The Journey Begins.......
Well what a month it has been, life is full of surprises! Around the middle of June I noticed I was becoming short of breath initially I put this down to lack of attendance at the gym and general laziness. It then got to the point when I thought that it could be more than lack of fitness, so I took myself of to the local public hospital who after blood tests and chest x ray diagnosed me with pneumonia and plueral effusion(a build up of fluid in the plueral cavity). I did repeatedly state that I had not been unwell, no cough, no fever, not coughing up any gunk. Anyway pneumonia still won so I was admitted for 4 days and pumped full of IV antibiotics (3 different sorts) and they attempted a chest drain, but only managed to drain 200mls of fluid. Then they sent me home.
Two days later my shortness of breath was worse so this time I went to the local private hospital and its a good thing I did. They did chest x ray and I had over 2 litres of fluid and my lung had collasped. I was admitted and had 2 chest drains over 3 days (the first one stopped working) CT scan and repeat chest x ray. They also ran tests on the fluid they drained and surprise surprise it did not grow any bacteria, it did however have hormone receptor positive breast cancer cells. The CT scan also showed a lump in my left breast.(The fluid was in my right plueral cavity)
I then had a mammogram, ultrasound and needle biopsy of the lump and two suspicious looking lymph nodes. The lump came back positive and the nodes negative.
The thoracic consultant has gently explained that although the CT scan did not show any identifable mass in my lungs the fact that the cancer cells were in the plueral fliud would indicate that the cancer has spread.
So on Monday I am off to see the breast surgeon, armed with heaps of questions, some of which she probably will not be able to answer yet.
Incidently the public hospital also tested the fluid and got the same results, but they are yet to inform me or my GP. I only know that they got the same results as a really close friend is a physican at the hospital and I gave him permission to look up my results. I will be interested to see how long before they get around to letting me know I have breast cancer, it has been 2 weeks since I was discharged!
I am coping Ok at this stage I am glad I have some medical knowledge and can understand the results and reports. Everything would be even more overwhelming otherwise. I make a note everytime I think of something I need to ask. I have learnt that there is a lot of unknowns and a lot of waiting, neither of which I usually cope well with !
So already this has taught me somthing, and I am sure the learning curve will continue.
I am blessed with a supportive husband, my 19 year old daughter has also been fantastic.I also have an 8 year old daughter, but I have not told her a lot as yet.I am so luckly to have wonderful friends and family who I know will support me anyway they can.
