Cancer,  Health

An Unexpected Update

I hadn’t expected to be typing this update at all, I thought my next cancer update related post would be after Valentines Day, containing a full run down of what my final scan had shown and what the next step or the plan would be. But something urgent had come to light from my scans. Blood clots, many of them. Within my pelvis and lungs.

My husband received a call from a member of my oncology team last Friday evening to inform us that he had just received the report of my scan from radiology. The report detailed the answers around my tumours, but it also detailed existence of many small blood clots. Something that he and any other doctor worth their salt knew I had to be informed of immediately and a route to treatment set up post-haste.

So, that evening (and it would be the evening after we’d had all the snow etc) my husband found himself doing a trip to Tesco (with the only open pharmacy we knew of), to collect my prescription of blood thinning jabs. Yes. Jabs. Shots. Injections. Alongside my wide range of oral medication, I would now also be injecting myself once a day – don’t I just get to have all the fun?

I didn’t get to speak with the oncologist myself that evening, I had, had a rough pain episode and had fallen into a deep sleep on the sofa; so it wasn’t until Monday when I spoke with my CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist) that I learned that just having cancer raises the risk of a blood clot, and chemotherapy? Well that also raises the risk of blood clots, so no one is surprised by their existence but we are all a little bit worried. Though I am told the injections are a gold standard treatment for cancer patients, so that is positive.

But, I have to admit that even after speaking with the CNS I still am finding this whole thing really rather terrifying. I mean, when they told me I couldn’t have anymore treatment until I had a colostomy formed I wasn’t this upset, or any of the other times we’ve had complications, but for some reason this really shook me up. I spent the rest of the weekend feeling tense and frightened. Blood clots. Shit. Whenever you hear about those it usually isn’t great news is it? I’m not sure how but I somehow felt even more vulnerable than usual and really bloody sad.

I think it didn’t help that we weren’t given much information by the Onocologist, who I think simply suffered from a case of “holy moly! Important things: Patient knows and treatment starts!”, and the out of hours GP who prescribed the initial injections for me didn’t seem to know much about the situation despite speaking with the oncologist (Twice!) who had called Tom that evening. I even had to weigh myself while on the phone to her to ensure the correct dosage.

Hopefully when I see the oncology team on Valentine’s Day, as well as some more information about the clots, we will hopefully get some better news about the actual cancer itself too. But for now, I’m receiving the right treatment and hopefully things will stabilise and the clots disappear over time.

So for now I bid you all adieu xxx

4 Comments

  • Rhia

    Thinking of you Ellie. I am always so inspired at how you just keep on persevering. Hoping for the best outcome possible for you.

    Rhia x

  • Jenny Watkins

    Oh Ellie, we are so sorry to hear you have more things to worry about. Hopefully the results on 14 Feb will make up for all you’ve had to go through. We keep you in our thoughts and send love and healing thoughts with this message.
    Lots of love Jenny ,& David xx

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