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SANDRA'S ENCOUNTER WITHBREAST CANCER
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Written by my wife Sandra on 22/10/1999
Finding that I had cancer of the breast was the last thing I ever expected. My husband, Ken had just finished his radiation treatment on the 03/06/1999 for Larynx cancer and just getting back to normal when I found the lump. Besides that, I always believed that I would be a candidate for heart problems as my father, his father, my mothers father and mother all died of heart attacks at a reasonable age [ 76Yrs - 81Yrs ].
My mother did get breast cancer, but she was 72Yrs old when she got it and was cured by having a minor operation and taking Tamoxifen. She died from heart failure in 1998 at almost 77Yrs of age. Her cancer tumour was completely gone when she died.
I also believed that if I ever did get breast cancer, it would be very early stage as I was having a mammogram done every year, so felt pretty secure. That was a Big mistake. I don't remember ever being told by anyone that I should still be doing a self breast examination every month and to have my doctor do a breast exam once a year also. Maybe they did, maybe I had become complacent due to the hype that they give mammograms, I really thought mammograms would pick up anything.
I still believe mammograms have their place in the fight against breast cancer, but I now know that self testing of our breasts is every bit as important as mammograms, if not more important. We can, if we are not careful, be lulled into a sense of false security by modern technology and not take the necessary responsibility for our own health.
I had my last mammogram in November 1998 and all showed clear as it always had done in the past years. On Friday morning on the 27 of August 1999 I said to my husband, "Am I imagining this, or is there a lump in my breast". He took one feel and told me to go straight to the doctor. When the doctor examined me he told me I had a lump about 2 cm in diameter and for me to make an appointment for a mammogram as soon as possible.
In retrospect, I can't imagine why I would have thought that I was maybe imagining it, the thing was big enough. Possibly, I was in denial and was hoping that there was no lump there and was hoping my husband would tell there was nothing to worry about.
The following Monday I had the mammogram done and went back to my doctor with it. The mammogram confirmed the lump was there. Whoopee, It couldn't miss it, could it?. My doctor told me that he would make an appointment for me to see a surgeon as soon as possible. My doctor rang me at home that night and told me he had an appointment the following day to see the surgeon, Dr Lim.
On the Tuesday 31 of August I went to the Dr Lim. He looked at the X-ray and examined the lump, then he said that he wanted a biopsy done, which is what I expected. I asked him if he thought that it was cancer. He told me that he was 80% sure it was cancer, but he might be wrong he said. How could this be, I thought. I have been having regular mammograms and besides that, I had read that 90% - 95% of all breast lumps were non cancerous. How could he be 80% sure. How could it have grown to that size in 9 months. Even my husband couldn't believe it and he is a real pessimist. The surgeon rang the pathologist and made an appointment for me to have a thin needle biopsy done on the Wednesday.
I had the biopsy done on the Wednesday and rang the Surgeon, Dr Lim that afternoon for the results. He told me that it was cancer and wanted to see me on Monday the 06 September. My worst nightmare had come true. I just felt numb. For the next five days I read all the literature I could get my hands on. My husband started getting information from the Web. We wanted to get as much as we could before seeing him on the Monday. Both myself and my husband couldn't believe all this had happened in one week. My husband placed a message on a breast cancer bulletin board and before long we were receiving mail from other breast cancer survivors. What a blessing that was and still is. It gave me hope and comfort hearing from others like myself.
I returned to see Dr Lim on Monday 06 of September and when I got into his surgery he was in the process of booking me in to hospital to have a radical modified mastectomy the next day. Now my mind was really in a whirl, this was too fast for me and both myself and my husband had decided from the information we had that it was a good idea to have a second opinion before doing anything. Thank goodness hubby was there as he had no hesitation in telling the surgeon that we wanted a second opinion. Dr Lim had no problem with this and said he was happy for us to do that, as a matter of fact he actually said that he wished more of his patients would take that attitude instead of just leaving it all up to him.
He then explained to us that he felt the best treatment was a modified radical mastectomy, also that he couldn't feel any lumps under the arms which he said was a good sign that it was not in the nodes. He said that he would make an appointment with another specialist of our choice to give the second opinion. We chose to go to the CTC , Liverpool Hospital NSW , where my husband had undergone his radiation treatment as they were so good with him and they are a cancer treatment centre CTC. He also told us that he would not be offended in any way if we chose to have all the treatment by them, he said he only wanted us to be happy with our decision. To sum it up, He was most understanding and helpful.
Dr Lim rang us at home and informed us that he had made an appointment at the CTC for September the 13 for us at 2PM. We kept that appointment and saw an oncologist and another breast surgeon and spoke to each of them for about one hour, during which time they examined me and all the reports they had on me to date. They both told us the same as Dr Lim. They also answered all our questions without rushing us.
By the time we arrived home I had made up my mind to go ahead and have the operation done by Dr Lim as we had heard all good reports about him, he was understanding and his whole attitude was good. He had built my confidence in him to such a point that I wanted him to do the operation and I phoned him that afternoon and told him so.
Dr Lim booked me into Campbelltown hospital to have the operation on September the 21. Prior to being admitted, I had to go to the hospitals Outpatients to have several tests done and I also had to see my Chest specialist to have my asthma well under control prior to the operation. I saw the anaesthetist and he decided not to give anaesthetic via the lungs because of my asthma condition, but to give it via narcotic injection. I have to say at this point that Australian medical and health system would have to rank as one of the best in the world. They amazed me at how thorough and fast they had been.
I had the operation on September 21 and all went well. The only downer was that Dr Lim was not too happy with one of the nodes. He told us that they would be sent away and he would have the results back in about one week. Well, we thought, One node isn't too bad, and maybe its nothing anyway. We did stay pretty positive most of the time. I was released from hospital on September 25 with one drain still connected. I had that removed the next day. All in all, I was happy that the operation was over, at least the operation went OK and the rotten thing was no longer in me.
On September 29 I rang Dr Lim to see if he had the results back, and he did. The pathology report showed 7 -17 nodes as being positive. I really hadn't prepared myself mentally for that one. Stupid as it may sound, I really couldn't believe that breast cancer could go from nothing in November 1998 to a 2.5cm lump and to 7 nodes by September 1999. As a result my tumour was upgraded from stage 1-2, to a stage 3.
All through this time the people on the Web were there for me. My husband continued to reply to them for me and to log on to bulletin boards. The more I read the messages on these bulletin boards, the more I could see how others were worse off than myself and how they coped and how positive they were. This gave me more encouragement than I could ever put into words.
On October 06, I went back to Dr Lim and he explained that I would probably receive chemotherapy and radiation treatment and that I needed to be referred back to the CTC unit to see an oncologist about my condition and treatment. Dr Lim made the appointments with the CTC for me.
I went to see the CTC oncologist on October 11 and he explained what he had in mind and also asked if I would be interested in being part of a trial that is going on around the world. Again there was no pressure and he told me that even if I did decide to do it, I may not get picked as an other group of people separate from the hospital, pick the patients randomly. He also explained that I could abandon the trial at anytime. He told me to think about it and made an appointment to see him again on October 28.
In the meantime I was to have a number of X-rays done. Full bone scan, Pelvic scan, chest X-Ray and a heart scan. All these were to make sure they didn't see any cancer anywhere else and that my heart was pumping OK, even though I have never had heart problems.
Well, it is now October 22 and I have had all the X-Rays done and happily they have all come back clear and OK. That is a relief and I feel much happier knowing that. Now I only have to see the oncologist on October 28 and from what he said last time, I will probably start chemotherapy one and a half weeks later.
I will update this page as I progress through my treatment. I want to thank again all the people that have taken the time to give me their support, even though we have never met. When I am well again I hope to be able to give the same support to someone that has breast cancer. May all go well with you.
Regards Sandra
POST SCRIPT 10/03/2000
I thought that I would bring things up to date. When I last wrote, I still had to go and see the oncologist to find out the treatment I would be having. It seems like forever ago.
When I did see him again on October 28, he told me I was suitable for one of the 3 trials if I still wanted to be in one, but he had no control over which trial would be selected for me as it was done randomly.
He would know the following day, which one I was allocated and that the sister in charge of the trials would go through it all with me to make sure that myself and my husband understood all that was involved.
Both my husband and I had discussed doing the trial, prior to seeing the oncologist on October 28 and we figured, it was worth a try, especially in view of the fact that I could drop out any time I wanted. No questions asked.
So we said OK.
The following day, we went to the CTC unit and saw the sister in charge of the trial. She was very good, explaining the whole procedure to us both and was happy to answer any questions. The trial I was allocated was the following.
Phase 1: Three cycles of Doxorubicin. { Each 3 weeks apart }
Phase 2: Three cycles of Docetaxel. { Each 3 weeks apart }
Phase 3: Three cycles of C.M.F. { Each 4 weeks apart }
I began the first chemotherapy treatment [ Doxorubicin ] on November 01 1999 and had the last of Doxorubicin on December 13 1999.
The main side effects of this treatment was nausea, tiredness and not wanting to eat and of course loosing my hair. The side effects were worse for the first 10 - 14 days and then eased off just in time for the next one. I made myself eat and my hubby kept a close watch that I had good nutrition and he kept a record of all my medication.
I then began the second chemotherapy treatment [ Docetaxel ] on January 10 2000 and the last of [ Docetaxel ] on February 22 2000.
The side effects of this treatment, I think were worse than the first. There was no nausea with it at all, but I would feel like I was burning up and my head was so hot. I used to sleep with one fan blowing from the front of the bed blowing over my body and another fan blowing directly on my head. The other side effect was that my whole body ached in the joints and I would get some flu like symptoms, I didn't want to eat and I was just so tired with no energy. Thankfully these side effects only lasted for about 11 days.
I start the three cycles of C.M.F. on February 13 2000 and when they are completed I have about 6 weeks of radiation. I will do another postscript when all my treatment is finished. I am happy that I am now two thirds of the way through the trial and that everything is going OK. They are quite happy how things are going and all in all so am I.
Well till I write the next part, I wish everyone all the best.
Regards Sandra
POST SCRIPT 20/07/2000
Well, here I am and all my treatment is behind me. Finished the trial and the radiation treatment. I am so happy it's finished, it's been a long haul.
My last Post Script ended when I was about to start the CMF treatment of the chemotherapy. I was told that this was the better of all the chemotherapy treatments, but I was to find out that wasn't quite right.
The treatment consisted of an infusion on the first day which didn't last long. About 15 minutes. On the same day I had to start to take a drug called Cyclophosphamide [ 200 mg ]. These I was to take for the next 14 days.
Seven days after the first infusion, I had to go back for another infusion and I was still taking the Cyclophosphamide [ 200 mg ] and did so for the next 7 days. Then I would have 3 weeks off, then go back and have the same treatment done again two more times. So the whole treatment of the CMF took 3 months.
The day of my very first treatment was fine, no side effects at all except a bit of tiredness. The next day I was fine until I had a cup of tea just before dinner. I started to feel slightly nauseated so I took a tablet [ Maxalon ] that they prescribed to stop nausea. I sat down about a half hour later to eat some dinner and within 5 minutes, I vomited it all up. My poor hubby thought that it was his fault as he had cooked me scrambled eggs as he thought that it was nice and light for my tummy, but he had burnt it slightly. He did tell me not to eat it if I could taste that it was burnt and that he would do another lot.
As it turned out, it wasn't his cooking that caused my vomiting, as the next morning, I was fine in bed until I got up. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I was off vomiting again. I had never vomited with any of the other treatments.
My hubby suggested I take a Anti Nausea tablet [ Maxalon ] 1/2 an hour before getting out of bed and then of course during the day whenever I felt nauseated. From that time on I never vomited again. I still felt nauseated a lot of the time, but the tablets kept it under control, at least to the extent that I didn't vomit again.
The feeling of nausea lasted about 6 days after each infusion. So for about 12-14 days of each treatment of CMF, I would feel nausea, sometimes worse than others, but for the next 2 weeks until the next treatment, I would feel fine except for tiredness.
One thing I did notice during all of the chemotherapy treatments, and so did my hubby, was that my memory and concentration was highly diminished. I had almost no short term memory.
All things considered, I think I faired pretty well. I know of some that ended up in hospital a few times and were a lot sicker than myself. I also know of others having chemotherapy that seemed to be doing better than me. I can't prove anything medically, but I am positive that eating a good diet, helped a lot in how well I did.
My husband is a real meticulous person and an organizer. He is the one that constantly watched what I ate and kept records of my diet, medication and any symptoms I had. If I didn't feel like eating, he would encourage me to try and usually, I was always glad when I did eat. He has a record of every day since I started treatment.
Well, I was sure glad when the chemotherapy was finished. Now I only had 25 treatments of radiation to go. For the first 15 treatments, I didn't have any real problems. I wasn't burnt very much at all and I was feeling OK except for the fact that I was getting a bit tired of going up to the [ CTC ] every day.
When I had about 8 radiation treatments to go, that's when I really started to burn. It came almost over night. By the time I finished yesterday 19/07/2000, I was quite sore under the arm and on the lower neck where it was quite burnt and blistering a little.
Now my hubby, my daughter and myself are looking forward to getting back to normal again. Life may have it's downs, but it is a wonderful life, Just like the movie that James Stewart stared in "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE".
I have had so much support from my friends, more than I had ever expected. During the whole of my chemotherapy treatment, these people brought us home cooked meals about 3-4 times a week. I know my hubby was glad of that as he my be logical, well organized etc, but being a good cook isn't one of his attributes.
The hospital where they did the treatment [ CTC ] were absolutely professional and kind. I have to say that we in Australia have, in my opinion, The best medical system in the world. Hopefully, we will retain this system and not allow big business and medical insurance funds to dictate how the system works.
I hope that my story will be of help to others. I know that when I read other peoples stories when I was first diagnosed, I was greatly encouraged and felt a sense of relief, of hope and a sense of not being alone in this terrible disease.
The best of everything to you all
Regards Sandra
If you have any suggestions, know of a good cancer site or
you find Broken Links. Please Email me at the address below.
Ken
Jordan
kenj@lightstorm.com.au
Date Last Modified: 21/09/2000