So in October 2008 I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28. I have spent the past year occasionally turning on my laptop and ranting about my life so I thought I'd share a few extracts. Enjoy

Thursday 27th November 2008

So a month has gone by since I last wrote anything (don’t think I actually sent my last essay to anyone but anyway), and again a lot has happened. I had a port inserted into my chest on the 4th Nov, started chemo on 5th November, spent a week after chemo feeling rubbish, then got an infected port last weekend and ended up being admitted into hospital so they could give me antibiotics through an IV.

My stay in hospital was what I would call an experience! Firstly I was completely unprepared for an overnight stay as was seen by my oncologist at 6pm and was then sent straight to hospital so all I had on me was what I was wearing, plus a hairbrush and some deodorant in my handbag. Luckily a very special friend surprised me and arrived at my bedside at around 11pm, with some pj’s, and other essentials to get me through the night.

As I was admitted so last minute I firstly had to go into A and E and listen to the splendid noise of drunks throwing up for an hour. Finally by about 10.30pm and was told I was being taken up to the oncology ward, but there was a catch … the only bed available was on a mixed bay. So I thought its just one night, how bad can it be? So my Mum and brother helped escort me up to the 6th floor and I was greeted by a rather large looking male inpatient who was to be my neighbour for the night, who looked at me, gave me the thumbs up and the said “Good luck”! Oh and just to fill you in the other people in my bay were all men, who seemed quite unaware of all the noises that seemed to be consistently coming from every part of their body.

Now to most people including my poor mother who had to leave me for the night, this would be a complete nightmare, but I decided in my head that this was one night of my life and found the whole experience quite comical actually.

So the excitement continues, when the nurse started putting the first lot of antibiotics into my system. About 15 minutes later I notice that my ears were quite hot and then my neck began increasing in temperature, and yes you’ve guessed it I was allergic to the antibiotics. It was nothing a bit of piriton couldn’t cure.

So the next drama …I was then kindly moved at 12.30am into an all female bay. When I initially moved in to this bay the sound of silence was amazing, but that was soon to end, when the lady in the bed diagonally opposite me began whimpering and then talking out loud, saying “Am I dead, Am I dead? Where am I?” This went on for about the next 3 hours when eventually a nurse calmed her down and said “Your in hospital”, although to the patient this may have felt like what her expectation of being dead was like! I must have got about 2 hours sleep that night what with the mad lady opposite me and all the machines beeping around me so all in all I had a great night sleep.

Luckily I was discharged at 1pm the next day with a full bag of medication to keep me occupied.

So the next day 26th Nov was chemo day. All went well and am just waiting for side effects to kick in. Tomorrow I’m going back into hospital, thank god as a day patient, to have this infected port removed so its all fun and games.

Signing off
JR x