7th August 2013. Nil by mouth from 00.00.
At 10.00 I am in the Department of Nuclear Medicine for my Sentinel Node Scan. I am called in and advised that dye will be injected into my right nipple, I will then be asked to wait 20 mins or so, to allow the dye to move, then come back in for the scan.
The radiographer wears lead gloves and a lead apron and the dye is in its own small lead case. OK, so this stuff is going into my body!
I hardly feel a thing as the dye goes in and I am told I can get dressed and wait in the waiting room, or go to Costa if I want, I opt for the latter. As my operation is not until the afternoon I can drink and I really need a cup of tea. I am just about to leave when an agitated radiographer calls me back. It seems the reason I did not feel anything is due to the face that nothing went in! The syringe was faulty. I strip off again, lay on the scanning machine again, see the lead gloves again, and I feel the dye going in this time. Its not painful, just a sharp sting. This time they want to check the dye is in so start to scan straight away.
'This wont take long', the young radiographer says, 'Your Lymph moves really fast, it will only take about 15 mins'. As I lay there, I wonder if having fast moving Lymph is good or bad when you have cancer??????
The scan was over by 11.00am. I walked from the x-ray department to the Day Surgery Unit and checked in at the reception. It was a long wait.
At 12.30 I was called in and saw a nurse, she did my basic observations and showed me where to get changed and wait. I then saw the consultant Anaesthetist, he was a colleague of mine from the Maternity Unit, we have worked together a lot up to now! It seemed today was a good day to have an operation as all the new doctors started work today, and they were on their Trust Induction day. So the list today was staffed by Consultants! That was lucky!
I then waited in the small room again, until I was called to see the Consultant Surgeon. This was the first time I had actually met 'my' surgeon. He was lovely and explained what he would do, checked my consent form and said 'lets get on with it then!'.
With that a nurse led me to the theatre.
I must have been fast asleep, because as I was woken up from the general anaesthetic I really thought I was at home in my bed, it was a shock to open my eyes and see the theatre recovery area. Once I had opened my eyes and responded to the ODAs questions I was wheeled down to the Day Unit.
At this point I reached for my right breast, just to check it was there, it was, I went back to sleep. As I lay in the day unit in my drugged state, many Theatre Nurses and ODPs who were passing saw me and came over to chat, I don't think I made much sense.
The day unit has rules, you have to have a drink and eat at least a biscuit before they will let you go home. I was struggling to wake up, it took me over 90 mins to eat the biscuit as I slowly emerged from the general aesthetic. I was in a Morphine induced haze as I struggled to drink tea.
As the last patient in the day unit I got up to go to the bathroom, I managed to do it, but vomited the tea and biscuit up at the same time! I did not tell any one as I wanted to go home. Who wants to stay overnight in hospital, its hot, noisy, and who can sleep with a plastic covered bed and plastic pillows? I was going home! I stripped my bed, with its vomited on sheets, I found the sluice and deposited the sheets into the linen skip. The Nurse was very impressed with my housekeeping efforts and ran through a long list of dos and don'ts and finally at 20.00 I got into my car and my husband drove me home to my own bed.
Now just the wait for the results and the treatment plan.
Showing posts with label HRT. Nurse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HRT. Nurse. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Breast Cancer, Seeing the Surgeon, its a mix up in many ways.
12 July 2013, 14.15. I arrive at the Breast Care Centre as instructed to see the Surgeon. But there is some mix up as a Nurse abruptly informs me that I have missed my appointment as I am late. He exact words were;
'You have DNAed your appointment!'
I inform her, very firmly, that I have never DNAed an appointment in my life and tell her not to scribe the words 'DNA' (Did Not Attend) in my notes as I am not late. I get out my letter, there has been some kind of mix up as it clearly states Friday 12 July at 14.15, it is now 14.00. She is flustered now but still says I shouldn't be there. It turns out that I should have been at the clinic in the morning, but I have not been told this information! However the surgeon has now finished his clinic and gone to do a theatre list.
The Nurses 'busy about' and say I can see a surgeon, but not 'mine'. I say OK and get called into a room. Here we meet my Nurse Specialist, the Surgeon and a House Officer. They sit us down, give me a box of tissues and tell us they have bad news.
As I work in the NHS, I realise there is (another) a break down in communication and that this team of people do not know that I know my diagnosis. They think that this appointment is to tell me the news that I have breast cancer, whilst I think this appointment it to give me a date to have the cancer cut out. My husband however puts 1 and 1 together and comes up with 3. He thinks that I have not told him the truth and that I am terminally ill. He looks like he is about to collapse! I quickly tell the team I know I have Breast Cancer and regain control, my husband looks like he needs the nearest resuscitation trolley, I have to calm him down.
I am told I will be booked in for the surgery, and will have a Sentinel Node Scan prior to the surgery. I am also given lots of 'breast cancer care' books to read. I don't read them, all the books go straight into the recycle bin as I prefer to Google.uk.
16 July 2013. I get confirmation of my Sentinel Node Scan and Surgery, it will be on 29th July 2013.
22 July 2013, I receive a letter from the department of nuclear medicine informing me that 'due to unforeseen circumstances, we regret that your examination cannot be performed on 29 July 2013 but will be done on 7th August 2013 at 09.30 am'. I am confused, I thought I was having the dye put in then the operation, this way round doesn't work ?
23 July 2013, I am at work, teaching customised fundal height measurement. during a break I ring my nurse specialist.
She tells me that the surgeon 'they' want to do my operation is on holiday on the 29th July so I will be having the operation on the 7th of August.
In passing, she also comments that she has got the results of a Hormone Receptor Test they did on the punch biopsy specimens.
'They are not reacting to hormones' she says.
I ask what this means,
she says 'its not hormonal cancer, it may mean chemotherapy, but we will know more when the lump is out and we really know what we are dealing with'.
I get the feeling I am being drip fed information.
At home, I Google, 'Estrogen negative, Progesterone negative breast cancer'.
It comes back to me with 'Triple Negative Breast Cancer' (TNBC). I read about TNBC, I read the research papers, I read the blogs, I read the scary newspaper stuff, I research TNBC as if I am doing a dissertation. I am after all a Health Care Professional with a degree, I know where to go to find the research.
Until this point I did not know about all the different types of breast cancer that have been found, I do now.
I also realised that until the lump was removed I could not possibly know the rest of my treatment plan, as the treatment plans were individualised for each woman using this vital information. So I would just have to wait and see.
The next day I researched alternatives to Chemotherapy, I find many blogs and find the Gerson therapy. I read all the information about vitamins, Kale, Broccoli sprouts. I dusted off the juicer, went to Aldi and emptied the shelves of fruit and veg and started to 'Juice'. I went to Holland and Barrett and brought super vitamins. I stopped drinking alcohol!
I spoke to my brother and told him I was going to kill the cancer with juice. My brother is a bit of a petrol head, a motor bike enthusiast when he wants to be and he has always followed Barry Sheene.
He listens to me rambling about Juice, then tells me 'that's what Barry Sheene did, used juice to fight his cancer of the oesophagus and stomach, but died in 2003'. My brother doesn't say much at times, but he said a lot in that sentence.
I decide to do the Juice, have my vitamins, drink my wine and have the chemotherapy if I needed to. I really do want to live! after all I have holidays planned..............but that's another blog.
'You have DNAed your appointment!'
I inform her, very firmly, that I have never DNAed an appointment in my life and tell her not to scribe the words 'DNA' (Did Not Attend) in my notes as I am not late. I get out my letter, there has been some kind of mix up as it clearly states Friday 12 July at 14.15, it is now 14.00. She is flustered now but still says I shouldn't be there. It turns out that I should have been at the clinic in the morning, but I have not been told this information! However the surgeon has now finished his clinic and gone to do a theatre list.
The Nurses 'busy about' and say I can see a surgeon, but not 'mine'. I say OK and get called into a room. Here we meet my Nurse Specialist, the Surgeon and a House Officer. They sit us down, give me a box of tissues and tell us they have bad news.
As I work in the NHS, I realise there is (another) a break down in communication and that this team of people do not know that I know my diagnosis. They think that this appointment is to tell me the news that I have breast cancer, whilst I think this appointment it to give me a date to have the cancer cut out. My husband however puts 1 and 1 together and comes up with 3. He thinks that I have not told him the truth and that I am terminally ill. He looks like he is about to collapse! I quickly tell the team I know I have Breast Cancer and regain control, my husband looks like he needs the nearest resuscitation trolley, I have to calm him down.
I am told I will be booked in for the surgery, and will have a Sentinel Node Scan prior to the surgery. I am also given lots of 'breast cancer care' books to read. I don't read them, all the books go straight into the recycle bin as I prefer to Google.uk.
16 July 2013. I get confirmation of my Sentinel Node Scan and Surgery, it will be on 29th July 2013.
22 July 2013, I receive a letter from the department of nuclear medicine informing me that 'due to unforeseen circumstances, we regret that your examination cannot be performed on 29 July 2013 but will be done on 7th August 2013 at 09.30 am'. I am confused, I thought I was having the dye put in then the operation, this way round doesn't work ?
23 July 2013, I am at work, teaching customised fundal height measurement. during a break I ring my nurse specialist.
She tells me that the surgeon 'they' want to do my operation is on holiday on the 29th July so I will be having the operation on the 7th of August.
In passing, she also comments that she has got the results of a Hormone Receptor Test they did on the punch biopsy specimens.
'They are not reacting to hormones' she says.
I ask what this means,
she says 'its not hormonal cancer, it may mean chemotherapy, but we will know more when the lump is out and we really know what we are dealing with'.
I get the feeling I am being drip fed information.
At home, I Google, 'Estrogen negative, Progesterone negative breast cancer'.
It comes back to me with 'Triple Negative Breast Cancer' (TNBC). I read about TNBC, I read the research papers, I read the blogs, I read the scary newspaper stuff, I research TNBC as if I am doing a dissertation. I am after all a Health Care Professional with a degree, I know where to go to find the research.
Until this point I did not know about all the different types of breast cancer that have been found, I do now.
I also realised that until the lump was removed I could not possibly know the rest of my treatment plan, as the treatment plans were individualised for each woman using this vital information. So I would just have to wait and see.
The next day I researched alternatives to Chemotherapy, I find many blogs and find the Gerson therapy. I read all the information about vitamins, Kale, Broccoli sprouts. I dusted off the juicer, went to Aldi and emptied the shelves of fruit and veg and started to 'Juice'. I went to Holland and Barrett and brought super vitamins. I stopped drinking alcohol!
I spoke to my brother and told him I was going to kill the cancer with juice. My brother is a bit of a petrol head, a motor bike enthusiast when he wants to be and he has always followed Barry Sheene.
He listens to me rambling about Juice, then tells me 'that's what Barry Sheene did, used juice to fight his cancer of the oesophagus and stomach, but died in 2003'. My brother doesn't say much at times, but he said a lot in that sentence.
I decide to do the Juice, have my vitamins, drink my wine and have the chemotherapy if I needed to. I really do want to live! after all I have holidays planned..............but that's another blog.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Breast Cancer. The first step in my breast cancer journey, pain in my right breast.
Hello! this is my story of having Breast Cancer. I am a white English woman. I have a husband & 2 daughters and quite a few dogs. I am a Nurse and midwife and I work in the NHS. This is my experience.
I qualified as a British Nurse in 1978. Whilst I was undertaking my training as a pupil nurse, an image that has remained with me through the years was of caring for a woman who had undergone a Classical Radical Mastectomy for Breast Cancer. The whole breast, including Nipple, Areola and her Lymph Nodes had been removed. Through my 18 year old eyes it looked like she had been butchered. I remember dressing the puckered skin, the Surgeon had done a sort of blanket stich straight across the woman's chest, she had drains in and was nursed with the arm up, above her head, in a hanging sling for at least 10 days. I think she stayed in the hospital for a period of about 15 days. That was my last experience of nursing a patient with Breast Cancer, as I went on to become a Midwife where women's breasts are used for other purposes.
In England when you are 50 your appointment for your first Mammogram comes through the post with your 50th Birthday Cards. In 2007, I had dutifully made my way to the screening van in the car park of a local superstore. Here my 32DD bust was squashed to a one inch flat pancake, then just as I thought it was painful, but bearable, the Radiographer ratchet it down even further in a vice like grip. I found it a horrible test, very painful and humiliating. I did not hear from them so assumed it was all clear. I later found out this was the case.
In 2008 I noted a 'thickening' around my Nipple area in my right breast at about 3 O'clock ( you quickly learn this is how the Surgeons and breast care nurses refer to the areas of your breasts). I went to the GP who sent me to the Breast Clinic at my local hospital. I had a 'Fine Needle Biopsy' (FNB) in the Out Patients Department. My breast was palpated, the area identified, then the surgeon inserting a green needle attached to a 20 ml syringe into the area, this was done with out anaesthetic and once he had draw a small amount of breast tissue into the green needle, this 'Biopsy' was send to the lab. I then had to go to another department for a Mammogram, but this was a very different experience that the 'Van in the Car Park' carry on, even though I was sore and bruised from the examination and FNB the Mammogram was not as painful as my first experience. When the results came back, they were all clear it was just a fibrous area of breast tissue. So my next routine Mammogram would now be in 2013 and I would be called as routine via letter.
March 2013, I had been experiencing a deep burning sensation in my right breast, this time at 9 O'clock for about 18 month. But I was busy with a full time demanding and stressfull job, by now a senior Midwife in the NHS in a practice development / delivery suite shift leader role. As well as a wife and mother to two adult daughters, two dogs, parents who were getting older.....LIFE!
April 2013, I went on holiday to Sri Lanka with my daughter. We went to a Yoga and Surfing Retreat at Talalla Lodge, this is a link to my travel blog http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=435807495647998918#editor/target=post;postID=3645945395386130871;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=5;src=postname
I went for a massage and realised that something couldn't be right as I was having difficulty laying on my front due to the pain in the breast.
May 2013, Very busy back at work, than at the end of May the pain in the right breast is keeping me awake at night and I feel a pea size lump. The next day I telephone the GP, after a long wait on the phone listening to mind numbing music I get an appointment for the first week in June.
6th June 2013, I go to see my GP, she can feel the lump as well. She refers me by email to the Breast Unit at the local Hospital. At this point I have not spoken to any one about this. Not my husband or my daughters, after all what the point of worrying them if its nothing? I get an appointment to go to the Breast Care Unit on 18th June 2013.
I qualified as a British Nurse in 1978. Whilst I was undertaking my training as a pupil nurse, an image that has remained with me through the years was of caring for a woman who had undergone a Classical Radical Mastectomy for Breast Cancer. The whole breast, including Nipple, Areola and her Lymph Nodes had been removed. Through my 18 year old eyes it looked like she had been butchered. I remember dressing the puckered skin, the Surgeon had done a sort of blanket stich straight across the woman's chest, she had drains in and was nursed with the arm up, above her head, in a hanging sling for at least 10 days. I think she stayed in the hospital for a period of about 15 days. That was my last experience of nursing a patient with Breast Cancer, as I went on to become a Midwife where women's breasts are used for other purposes.
 |
| Me at the time of my 50th Birthday. |
In 2008 I noted a 'thickening' around my Nipple area in my right breast at about 3 O'clock ( you quickly learn this is how the Surgeons and breast care nurses refer to the areas of your breasts). I went to the GP who sent me to the Breast Clinic at my local hospital. I had a 'Fine Needle Biopsy' (FNB) in the Out Patients Department. My breast was palpated, the area identified, then the surgeon inserting a green needle attached to a 20 ml syringe into the area, this was done with out anaesthetic and once he had draw a small amount of breast tissue into the green needle, this 'Biopsy' was send to the lab. I then had to go to another department for a Mammogram, but this was a very different experience that the 'Van in the Car Park' carry on, even though I was sore and bruised from the examination and FNB the Mammogram was not as painful as my first experience. When the results came back, they were all clear it was just a fibrous area of breast tissue. So my next routine Mammogram would now be in 2013 and I would be called as routine via letter.
March 2013, I had been experiencing a deep burning sensation in my right breast, this time at 9 O'clock for about 18 month. But I was busy with a full time demanding and stressfull job, by now a senior Midwife in the NHS in a practice development / delivery suite shift leader role. As well as a wife and mother to two adult daughters, two dogs, parents who were getting older.....LIFE!
April 2013, I went on holiday to Sri Lanka with my daughter. We went to a Yoga and Surfing Retreat at Talalla Lodge, this is a link to my travel blog http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=435807495647998918#editor/target=post;postID=3645945395386130871;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=5;src=postname
I went for a massage and realised that something couldn't be right as I was having difficulty laying on my front due to the pain in the breast.
May 2013, Very busy back at work, than at the end of May the pain in the right breast is keeping me awake at night and I feel a pea size lump. The next day I telephone the GP, after a long wait on the phone listening to mind numbing music I get an appointment for the first week in June.
6th June 2013, I go to see my GP, she can feel the lump as well. She refers me by email to the Breast Unit at the local Hospital. At this point I have not spoken to any one about this. Not my husband or my daughters, after all what the point of worrying them if its nothing? I get an appointment to go to the Breast Care Unit on 18th June 2013.
 |
| 18th June 2013, at work the day of my appointment, displaying hats knitted for the New babies! |
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