Shrinking the Silence

Sharing a voice on living with rare disease

Tag: cancer

I would make an excellent undercover cop — September 22, 2020

I would make an excellent undercover cop

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I’ll start by saying that I have no ambitions to join the police force, if anything this analogy is a sign of my love for crime shows!

As I’m sitting here in the cancer clinic for my three-weekly treatment, I’m also working from my laptop and to the best of my colleagues knowledge I’m “working from home” Being chronically ill like I am, I have gotten pretty good at my undercover life as a fully functioning member of society and I am aware of my privilege to be in a position to do this. Those who aren’t are in no way any less part of society.

But there are moments where I stop and think – what on earth is going on here.

This morning is one of those where I reflect on what has become normal for me, is probably unfathomable to your otherwise healthy 30 year old. I say this not for sympathy because in all honesty I have come to terms with my life and adapted my expectations so I am now incredibly happy with what I am ABLE to do (with a few mid week sneaky hospital admissions here and there)

I do chuckle to myself thinking of acquaintances reactions if I told the whole truth: oh yeah I was in hospital overnight for surgery and back in the office today… my plans for Friday night? Oh my oncologist is admitting me to hospital for IV fluids.

Jokes aside, the secret life never ends even when physical symptoms or ailments aren’t in my life. There’s always the mental symptoms when I’m going on with my life like – is my tumour growing? It’s stable now but what does this look like in a few years? I know that many people I’ve come in touch with through social media can relate to this feeling. You can be medically released from treatment but once you’ve had a diagnosis of anything, it’s with you for life in some form or another.

I’m so appreciative of my treatment team who have adapted their ways of talking to me and treating me with my age in mind. Not easy when your main specialists are colorectal and oncology …. I’m not the usual demographic that’s for sure. It’s had a huge role in me being able to achieve and experience things a twenty something year old, and now 30 year old, should.

Letter of appreciation — August 25, 2019

Letter of appreciation

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I never would have anticipated having such grief and emotions over your departure from my treatment team. 

I’ve cried multiple times and then when I thought I had come to terms with the change, I felt all the emotions again when I had my first consult with my new oncologist. 

Funny that just like any relationship breakdown, there are triggers and reminders. The trigger for me the other day was being in the consultation room where so much has happened, with a new doctor – starting a new chapter in my desmoid tumour adventure. 

I realise that incredibly good and incredibly bad news was delivered there… and ultimately… trust, report and a caring doctor/patient relationship was formed in consult room 2. 

I’m not an easy person to win over. I like to challenge things and find ways to maintain that little bit of control in my life. You picked that up from the first few appointments and worked that into how you talked to me, and it didn’t go unnoticed. 

In the early days, every time i saw you I was incredibly nervous about what news would be shared, what my scan results would be. Every time, you delivered news to me in a calm way that made me feel I could keep going and have complete trust in the process.  Here I am, three years later and still showing up every 2-3 weeks for treatment.

Trust takes time to build, but with my rare and aggressive tumour…time wasn’t on our side, yet you managed to get me onboard with starting chemo. When chemo wasn’t slowing down the tumour at a satisfactory rate,  you took ownership of my care during a multidisciplinary team meeting where the general consensus was to operate. That was the moment I really knew you were on my side and were willing to go all out to find the best treatment for me – always with quality of life in mind. 

A rare disease and tumour like a desmoid isn’t easy to come up with a treatment plan for. It really touched me that you found opportunities whilst overseas for conferences to reach out to drug companies trialling treatments for desmoid tumours to find out more. 

You may no longer be my oncologist, but I will always remember everything you did for me through the hardest and scariest time in my life. 

To all the new j-pouchers out there — October 23, 2018
Cancer and me — January 18, 2018

Cancer and me

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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!