by Fiona McGovern, Isle of Arran, Scotland
I have just finished 18 weeks of weekly chemotherapy treatments for metastatic breast cancer. (My breast cancer story is also on this blog under “Breast Cancer: knowing what I know now I would definitely do things differently”.) For me this means four hours travelling, part by boat and part by car, and so it all takes a full day. I now have time off and time to reflect.
For these 18 weeks I have sat in a day ward full of other women receiving their treatment. As soon as one seat is vacated another woman fills it. In the oncology waiting room it can be standing room only and you may have to allow hours to be seen.
I have felt how pressured the medics, the receptionists and the nurses are. I have also felt the anxiety of families, the anger of many of the women, the fear in some, the denial, the hoping, and the coping on the surface and in some the complete self-pitying and identification with the illness. I also sense in some there’s the attitude that life begins after chemo…. that we can get back to how things were before cancer and chemo….. Continue reading “Reflections after Chemotherapy”