Mum

I look back at the time when I used to write two blog posts a week and for the life of me can't understand how I did it. I know at the time it would take all week to write those two pieces. I hadn't discovered sewing then and was desperate for something to fill up the long hours of being alone whilst Mr Myasthenia Kid was at work. These days I can struggle to come up with one post a week as I don't want to be forever moaning about my health but due to the fact I don't go out socialising and can spend many days where the only person I see is Jay. It can be incredibly hard to find that spark that inspires the next blog post.

At the moment I am struggling to sleep or even when I do sleep that it is good quality sleep. I am constantly feeling like I am semi conscious. In the mornings it is taking a few hours for me to become properly awake. I hate it when I am like this as it just feels I have wasted a few hours before I can do anything at all purely because in my semi conscious state I am so clumsy and not fully alert to attempt to do anything at all risks injury. When I am like this I quite often go off into a world of my own, minutes can pass before I realise I have been sat staring into space thinking of nothing in particular, I have just zoned out. Every part of me feels like it is on a go slow whilst I wait for my morning medications to take effect. It also means my pain levels are higher than normal.

Some of you who follow me on social media will know that life has been extremely stressful of late. I havent gone into massive details on my blog but now I feel is the time to let you know what's been going on. Back in July my mum went to her doctor's surgery as she had been experiencing some pain. During the course of an examination the gp discovered a mass on my mums ovary, not a little one a huge mass. Mum was referred to hospital pretty much straight away under the two-week rule ( for those of you unaware of the two-week rule, is that if cancer is suspected you will have tests and see a specialist within 2 weeks. I have been referred twice in the past under the two-week rule when I have discovered lumps in my breasts. Thankfully both times it has been fine.)

Before the operation my mum was in a lot of pain, the mass was increasing in size and was now becoming visible externally. Every time mum was examined she ended up in agony. It was a very worrying time for all of us. 

On August 13th Mum had a massive surgery, she had decided that although the surgeon had told her that they weren't 100% sure if the mass was cancerous there was an area that was causing them concern. They would possibly be able to tell her after the surgery if it was cancerous or they may have to wait until the mass had been examined by the pathology lab, that she would have everything that they could remove, removed to give her the best chance. So rather than it being a hysterectomy, she also had her ovaries removed, appendix removed, lymph nodes removed, cervix removed and all abdominal fat removed. This meant that should it be cancer there was nowhere it could hide and grow in. 

There were complications during surgery which meant another surgeon had to be called in to assist as mum had bowel adhesions - despite never having an open surgery in the past or even a laparoscopic surgery. She was one of the unlucky 10% of the population that develop adhesions without surgery. It possibly explains why I have developed such bad adhesions, if mum can have them without surgery and I have had around 5 abdominal surgeries.  For those of you who don't know you can get adhesions anywhere and they are bands of thick fibrous tissue, scar tissue that sticks organs / intestines together. They had to be removed during mum's surgery so that the cyst / mass could be removed.

A standard hysterectomy takes 12 weeks to recover from, due to the extensive nature of mums surgery she is looking at a 12 month recovery time. It's extremely frustrating as a few people have assumed that now that she has had the operation she should be back to full health. Peoples ignorance is really astounding. Mum was cut from just under her sternum to the middle of her pubic bone due to the size of the mass and the need to remove everything possible. 

It wasn't until the middle of September that we found out that Mum had cancer ( now technically the cancer has been removed but medically she will not be classed as cancer free until she hits the 5 year mark.) The cancer she had was very small but also very rare stage 1a grade 2 Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer. The mass removed was a cyst that had wrapped itself around the ovary and the cancer. It was 25cm in length so nearly the size of a rugby ball. Thankfully the cancer was contained and hadn't spread but mum will be monitored very closely for the next 5 years. Due to the nature of the cancer she can't have HRT to help with the loss of her ovaries, hormones could help it come back.

Obviously for us as a family this rapid turn of events was very shocking. My body gave out on me due to the stress and I ended up in bed quite a bit over the summer. Well that combined with the ridiculous heat. My mum was the very last person who I would have guessed would get cancer. She has been vegetarian since 1973 and went Vegan two years ago. She is a perfect weight for her frame and despite having Coeliacs Atxia was reasonably active. Out of everyone I know she wouldn't be the one I'd have said was likely to suffer with cancer. I was more likely - overweight, ex smoker not a brilliant diet. My mum really struggled with getting her head around being sick. 

She has told me herself ( and I checked before sharing here) that she felt embarrassed at the fact she had cancer, mortified at the fact she was ill. She didn't want to be seen as weak and vulnerable. She had been extolling the virtues of a vegan diet to anyone who would listen for the last two years, a diet that will reduce your risk of getting cancer and here she was two years in with cancer. It was made very clear to me that this diagnosis was not to be discussed, so other than a few of my closest friends no one knew what was going on. If anyone asked I would just say I was stressed due to life stuff. 

It's only in the last week that she has posted on her own Facebook page that she has had a cancerous mass removed. So after discussing it with her this morning to check it was ok I can finally tell you all what has been going on.

It's why I have been having trouble sleeping, pain issues, more migraines, vertigo etc. It made me feel utterly useless. I wanted to be able to support my mum but I feel like my body betrayed me. However it's been really lovely that I have spent quite a bit of time with her one on one. As many of you know I live an hour away from my parents and a lot of the time I am not well enough to travel. My parents have a caravan around 10 minutes drive away from where I live, so whilst my dad walks his dog on the beach mum comes to my house and we have a catch up for about 90 minutes. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with her.

And some of you may have put two and two together and worked out why I made my mum the very special lap quilt for her birthday this year.

She is doing really well. Every time I see her she looks so much better than she did the last time. She is doing really well. Fingers crossed that we sail through the next 5 years with no issues.