Fiasco

Although it comes as something of a shock when you are told you have cancer, it can be tempered by the knowledge that in your particular case, it has not spread yet and may be curable. For me, that was the best thing I heard when I was told of my diagnosis. After that comes so much information, both about your particular cancer and the choices of treatment, it can be overwhelming.

I made up my mind very quickly that I did not want surgery, choosing hormone therapy followed by radiotherapy. I was told that hormone treatment would probably give me symptoms of the menopause. “Not likely to be a problem for me”, I informed the nurse. “I’ve experienced quite a few of those by association.”

“Well, now you get to have one of your own”, she replied.

My mind was made up though. It was down to personal preference and I did not have any doubts. That is, until I read and re-read all the information that was available. Then I had doubts. And more doubts.

The doubts were mostly centred on the side effects of the various treatments. Many side effects are available and nobody is assured of getting any or all of them. That, however, was also the information given to me about the chances of contracting an infection following a trans rectal biopsy. Not much chance, hardly any, was how I interpreted it. That small chance became larger and larger a few days after the procedure, as I lay in a hospital bed suffering from a massive infection, which so wasted me that almost two months later, I am still not fully recovered.

The prescription for my hormone treatment had been given to me to deliver to my GP. A course of anti androgens for four weeks with an injection of one of a choice of three drugs to be started the following week. The choice being made by my GP. I read up on all of them and reached the conclusion that I did not relish taking any of them, so I made an appointment to see the GP to take place immediately I had had the whole body scan.

During the intervening period I went on line to book an appointment with the nurse for a vaccination against pneumonia. While I was online I saw that I had already been assigned to a hormone drug. It just happened to be the cheapest of the three. I wanted to make sure that the choice was being made based on medical history and not cost, so I phoned the surgery to see if I could schedule the appointments so that I saw the doctor before the nurse. It made sense to me but no matter how hard I tried I could not get any help from the receptionist. I would have to wait a further three weeks to get synchronised appointments.

What started out as an urgent referral last October which should have seen me start treatment within eighteen weeks was now turning into a fiasco, timetable wise. I was already at twenty two weeks and my fate was in the hands of a “jobsworth” receptionist. Not one to suffer fools, I took a different route and in a short time I had an informative chat with a consultant at the General Hospital, who managed to allay my latest round of fears.

During the conversation with the GP’s receptionist, I explained about the nurse having to inject the hormone drug into me and asked whether it was something that would be readily available. She told me that I would need to collect a prescription from the surgery, take it to the pharmacy and bring it with me to see the nurse. I said I would collect it the following day.

It was the following afternoon that I turned up to collect the prescription, only to be met with a notice on the front door proclaiming, ” Closed for training.”

“Not soon enough”, was my first thought. “A few weeks sooner would have been better”, was my next. I was to be injected the following day with a drug that I did not have the prescription for. They could have warned me about being closed for training. Maybe communication was one of the topics. Mmm, this could be going better.

I walked the short distance to the pharmacy, where I explained the situation and inquired if they had the drug in stock. Fortunately my memory is still quite good and I remembered the drug, Decapeptyl SR11.25mg. No, they did not have it in stock but they would order it without having the prescription and I would be able to collect it the following morning in time for my appointment. Nice people at the pharmacy.

As a result, I am now into my third week of pills and second week of the long term drug after being injected. So far, I am not aware of any major side effects. Early days.

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