Hi Chris,
Thank you for your reply. It's good that you lodged a complaint. A lawyer once explained medical negligance to me. It's similar to you not stopping at a give way sign. If you didn't crash into anyone, you're not liable for it. If you did crash into someone, you're liable. Putting in a complaint will help the next person with this diagnosis.
As my fine needle biopsy was - benign tumour and the ENT doctor believed it, he referred me on as it still had to be removed. It' only because the surgeon didn't like that there were some salivery cells in the biopsy, he insisted on the cone biopsy. I thought he was horrible and how dare he think that I had a primary cancerous tumour somewhere else. In hindsight, thank goodness he queried it. I am very grateful to him. I've seen cases of 15 year olds being diagnosed with this cancer. How devastating for them. I think about all the babies and children diagnosed with cancer and it breaks my heart for them and their families.
My mother died in May last year and it was a very stressful time. After her death I didn't feel really well anymore. I noticed a swollen gland in my neck and thought it was stresss related. She had been in a nursing home for the past 10 years and it had been an exhausting time supporting her and caring for her, a job and a family. We'd had a family breakdown and my sisters and I had to take power of attorney away from our eldset brother as he had embezzled a large amount of her funds and had her declared incompetent. We had to get a Geriatrician to certify that our mother was not incompetent, which she wasn't and she changed her will. My brother did not visit her for the remaining 8 years following that. I knew that when my mother died all hell would break out, which it did. My brother started a few days after my mother's death and before the funeral, querying the public trustees as to the will. He was furious when he eventually received a copy of the will. My mother left her estate equally to all her children. She then deducted the amount he had stolen from his share. He contested the will and that took about a year to resolve and the will was proven and was executed according to our mother's wishes in May, this year. Long explanation but I wanted to explain the amount of stress involved around my mother's death. At the same time, we had sold our business and negotiations, legal documents and added stress happened around the same time. My earliest symptom was hair breakage and brittlness.
I retired too in February of this year and did the rounds of the doctors, investigations and specialists. It all seemed to take a long time. I had my final diagnosis in June and was operated on in July. My husband has to stay with the business that bought us for two years and I thought it was going to be a very peaceful, yet lonely time without him. When he retired we had plans for travel too. We still do. May just have to be shorter journeys in the future. I was so prepared for retirement. I had mapped out some classes that I wanted to take, particularly in glass work and a weaving course I've been wanting to do for years. I even had a retirement wardrobe of track pants, tops and jackets. Never having to worry about what to wear again. I've worn the same jacket every day to Radiotherapy. I take it off as soon as I get home. Once treatment is completed I will donate that particular jacket to a charity as I will never want to wear it again. Strangely, I had wanted a year without any commitments. I stopped doing Tai Chi after 20 something years of it. No appointments. Not having to be somehwere on time. Ha ha! Jinxed myself. I now live by the clock to go to so many appointments before surgery and now after surgery - all the time!
Ironically, I did give myself time to do this. I had to have a tracheostomy after surgery because the mouth and tongue would be very swollen and the mouth wound needed time to heal so nothing via the mouth for 6 days. That was horrendous. I had myself discharged on the 6th day. I guess the doctors have to take every precaution. They said I'd have to go to speech pathology as I possibly wouldn't be able to swallow or speak. Not a problem at all. I could swallow and speak and they've been very happy with the mouth all the way through. Don't be scared. They just have to warn you of every possibility.
I am really happy that you're going to take olive leaf. Mny years ago my sister in law wa diagnosed with breast cancer. I had read up on everything including all the side effects for her of treatment. She saw a Chinese herbalist who recommended the olive leaf. She had very minimal side effects and I advised our whole family to be on olive leaf. When you own your own business, with family working in it, you cannot be sick. Visiting an elderly person in a nursing home - you cannot be sick. It worked very well for us. We only really took it if we felt a tickle in our throat. We didn't have flu vaccinations and we didn't get the flu. I was not very good at taking it last year and would often give my bottle of tablets to others in the family who needed it more than me. (I have 4 children and 11 grandchildren so a very busy household).
Try drinking ginger water too. Cut up some fresh ginger. Leave it to soak overnight in boiled water and it will rebalance your inner core, especially emotions. Also excellent for anti-nausea and natural.
Yes, I am hoping that there are major break throughs in cancer reserch. One that I really like is immunotherapy a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. I saw a trial of this for colon and adenoid cystic carcinoma. I could not participate as my grading was too low but who knows what could happen in the future?
I'm glad that you've found CBT oil. It may help greatly with Radiotherapy side effects. I have some in the freezer but have not felt the need to go down that track yet.
Whatever gland we have it in, we're still in the same boat diagnosis wise. I hope your CT scan is clear. Make sure you update me regularly on your treatment. I will be very interested in how you manage throughout this.
