Saturday 28 February 2009

Enter the professor

In he came, like god really. Shorts and sandals. I was already crying and mum just looked terrified.Told us what we knew. Asked us how much we wanted to know. Mum replied "not alot"
We asked the prognosis. "not good".I leant on John. Unless you are unfortunate enough to ever come across this situation it is very hard to describe.

The Most awful day

Waiting for the results is something i never imagined any human being would have to go through . Not in this day and age anyway.
Wine by the bucketful. Credit card to the max.
John took the day off work. 330 the appointment, a day to worry.
We went in an hour late. Disgraceful. Ushered into this vile little room.
Suddenly we heard a man on the phone in the adjoining room. "this lady has ovarian cancer grade 3c and yes she does have someone with her" the auxillary nurse walked in,i yelled at her "can you tell him to keep his voice down for gods sake", she chewed her gum and looked at me and apologised in a non-convincing fashion.

The operation

I took mum in to the hospital. As i left her we cuddled and i wept. It was like a scene from a film as i walked backwards to the car waving all the way.
Wine again to sleep.
It was over, the operation had gone well. The nurse told me so.
I raced to the hospital and on entering the room i froze and fear made me back out of the room. All those tubes. Something wasn`t right. The nurse put her arms around me . I knew.I`
m sure the nurse did too.
The next few days were a bit of a blur . I know i had to bite my lip as i showered mum , but getting wet hid my tears.
Mum kept saying they said it wasn`t straightforward but no-one could tell me anything.
Finally the consultant arrived.
"we had trouble with your mums ovaries. It`s very unusual to have two types of cancer but i am highly suspicious"
Mum was discharged. I was relieved to have her with me at my house.

How it all started


I will never forget March 2007. I was walking around with a permanent smile on my face. My partner John had asked me to marry him and i was over the moon. Along with a new job with social services , could life get any better? My head was full of wedding plans and care plans!!!!
In April John and i decided to go away to Dartmouth on a short break. My mum Georgie had the children. But mum hadn`t been too well. Fibroids. Thats what it was, the doctor had said so.
She dealt with the pain and the bleeding admirably, although she was tired. But fibroids do that. My doctor told me so. I asked him.
We enjoyed our break. We watched a pink floyd tribute band, they were fantastic.
A few weeks later mum told me she had been back to the doctors and he was booking her in for tests. I wasn`t worried. It was fibroids.
June 3rd was Kayleighs 6th birthday. Mum rang to say she probably wouldnt be able to come down. Alarm bells rang in my mind.At 630 the door went, as i opened it mum fell through as grey as i dont know what. propping herself up on the wall. From that moment i knew.
June 7th. My 32nd birthday. We went to the hospital and mum was taken to theatre for tests.
End of June. The date slips my mind now. I`d just got in from working an early shift. I was very tired. The phone rang, it was mum. Claire, it is cancer.
That was it. The word. From that second on life would never be the same.
I remember crying, screaming, not being able to deal with the kids. Stage 2 endometrial cancer. I got busy on the net.
an appointment came through to see a consultant in the oncology dept.
I drank as much wine as i possibly could to get me to the date of our appointment.
Hoorayyyyyyyy!!!! Although it was cancer it wouldn`t kill mum. A hysterectomy and possibly a liitle radiotherapy would sort it out. phew. We cried on our way out. Bring on the hysterectomy lets get rid of it!