My Breast Cancer Story - The Good News is I'm Still Here 22 Years and Counting!I have alluded previously on this my Aloe Vera Guide site to my brush with cancer and how much using aloe vera and other herbal and alternative remedies have helped me inasmuch as I feel that by using these measures I am doing something positive to assist my body to keep healthy and well. However, I felt it might be useful if I provide a brief record of my experience of breast cancer here as it may be of some benefit to someone else going through a similar experience. At just 32 years old with two young children my doctor gave me the devastating diagnosis of breast cancer. It is difficult to recount my reactions to the news other than to say that I was struck by the extraordinary feeling that what the doctor was saying to me was just not real or that some mistake had been made. My initial reaction was one of complete anger and I point blank refused to attend at the hospital for an appointment for them to undertake further tests. The morning I was due to go into hospital I phoned the Surgical Department and requested they cancel my appointment. The poor receptionist was quite upset and called one of the nurses to speak with me to try and get me to change my mind. Nothing they could say to me would make me budge, I was adamant that the whole thing was a mistake, that I was far too young to have breast cancer. Finally, in desperation the nurse asked me if I would consider attending and having a mammogram rather than the more invasive biopsy that had originally been scheduled. Grudgingly, I agreed to this and I was given an appointment to attend for the mammogram later on that day. In what I can only describe as a state of semi-automation and tearful resentment I decided in my wisdom that the best thing I could do would be to carry on with my day in the normal way and I took myself off to work.
Half way through the morning I was standing behind the desk at our local tourist information office (I lived in a holiday town) my GP came barrelling through the door, a face like thunder and glaring at me intently. Before I could runaway he demanded to know what the hell I thought I was playing at by not going to the hospital and did I want to die. At this point I would like to say in his defence that he was an old fashioned village GP who really did have my best interests at heart and I never felt that he in anyway bullied me or that his intention was for anything other than my own good. This all happened long before political correctness took over. It was only when the mammogram results confirmed the original diagnosis that something inside of me finally gave in and I began to face up to the reality of the situation I found myself in. The thoughts that go through your head at times like these can be quite strange, sad of course when you contemplate that your stay here may not be as long as you once hoped. I found myself at 32 wondering what my grand children would be like and how this would affect my kids as well.
I also found that my entire outlook and priorities went through a complete and total shift and in a funny way it was like I was seeing everything for the first time in my life. All the things we take for granted, the trees, the flowers, the birds, the fields everything. One particularly sunny morning I sat with a friend looking around me and I can still remember saying to her, I wonder if I will be here this time next year. To this day my friend still from time to time, reminds me about that morning and says she will never be able to forget it. Once I received the confirmation from the mammogram I stopped rebelling and started co-operating with the medics. I underwent surgery and had a partial mastectomy, then I was left alone for six weeks to allow my body healing time. Once this period was up I was then scheduled for radiation treatment which I received five days a week for I believe it was 15 minutes a day and this continued every week for six weeks. At the end of this daily treatment I was once again admitted to hospital in order for radiation wires to be implanted into what was left of my breast. This was particularly unpleasant and I can only hope that with the new technologies that have come into being since my treatment that this procedure no longer takes place.
For the next three days I was confined to a special room and not allowed to leave other than to use the bathroom across the hall. Apparently, I was a danger to other people with my radiation wire implants; the nurses only entered my room for very short periods and then spent most of the time there standing behind a special lead screen to protect them from the effects of the radiation. Of course my children were not allowed to visit and I did not want them there in any case but quite frankly it was an indescribable experience as not only were the implants painful and unpleasant but of course they also made me feel quite ill. At the end of the three days, the radiation wires were once again surgically removed and I was allowed home the following day. For a good two to three weeks after discharge from the hospital I still felt ill as well as tired and totally lacking in any kind of energy. I was also suffering radiation burns on my back over my shoulder blade and my skin started peeling off. It was extremely painful, just think of the worst episode of sunburnyou have ever had and multiply it by a factor of about 10, to get the idea. I have recently heard that at the time when I underwent this treatment, the amount of radiation used on patients had since been found to be way too much which I suppose is the main reason I suffered such terrible burns. For the next five years of my life I had to attend hospital for check ups periodically. I believe the for the first two years the check ups were every three months, then they went down to every six months and after the five years, once a year. When I finally got to the 10 year mark, much to my relief I was finally discharged. I am happy to say now that I have made it to 22 years since my diagnosis without any further recurrence of the disease and my breast cancer story has so far had a positive outcome. However, I must confess though that there is still a part of me that is not 100 percent convinced that I ever really did have breast cancer and if I am to be honest about things here, if it were to occur again, and knowing what I know now about alternative remedies, aloe vera and natural products I would certainly do things very differently and would only deal with doctors that were prepared to talk through and discuss the issues and treatments with me ensuring that I am firmly in the driving seat this time round. In conclusion I hope my breast cancer story is helpful in some way even if just to give you some idea of how other people have felt about getting the disease. However, if you would like to ask me any questions please do not hesitate to do so via the Contact Me Form on this website as having been there myself, I would be more than happy to help in anyway that I can. (My Breast Cancer Story - Ends)
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My Breast Cancer Story
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