Game of Distraction

Following on from that "Bad" week, I had appointments made for me, a Bone scan & CT scan and also to meet with the Oncologist. I had gone back to work as I figured, there was no point sitting at home feeling sorry for myself and Googling things about cancer. RULE 1 - DON'T GOOGLE!!! You will always be drawn to the worst case scenario and then find out you are going to die. How do I know this because I Googled!! Going back to work was great, got me out of the house and I have some really close friends there that knew what was going on. They were brill to me... thanks Clair, John & Norma. Also my bosses who were amazing Kevin, Maureen and Des I have to mention them as they were such a support to me at this very difficult time. But I kept it all quite other than a very few knowing, I wanted to be gone before my colleagues knew. It would have been too awkward on them talking to me so I think I made the right decision.

1 week had passed and I went to the Galway Clinic for the Bone & CT scan, if you were never there, its more like a hotel than a hospital, grand piano in the lobby, lovely gardens. I went down to the reception where I got my instructions on where to go. I got changed into a gown and waited for the CT scan, that was all fine, its very slowly moving through a tunnel, doesn't hurt, you just have to stay really still. Then with the Bone Scan, I had to be injected with Radioactive dye in order to show up if there was anything else lurking in me. Now I kid you not but you know the opening scene of The Simpsons where he has the suit on with the clamp, well it was kinda like that!

I had to stay away from pregnant women and young children as I was going to be radioactive for 24 hours. They send you off for about 1 hour for the dye to spread around your body so we head to Oranmore for some lunch. The scan itself was fine didn't hurt at all but then of course, what if they find something else in me, all those years of drinking and debauchery are coming back to haunt me, all the cigs I had smoked, all the partying of my youth, surely to god they are going to find something else!! 

I remember the day I met the oncologist quite well, it was Ladies Day and Galway traffic was chaos. We went over to the clinic to meet with him and I was very nervous. I was more nervous about what they would find in the scans that the actual cancer that I knew I had. So we were brought into a room where a lovely young doctor came in. Now as I am writing this, I have one of the biggest regrets of my life, a missed opportunity, one that I don't think will ever happen again. His name was Ming  and my husbands name is Gordon, when ever in my life am I going to have Ming & Gordon in the same room!! (Ming the Merciless & Flash Gordon)

Sorry I just had to point that out to the world! Anyhows, he went through the type of cancer that it was (Triple Negative) and the type of chemotherapy that they were going to zap it with (ACT). Gordon asked him straight out, what about the results of the scans!! He looked at the results and was like, Yes they are all fine, it was just a procedure for us to do them. Nothing else showed up... PHEW!!! We were so relieved, we felt like celebrating, we were over the moon, I'm sure he was looking at us thinking this two are too happy! He explained that the type of cancer Triple Negative is quite an aggressive type but it does respond very well to chemo, so in one sentence "eeekksss" and then "Oh not too bad so". Then the Consultant Oncologist came in, he was very upbeat and was like "we're going to beat this thing"! All very positive and he put some faith back in me that I was going to be okay. We chatted about the type of chemo and what effect it would have, nausea, hair loss, tiredness etc.. Its all very surreal looking back on this now, we coasted through most of it I think,but having something to do to distract you from what is really going on is important.

For me I used work and running and chatting to friends and of course searching for my new "fur baby". This took up quite alot of my time and I'm sure I had Gordon dammed with oh, look at this one.. so eventually we found our perfect "fur baby" in Roscrea in Co. Tipperary, we travelled down with Alan & Deirdre and made a day out of it, we instantly fell in love with him, well all of the kittens really but we picked one, Mr. Bond and we could collect him in a few weeks time once he was old enough. I literally didn't stop talking about him, I had pictures and showed anyone who had even showed signs of interest. This did keep my mind off the bigger things that were going on, an escapism if you will. The Saturday before I started Chemo we went down to collect Mr. Bond. I actually cried I was so happy.. we got him home and played with him and he was the best distraction through all of this horrible episode that I had. 

My advice to anyone who is going to go through something life altering like this is to find something to take your mind off it, a hobby an interest, a pet or something. Cause if you don't have something to distract you, it will eat you up and take over your life. For me it was to carry on as normal, meet with friends go for afternoon tea and of course play with my new "fur baby"

Day 1 with Mr. Bond

P.S This week I have decided that I will do a 10k run in aid of Breast Cancer Research, if you feel like donating money to this great cause, (or just seeing me suffer) you can click on the link here..
                                http://www.mycharity.ie/event/yvonne_dolans_event/