Radio-stressful-admin-therapy
I am about to head off for session 2 of my radiotherapy. In terms of attendance this is the forth trip out (horray - the traffic is amazing!) to the Genesis Care unit at Aztec West. This is the shared private Chemo and Radiotherapy facility for the South West area. It is essentially boutique hotel meets healthcare with the service to match.
The three radiographers; Ali, Dana and Kim have been amazing, we had a shared nightmare last week over the cover because my GP surgery hadn't sent a form to the insurers, the insurers had to have the form to do some underwriting checks and without this I couldn't go into the CT scanner to have my scans which would enable the radiotherapy to be planned. I had 4 days of admin hell, continual calls between three organisations, lips to be bitten with my GP, kind Radiographers making many of the same calls to help me chase. At one point I was in the CT scanner, tattooed (yes) in three places with my torso covered in tape and pen marks when they had to send me home without even switching on the machine. We had pushed ahead on the basis that I would self-fund the scan but then the Genesis finance team came back saying that I couldn't pay for the scan alone. I would have to pay for the Radiotherapy planning (several days work by experts) and the full course of treatment ...let's just say it was more than I had to hand! Eventually the following morning, everything was cleared by the insurers and they were able to do the scans and commence my planning.
Anxiety has been creeping back into my life over the last week, I feel it in my breathing and a tightening in my chest, at times I think I must have come into contact with a Coronavirus but then I realise the weight of having cancer and the next wave of treatment is back with avengence. I am OK and having now had one session of Radiotherapy, at least I am over the anxiety relating that. My biggest worry is what starts next week when they switch off my ovaries in the first of a year or more of monthly injections of a pellet into my stomach and the almost immediate onset of full on menopause to allow me to take on the post-menopausal hormone therapies which are more effective for such hormone-hungry cancers as mine. The side-effects make me feel sorry for myself, I feel like I only have me as I know me until next Tuesday and beyond that I have no idea what I am going to feel like.
The three radiographers; Ali, Dana and Kim have been amazing, we had a shared nightmare last week over the cover because my GP surgery hadn't sent a form to the insurers, the insurers had to have the form to do some underwriting checks and without this I couldn't go into the CT scanner to have my scans which would enable the radiotherapy to be planned. I had 4 days of admin hell, continual calls between three organisations, lips to be bitten with my GP, kind Radiographers making many of the same calls to help me chase. At one point I was in the CT scanner, tattooed (yes) in three places with my torso covered in tape and pen marks when they had to send me home without even switching on the machine. We had pushed ahead on the basis that I would self-fund the scan but then the Genesis finance team came back saying that I couldn't pay for the scan alone. I would have to pay for the Radiotherapy planning (several days work by experts) and the full course of treatment ...let's just say it was more than I had to hand! Eventually the following morning, everything was cleared by the insurers and they were able to do the scans and commence my planning.
Anxiety has been creeping back into my life over the last week, I feel it in my breathing and a tightening in my chest, at times I think I must have come into contact with a Coronavirus but then I realise the weight of having cancer and the next wave of treatment is back with avengence. I am OK and having now had one session of Radiotherapy, at least I am over the anxiety relating that. My biggest worry is what starts next week when they switch off my ovaries in the first of a year or more of monthly injections of a pellet into my stomach and the almost immediate onset of full on menopause to allow me to take on the post-menopausal hormone therapies which are more effective for such hormone-hungry cancers as mine. The side-effects make me feel sorry for myself, I feel like I only have me as I know me until next Tuesday and beyond that I have no idea what I am going to feel like.
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