On their way to Norfolk to celebrate their wedding anniversary, the sun was shining, the windows were rolled down, a small breeze entered the car, everything was silent. Lisa slowly turned towards her husband, Jason, looked into his eyes and asked:
"Do they think it's cancer?"
Two weeks before this, Lisa was sat on her sofa with her husband, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her left breast.
“It lasted for a second, and I thought nothing of it,” Lisa said.
Lisa thought that being on her menstrual cycle, breast pain was a common occurrence. So, she quickly disregarded it. However, two weeks later, she noticed that her left breast was inflamed.
Lisa, who is a nurse, called her husband, who is a GP to perform an examination.
“He said straight away to call the GP and make an appointment ASAP. I asked him why, it’ll just be a cyst from working out and sweating, he said yes, hopefully, it will be, but there is still a lump.”
The next day, both Lisa and Jason went to see a GP in which he confirmed that there was definitely a lump. The GP gave Lisa an urgent two-week referral to a breast clinic.
“At that time, I really didn’t think it would be cancer. I googled the symptoms whilst waiting for the appointment with the breast surgeon, and there were so many other things it could be. However, the pain got worse. I had to go buy a bigger bra to be more comfortable! And that reassured me, as breast cancer normally aren’t painful.”
Despite losing her father to cancer, and cancer being a reoccurring illness on her dad's side of the family, this never worried Lisa about her own health.
“I thought I was young, I never gave it a thought. None of us worried about ourselves getting cancer.”
Lisa lost her father to pancreatic cancer. From her father’s diagnosis to death it was only one month.
“None of us worried about ourselves getting cancer when my dad died. My mum may have worried, but she never told us. We didn't think about it much."
“Finally, I got my appointment at the breast clinic about two weeks after I saw the GP. The breast surgeon examined me, then did an ultrasound scan, she confirmed that, yes, there was a lump. She then had to send me to the ultrasound department to do a proper scan and a fine needle aspiration.
“I was still thinking it was a cyst. She said that they will have results in a week and she would call me to come back for the results.
“At that time, Jason and I were off on annual leave and were going away for a long weekend to Norfolk, for our wedding anniversary. Good job we didn’t go abroad.
“I will never have forgot that journey, whilst we were en route, my phone kept going, but was in the back of the car. It was a beautiful day in June, then my husband’s phone was going, and it was the hospital.
“It was the surgeon, he said 'I know you are going away but can you come back on Monday for a further biopsy, as the ultrasound found an enlarged node in my left armpit.’ When we finished the call, at first there was silence. Jason said he’ll never forget when I turned to him and said: “do they think it’s cancer?”
Lisa and John had to cut what they hoped to be several weeks away celebrating their wedding anniversary short.
“We left early on the Sunday, as I didn’t feel great. As we were waiting in the waiting room, I remember looking at the breast cancer and Macmillan leaflets, thinking will I need to read these?
"The nurse then called us in and another nurse was in the room too. Me, being a nurse, knew this wasn’t good!
"We sat down, and she told us they had the results from all the first biopsies and mammogram, and that they show its breast cancer.”
“When she said those words, it was so surreal, I just froze, and the room went quiet. I could see her lips moving but couldn’t really believe it. I was 35. I remember hearing the odd words. ‘invasive tumour’, ‘need chemotherapy first to stop it spreading’, talking about prognosis and mortality rates, survival rates.”
“It was there I was diagnosed with invasive ductal cell carcinoma.”
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) is the most common type of breast cancer. It is when abnormal cells that form in the milk ducts have spread beyond the ducts to another part – according to National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Lisa spent her first few weeks having CT scans MRIs and bone scans. Her breast and armpit had to be injected with a radioactive dye before going to the theatre to remove the lymph nodes under her armpit.
"The nurses had to see if the cancer had spread to the nodes, in which they found it had to two nodes.
“Going through my mind was, it’s okay. It’s cancer, I’ll have treatment and it will be over. Yes, it’s going to be shit but I will get there.”
“The thing that upset me the most was, how on earth can I tell my mum and brother this! We’d already lost dad to cancer, now I was going to hit them with this!"
“You do play the card ‘why me, I’m a good person, I’m a nurse, all I do is help people, I’ve never hurt anyone’ Why do I have to say that word again, that bloody awful 6 lettered word again, to my mum and brother who had already lost their husband and father in the space of a month to that bloody disease, that was the worst thing for me.”
“The most important thing was me getting through this, and being cancer free. Jason always said this from the start. Even though he so wanted to be a father, our whole life and priorities changed”
Lisa had to start chemotherapy as soon as possible as the cancer spread. She had chemotherapy every two weeks for 3-4 months.
“The first day of treatment, I was just waiting to start feeling ‘ill’, I had blood drawn and they sent me home with anti-sickness tablets and steroids I had to take for the following 3 days.
"It was summer, so we went and sat outside, I always remember Mum bought dried apricots and dates to eat, as nurses said I would be constipated! I ate all of them! To this day now, I cannot stand the sight, smell or taste of apricots and dates!"
“After chemo, I had to count each day and take note of the symptoms, these are your ‘cycles’, this is what happened:
Day one: uneventful. No symptoms.
Day two: I was tired and constipated.
Day three: Nausea, still constipated.
Day four: Nausea all day and then chest pain.
Day five: Tingling in right foot and fingers. Anti-sickness tablets seem to be working.
Day six: pain in feet.
Day seven: slight nausea, but I felt like I was getting back to normal.
Day eight and nine: I was okay.
Day ten: I started getting headaches and my gums and teeth were sore.
Day 11 and 12: The same as day 10.
Day 13: I started to get a sore throat.
Day 14: My hair started falling out. They said it would be about two weeks after the first lot of chemo. It was only in small clumps if you put your hand through it, or it brushed it, it fell out everywhere!
Day 15: I felt really unwell, I went to GP, took blood tests, and was neutropenic. I then had to go to A&E and was given IV antibiotics.
Day 16: I began to feel a lot better, but more hair was falling out.
Day 19: I decided to shave my head, as hair falling out all over the place. Jason did it for me. I was quite excited! A new look! And at that time my eyebrows and eyelashes were still there, so didn’t look like your typical cancer patient!
And that was the first cycle."
"It did get worse. I got sores and ulcers in my mouth. Couldn’t taste anything. I had to add chili to everything just so could taste something. I got neuropathy in fingers and toes. It was painful to just pull up a pair of jeans or tights with fingers.
"Then my white cell count was so low again I needed to go to the hospital and it delayed my chemo. My oncologist prescribed an injection to boost my immune system (by stimulating the bone marrow to make more white blood cells) which was great, but the side effect was bone pain. And this was when I ‘felt like a cancer patient’."
"I could hardly walk, the pain in my pelvis and legs was excruciating. At night I could not sleep. I would just sit under a hot shower all night, then lie in bed with hot water bottles. Nothing eased the pain."
"Then my eyebrows and eyelashes fell out. I got the worst watery eyes ever. It was constant. I can’t explain how annoying, it was."
“It’s funny, how the things that determine your outward appearance make you feel worse! This really got me down. It was like I was constantly crying. This carried on until I finished chemo.”
After the chemotherapy, Lisa got her left breast and her ovaries removed. She is now cancer free.
She is encouraging women to get checked for cervical cancer by getting the smear test with the hash tag #SmearforSmear.
