Shrinking the Silence

Sharing a voice on living with rare disease

Feeling empowered as a young patient — April 12, 2018

Feeling empowered as a young patient

/Sofi/Leave a comment

I often write and think about how unfair it is to face such health challenges in my 20s when I should be at the prime of my life. It was also my young age that almost didn’t get me diagnosed in time to have preventative surgery. I was too young to be considered to have cancer, instead I was just not exercising enough and needed to improve my diet.

On the flip side, I feel that my age has really contributed to me getting such great care and having doctors, nurses, allied health, secretarys, admin staff go the extra mile to make my life easier and digging for treatment options that factor in how much life I have ahead of me.

Continue reading →

When your body starts catching up with you — April 11, 2018

When your body starts catching up with you

/Sofi/Leave a comment

I’ve recently realised that I’m at a stage in my journey with rare disease that my body is catching up with me, and a lot of my problems are chronic and aftermaths of necessary surgeries and treatments to save my life. It’s taken me a few years of being ill to truly appreciate that a large part of my life is dealing with chronic illness, that will never go away, and will leave me with periods of feeling fatigued and dehydrated.

I have diseases that are very rare and that involve monitoring and removing cancer before it becomes a problem. This means that one of my hats is cancer. Yet I’ve never felt I am the true story and example of bowel cancer, because I was incredibly lucky to find out about my FAP just in time, when the polyps were starting to change to cancer, and I had my bowel removed. I am still at risk for cancer, with pre-cancerous polyps all over my duodenum, stomach and ampulla, but these are monitored regularly and removed when they start growing.

Continue reading →

The reality of being brave — March 7, 2018

The reality of being brave

/Sofi/3 Comments

I recently saw a fundraising page for someone shaving their hair for charity. What stood out to me was the campaign logo which said “be brave & shave”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for campaigns like this that get people involved and raise money for an important cause, the problem I have is with the language used and assumptions it makes about what it’s like to lose your hair to chemo.

I’ve written before about how much I struggled with my hair falling out and as it continues to grow out I still to this day think of it as my biggest challenge to get through so far. Bravery is part of my experience but not in the way it’s sometimes depicted in fundraising campaigns.

Continue reading →

Another year of being rare — February 28, 2018

Another year of being rare

/Sofi/Leave a comment

Today is Rare Disease day. Last year on this same day was the first time I shared my story on social media and I can definitely say I’ve never put myself out there like that before, but I’m so glad I did because in the rare disease and chronic illness community, we need as many voices out there. I’ve also learnt more about myself than I could have ever imagined at the same time.

The hashtag for this year’s Rare Disease Day is #ShowYourRare.

Here’s what my rare looks like in a year:

  • Close to 50 regular blood tests, then add a few from hospital stays
  • My portacath accessed close to 50 times for IV treatment
  • Give or take 30 hot and humid summer days struggling to stay hydrated with no colon – the struggle is real
  • Unknown impact on my fertility
  • 6 day procedures
  • 2 new doctors making it a total of 6 specialists I regularly see
  • 1 amazing treatment with no name, keeping my desmoid tumour stable with next to no side effects, and all thanks to research.

Research also happens to be the theme of 2018 and is so important for rare diseases. Trial and experimental drugs, like what I’m on at the moment, offer so much hope for diseases like desmoid tumours where the treatment path isn’t as clear cut because there aren’t enough patients to base success rates off.

This year I will need to rely on research and other options once again because the stock of the drug I’m currently on expires this year.

I am also so lucky that my rare also looks like this:

file (2)

I have my challenges but my rare disease was caught in time to be treated effectively and not reactively, and I can continue to live a full life.

January — January 31, 2018
Cancer and me — January 18, 2018

Cancer and me

/Sofi/Leave a comment

I have a funny relationship with cancer. It keeps wanting to crawl into my life. It has a few friends on the inside of my body who are getting the area ready for cancer to grow and be victorious. (as is the nature of FAP where pre cancerous polyps grow in my stomach, duodenum and ampulla). But I’m one step ahead and they’re out of my life before cancer can take over.

I do have a relationship with cancer’s close cousin, the desmoid tumour. Unlike your typical cancers he isn’t malignant and doesn’t spread. He’s benign, but don’t underestimate his power, he is on cancer’s side not mine. He wants to rule my whole abdomen and when left to his own means he will do exactly that and take down nearby places like my urethra in the process.

We’re getting along at the moment and I couldn’t be happier. My body has claimed back it’s own space for now.

Then there’s the people on my team, taking a stand against cancer with me. The nurses I see every fortnight for my treatment and my oncologist who makes himself available to answer any of my questions or concerns, and is finding me the best treatment. And my family and friends who are there for me all the time.

Keep trying, cancer!

2017, the year of my hair! — December 27, 2017
Making decisions for myself, not my illness — November 28, 2017
Shrinking and acceptance — November 21, 2017

Shrinking and acceptance

/Sofi/Leave a comment

I call this post shrinking and acceptance because both of these things have happened with my desmoid tumour recently! My tumour has been stable since the start of the year, not to mention continually shrinking, and this has helped me accept it as part of my body that will probably always be there, but now I feel confident that it can be controlled and I am under great care.

Continue reading →

Starting to look like a pixie — November 11, 2017