Here we can all be heard for a little while. Part 3

mellymoo74

Ono I am furious for you.

Have you contacted PALS? First stage for a complaint. Was useful for OH, meant I got his meds reinstated and RAID involved.
Xxxx

pollyanna_26

Thank goodness for a proactive GP Ono. Re the health centre I don't know if it differs in other parts of the UK but in England both children and adults are entitled to a named doctor at their surgery. Speak to the good doctor about it.
As Calley mentioned phoning the consultants secretary can often speed things up or at least give further info.
Make sure you take advantage of the time off work and get some rest. As a fellow bibliophile get the books out and lose yourself for a while it works for me when I'm anxious or stressed.


Take care and warm wishes to WaS and the gang here.
polly

onomatopoeia99

Good news from me this time. I now have another new appointment date, this time in a month, rather than January, so it seems that either my GP lighting a fire under the hospital or my formal complaint has punted them into action.

pollyanna_26

Very good news indeed Ono. It usually takes some time for a complaint to be acted on so possibly it's the Proactive GPs call that has brought things forward. We have one of those GPs and he makes the magic happen.

Take care
polly

Joanthebone

Hello, I don't know if I will be remembered, as I have not been here for a very long time. I was a lurker, mostly, but my life changed.

I got married again two years ago!

My lovely husband has had a lot to put up with, one year after we married I got diagnosed with breast cancer, Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.

I have never been able to talk about my problems (mostly stemming from my unhappy childhood) and the stress of the bc brought all that back.

Won't bore you all with too much detail, but GP diagnosed PTSD as I was in a terrible state after my mastectomy. Even though I got the 'all clear' because it was "only DCIS, not proper cancer" which made me feel like slapping the nurse that said that, and saying "maybe, but I've still only got one boob"!! Obviously being me, I didn't say or do anything, I just cried.

GP sent me for CBT, which I did not get on with, having lots of forms to fill in and logging what I do every hour of the day .. I just put 'filling in forms' and when the therapist asked why I was crying .. I didn't know what to say, it just felt like it was the only thing I could do, it was all just too hard.

Thank you for being here, reading other posts does make me think that I am not alone even though its quarter to four in the morning and I am sitting here in the dark with a glass of wine!


And I have just read that back and think I am sounding like a selfish cow.

X

geminilady

JOANTHEBONE-I remember you, I have been following this thread for a long time. You do not sound selfish at all. You have been through a lot so it is not surprising you are struggling. Am sorry the therapy was not helpful. Are you on any medication? maybe some would help or a change if you are already taking some .I don't know if there are support groups out there for people who have had cancer but maybe joining something like that would help.

Izadora

Joan, you don't sound selfish at all.
Is there any other therapy available to you? It may be that a different type works better for you.
Sorry you've been having such a tough time.

Joanthebone

Thank you for your replies, I don't know if I want 'therapy' I just cry when I try to talk about things, and sound like its all 'me, me, me' .. when I know there are so many women much worse off.

People say 'oh, your fine now!' --- oh no I'm not!

Thank you for letting me get it off my chest … pun intended..! I try to keep my sense of humour.

jobbingmusician

Are they going to reconstruct your breast, Joan? I wonder if online therapy might be quite good for you (TBH I'm not sure how it works but my feeling is that it might be quite good for you to cry it out, but it might be quite expensive to do this in a face to face therapy session. If you were online with any luck you'd have the time/ability to be able to write down what you were feeling through the tears).

Ono - so pleased to hear that something is moving, at long last. This really is an unacceptably long wait!

Joanthebone

Thank you for the suggestion of online therapy! I have never heard of such a thing, and it might well suit me. I will look into that.

I am not having reconstruction. It would have meant having further surgery which I was not prepared to do. A silicone implant needs replacing every 10 -15 years and I did not like the idea of surgery for a perky boob in my eighties! I would also have had to have surgery to reduce my real boob to make it match the silicone implant