EXPERIENCES

When someone you know opens up and shares the fact that they, themselves have come through their own cancer journey, it’s almost as if they’re a superhero who’s just revealed their secret identity. On one hand you can’t believe that it’s them and then on the other you develop this utmost respect for what they have achieved. I know it sounds silly but they’ve gone through this whole experience that most of us (hopefully) will never have to. That’s when the questions start.

“What happened?”

What treatment did you have?

“How did it affect you?”

Did you put on/lose weight?

How did you cope with everyday family life during the treatment?

“How are you now?”

You can’t help but notice that all of a sudden the whole conversation has just becomes a series of questions with you just craving information. The crazy thing is, before Sam was diagnosed those questions would never have been there. It would have been a simple “I’m really sorry. Are you ok now?” kind of thing. Sam’s found this out for herself first hand. She has been in contact with some very brave people who have gone through, and are still going through a very rough time and she’s found that the conversation (on her side at least) is very question orientated. You can see her sitting there taking the information in, but you can see she also feels guilty for asking so many questions. This will change as she starts to have her own experiences, and then hopefully, she’ll be on the receiving end of questions from someone else who needs help and support. All the people that Sam is talking to have been so open and supportive by sharing their experiences and what they are currently going through that I can see Sam is getting stronger in her determination to be just as brave.

We had a phone call from the hospital yesterday (an apologetic one at that) saying that there had been a mix up with the pre chemo appointment that we have on Thursday. It looks like it’s been double booked so what they’ve done now is given us a double bill appointment on Friday. We now need to go into hospital at 0900 on Friday for Sam to have her Pre chemo check and then at around 1030 the treatment will begin. We’re still scheduled to go in to have the CT scan the very next day but I’m hoping they will change that at some point in the week. I don’t fancy the unpredictability of that visit.