When I was diagnosed in 2006 with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, I just did what my doctors told me, I didn’t have many options and they knew what they were doing. It was serious and I was lucky they had caught it when they did. Apart from the one scary Lymphoma (female, the only female German doctor I dealt with) specialist who told me ‘it was a fight for my life’ – I knew that, just didn’t need being told in such a brusque manner – I was happy to just go with the flow. I was advised that if they caught the tumour and could get rid of it, the risk of it returning is minimal. So I underwent a 6 month course of steroids (urgh, steroids are horrible, yes, for me worse than everything else and I demanded to come off them as soon as possible, and the doctor kindly reduced my dose, instead of seeing me go mad), radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Baldness may not be a good look, but it’s certainly better than what would have happened without the chemo. Oh and TV shows, when people lose their hair, it’s not just the hair on their scalp – think eyebrows and eyelashes – I know actresses don’t look good without mascara smeared eyelashes but it is what happens with chemo!
Since being diagnosed and going through the treatment, I’ve had numerous CAT (CT) scans, a PET scan (with the radioactive material being produced out of metal, high security case and then injected in me – IN ME!), ultra sounds, x-rays you name it I’ve been photographed, poked and prodded and flashed my boobs at more people than an English girl is normally comfortable with.
But today marked my 3 year appointment since the end of my treatment or near enough and without the official results from the x-ray and blood tests, my doctor happily announced that I’ve got my 5 year all clear. The results from the ultra sound, lymph node prodding and questions were enough for him to give me the all clear. Though I do confirm with him tomorrow, officially.
Luckily I was in Munich, home to one of the best cancer hospitals in the world, even if every major city boasts that, I’m happy to believe them. The Klinikum Rechts der Isar is a teaching hospital, so more often than not I had a bunch of students babbling in German to their chief about me and I couldn’t understand a word, though one would always try and explain in English – which was kind, but who cares if it works? And the students got to find out that some people’s bones are MUCH harder than others when they tried to take my bone marrow sample and even with 2 of them trying (read pushing or was it screwing the thing that looked like a huge screw, hard) it didn’t work, but they were saved their blushes when the ‘proper’ doctor came and still struggled – not sure why I refused more drugs though! They also learnt how to take blood from someone with deep veins, not sure I liked being that guinea pig, but seeing as those that had been doing it for years need 2-3 goes to find a decent vein, what’s a couple more bruises if people learn?
So a big thanks to everyone at the Klinikum, we got by with my then really awful German and their rather good English, unless I went into my plain refusal to understand why they needed to know about things like my bowel movements. And a thanks to my hausarzt (GP) who is rather proud to call himself a bloodhound and found out what was wrong with me – a bloodhound is correct with the amount of blood he took and the problems with taking it!
So here’s to 5 years test free and wish me luck with the NHS!
Since being diagnosed and going through the treatment, I’ve had numerous CAT (CT) scans, a PET scan (with the radioactive material being produced out of metal, high security case and then injected in me – IN ME!), ultra sounds, x-rays you name it I’ve been photographed, poked and prodded and flashed my boobs at more people than an English girl is normally comfortable with.
But today marked my 3 year appointment since the end of my treatment or near enough and without the official results from the x-ray and blood tests, my doctor happily announced that I’ve got my 5 year all clear. The results from the ultra sound, lymph node prodding and questions were enough for him to give me the all clear. Though I do confirm with him tomorrow, officially.
Luckily I was in Munich, home to one of the best cancer hospitals in the world, even if every major city boasts that, I’m happy to believe them. The Klinikum Rechts der Isar is a teaching hospital, so more often than not I had a bunch of students babbling in German to their chief about me and I couldn’t understand a word, though one would always try and explain in English – which was kind, but who cares if it works? And the students got to find out that some people’s bones are MUCH harder than others when they tried to take my bone marrow sample and even with 2 of them trying (read pushing or was it screwing the thing that looked like a huge screw, hard) it didn’t work, but they were saved their blushes when the ‘proper’ doctor came and still struggled – not sure why I refused more drugs though! They also learnt how to take blood from someone with deep veins, not sure I liked being that guinea pig, but seeing as those that had been doing it for years need 2-3 goes to find a decent vein, what’s a couple more bruises if people learn?
So a big thanks to everyone at the Klinikum, we got by with my then really awful German and their rather good English, unless I went into my plain refusal to understand why they needed to know about things like my bowel movements. And a thanks to my hausarzt (GP) who is rather proud to call himself a bloodhound and found out what was wrong with me – a bloodhound is correct with the amount of blood he took and the problems with taking it!
So here’s to 5 years test free and wish me luck with the NHS!
Oh my good lord! Ever since I discovered this blog having been pointed in (sort of) it's direction, I've enjoyed it's pictures and tales of your travels. Very picturesque etc. However, having a delve (due to being bored) in it's "back issues" and found this!! So sorry to hear you had that awful disease but glad to hear you've recovered.
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