Hello everyone,
I'm Camille and i'm 23, this summer, in late August, I went to Greece. Escaping life and the entire world pandemic situation for a selfish week after having locked myself up at my place working from home since late february.
I had abdominal pain and discomfort for the past 4 months... one month after the pain started I told my GP about it and was given things for acid reflux, the medication she gave me didn't helped so i called again 3 weeks after. And I was told that my lifestyle was probably the culprite. I gave up on asking help from my GP because I felt judged, i felt misunderstood, and having phone call consultations that last 5 mins only really made me feel upset and alone.
The next day I came back to the UK after my little trip, I experienced a pain I never felt before, and as I couldn't move that day I went to the A&E on the following day.
After a few scans they found a big tumor in my abdomen, and sent me home, I knew I would be updated on it and have more exams on it soon. But everything was very scary.
I would see emails referring me to oncologist and sarcoma teams and be told it's probably not that. I had to wait for results for weeks with not much of a news or update. And one day I got told that the tumor would have to be removed so I need to meet the surgeon. I got told next week you are having an operation to remove it. That this is very likely a Sarcoma and will be handled as one. But no one really took my hand and sat in front of me and looked at me in the eyes and told me : Camille I'm sorry but we found out that you have cancer. I finally met the oncologist 2 days after my surgeon and ask her about it. You say this might not be a Sarcoma but do I have cancer for sure ? and I finally had my answer, yes I do.
I thought things would be announced differently, is it only in movies ? How was it for you? I personally think i would have preferred something a bit more straight forward.
Wishing you all the best !
Hi , it is my wife who has the cancer rather than me and her journey to a diagnosis was - complicated. The doctors seemed so convinced she had cancer that they missed the sepsis that could have killed her. Finally they did manage to diagnose sarcoma but in those days we did not even recognize that that even was cancer.
Sarcoma is one of the rarer kinds of cancer and as such there are a few specialist centres, your treatment is hopefully being coordinated by one of these even if the actual treatment might be delivered somewhere more locally. We were lucky in that our local cancer centre is one of the centres anyway but I had not realised how often we were being seen by the top man - sounds good until you realise how unusual your case is!
Janice's cancer seems to have been stopped - it is not going away but it is also not growing and she is well so we are living with cancer. Doing really well and now only get to see the doctors a couple of times a year - initially there was always that little tingle of "what if it is growing again" but with a bit of help we can cope with that.
<<hugs>>
Steve
Hi
This is an interesting discussion thread.
I'm diabetic and had experienced bowel issues for sometime, everytime I mentioned this to my GP he juggled my medication. 2019 routine bloods showed anaemia, this went on for months without the GP doing much other than telling me to have bloods done again in a few weeks time.
I started feeling very unwell early summer '19 with blood results never improving. GP then seemed to panic late summer as anaemia continued to get worse, I ended up being rushed to hospital for a blood transfusion, medic in A&E was dismayed that I hadn't been sent for a colonoscope or been given iron infusions.
By this time I knew something serious was wrong, I was having frequent soiling episodes, hardly eating or leaving home. Things began moving REALLY fast. Within days of my hospital admittance I had an endoscope and colonoscope carried out. I was taken into a room and the consultant spent ages bumbling over the results, talking about mass/growth/shadow on the bowel, I stopped him rambling and said "So are you telling me I need to be prepared for being diagnosed with bowel cancer"? .... He was speechless at my directness but eventually said "yes" ... That was the only time there was any conversation that confirmed I had cancer.
I think the medical profession have a long way to go to be clear in communicating initial cancer diagnosis and using the words as they seem so surprised when patients need directness.
Even now with my second rediagnosis my excellent oncologist didn't say the cancer's back, they said, we found some new cells, it was me that clarified they were cancer cells.
