To get the news that you have cancer is devastatingly hard and difficult. To find out that you have 3 tumors in the brain is very, very, very difficult. I reacted with anxiety, sadness and fear.
In June this year, I had a ‘fit’ before I was about to participate in a charity run. My husband phoned the ambulance and I spent many days in the hospital to investigate my whole body. MRI and PET scans, blood tests, eye tests and spinal cord samples. After a week I went home. My parents came to visit from Stockholm, Sweden.
June 19th, we met the doctor, who gave me the diagnosis that I had ‘3 Glioblastoma IV tumors with Oligodendroglial components’, the worst and the most dangerous cancer. Two of the tumors could be surgically removed, but the third had to be treated with radiation therapy because of its position, to hopefully be reduced in size and disappear.
I packed a small bag and went back to the hospital after the visit to be admitted and just 3 days after my diagnosis, I had major surgery to remove the 2 tumors. I was greeted by my beloved little family and a very difficult week followed with a lot of tears, but also very many hugs and kisses.
I left the hospital with a lot of medicine. My oldest daughter went back to University in the UK and my youngest daughter went to New York for a summer course before University and my beloved husband for more than 20 years, stayed at home with me for two weeks while I recovered from the operation. The combined Radio & Chemo Therapy treatment started July 22nd and my beloved mother came to Singapore again to help and support me.
I finished the sessions last week. I’m very much looking forward to a months of rest, before it’s time to start the double dose of chemo five days every month for 6 months or more.
I hope that the news are positive in November when I have my follow up MRI scan scheduled and that the tumors are gone and that I will have more time with my dear family and friends. My sincere appreciation to all the doctors, radiation therapists and nurses I have meet in the hospitals I have visited and received treatment.
I have a very aggressive form of brain cancer and the prognosis made me sad and worried… but I am determined to do my very best and be positive, even though my hair has disappeared.
I will live life to the fullest with my beloved husband, my daughters, family and friends.