Bacardi Girl

Well, let’s meet Freddy… yes, the scary character from Nightmare on Elm Street. He scared us and had us hiding behind cushions, but guess what? Freddy ‘The Freeloader’ has decided to take up residence in my body under the disguise of Cancer.

To Cut a Long Story Short!

I came from a family… where you never went to the doctor’s unless you were really ill. Cuts, grazes and burns were treated with Savlon or Germolene, unless they needed stitches. Colds and Flu were treated with cough pastilles and Vick vapour rub.

As for anything else… you never went unless it was a real emergency. I think this attitude stemmed from my mother’s childhood and days before the NHS where you had to pay to see a doctor.

So, I never went anywhere, as I thought it was an abscess or just a bra rubbing. And what made matters worse, is that one day, I went into the cupboard in our kitchen and got stuck and had to become flat-chested to get out. 😀 😀 😀 and that created a bruise. So, I ignored it. My mother never went for mammograms and neither did I? How stupid is that? Believe me, unless you get diagnosed you don’t realise how much damage and severe your cancer is until it is too bloody late.

I haven’t felt right since November 2022, I thought I had that super-virus going around and it left me with a weak chest and a cough. But progressively through 2023 the cough got worse, until a couple of weeks ago, I was finding myself out of breath, when even talking.

Yes, I ignored the cries from my son and hubby, get to the doctor’s and get that treated. Instead of making that call, I opted for the jars of vapour rub. Which did seem to help.

Then it happened. A couple of Sundays ago I was getting ready when all of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe. I was gasping for air, which caused a massive panic attack. I did phone 111 and when I explained my symptoms, they escalated my call to 999 and within minutes an ambulance was at my door.

They put me on a nebulizer for a while, and whilst examining my chest and lungs they noticed my left boob was not right… so they admitted me to hospital. Expecting to wait in the corridor for hours, I was shocked when I went through immediately to the rapid treatment area and was seen within seconds by doctors and nurses. They weren’t interested in that I couldn’t breathe. They were more interested my boob. Immediately I was sent for CT scan, blood tests, and God knows what else. I had two cannulas put in, one on each arm. They were drawing blood like they were vampires and filling me with fluids, antibiotics, pain relief and everything they could lay their hands on, I think.

Me being me, told Hubby to finish the dinner and come up after, I’ll probably be home in a couple of hours, all sorted. How wrong was I? Before I went through to have the CT Scan, the Doctor told me, he thinks I have breast cancer. And what I thought was as normal sore nipple was in fact a growth.

I just couldn’t believe my ears… CANCER!!! In a fit of panic I rang hubby and son and they came immediately up to the hospital. What was worrying me more was the fact that they were and I were going to miss out on a nice roast Sunday lunch.

The CT scan would determine more so they ordered an emergency one. Within minutes, a porter was taking me to have my CT scan… I waited in the suite and then I went for the scan, chest, stomach and pelvis. It felt weird having the dye run through you and laying in what I call a donut. But still things hadn’t sunk in.

The CT Results

Once I was back in Rapid Treatment, my hubby and son were waiting… then came the news… there were now spots in my lung, liver and bone. As my calcium levels in my blood were off the roof. And my blood was showing other abnormalities. Believe it or not, it was surreal hearing the news. It was like you were outside your own body and they were giving the results to someone else. In fact, I never broke down, cried and became rather blasé about it. The shock didn’t hit me. It was serious, but it didn’t faze me one little bit. The shock on their faces, and the sadness in their eyes, just made me tell them that everything was going to be alright.

So please, if there is anything wrong, or you find a lump, or something doesn’t feel right. Don’t think you are wasting the Doctor’s time, get it checked out. Don’t ignore things, thinking they’ll get better on their own, cos believe me, they won’t.

So, Freddy has taken up residence in my body and I have an eviction notice to serve him… what the future holds, I don’t know! But I will fight till the end, and make sure Feddy ‘The Freeloader’ is cast to oblivion and not residing in my body for one day more than he needs to be.