out the rest of them come on Saturday.
Feeling pretty miserable tonight, only really just feeling that I'm starting to recover from the first op.
Sorry - can't think of a positive thing to say right now.
Well started chemotherapy cisplatin and gemcitabine on 23rd Dec...had 3 cycles of this...cancer in bladder had already breached bladder wall and was unfortunely in 2 of my lymph nodes was told the tumour on the outside of the bladder was size of tennis ball... Which was same size as one they took out From inside of my bladder... Had ct scan in jan.. Looked hopeful... They told me it had shrunk to bout half...great news.. And it wasn't in my thoraxic or bones... Until mri scan few week later end of...
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