I thought my life would be over
The cancer came back in 2008. At that time, many things changed in my personal life, too: My son moved out, the house was too big for me, and I was no longer fit enough to work full-time, so I reduced my working hours. All this put a lot of strain on me.
In the first operation, quite a few lymph nodes were removed from my armpits. This makes my arms hurt time and again. In the fall of 2008 I had a second operation, where one of my breasts was removed, and I coped quite well with that.
The following January I went to a follow-up examination. The gynecologist did an ultrasound of my abdomen, and she saw something she didn’t like and sent me to have an MRI (ed. note: ) scan. At first, the doctor who did the MRI told me that they couldn’t see anything worth worrying about.
At my next appointment, my gynecologist told me that I had metastases in my pelvis. I was flabbergasted. I hadn’t felt a thing! I had only had some symptoms in my shoulder, and my orthopedist said that they were caused by a jammed tendon. Again, many tests were done and the news got worse and worse: metastases in my pelvis, my spine, my chest wall, my shoulder. I felt paralyzed. I asked the doctor whether there was anything at all she could still do for me. I thought I would need a wheelchair, and that my life would be over then. The doctor smiled at me and said: “We can get this situation back under control.”