Hello there, I believe I haven't introduced myself fully to you all yet. My name is, Jack, I'm 17 year old and I live Surrey, England, I'm an Apprentice Electrician. I've been here for a good three years now, but I never introduced myself.
There are many reasons as too why I am doing this, the main one being I'm not sure how much longer I will be here for.
It all started nine months ago (December 2013), I had an itch on the right hand side of my chest, around the 7th rib. As you do with any itch, you itch it and so I did. I then felt a weird lump in that area. Straight away I thought it could be something bad. The next week I went to the doctor, he said it was just a cyst however, for safety he booked me an X-Ray. Two weeks later, I did the X-Ray, they said they'd give the doctor I first saw. A week after the X-Ray, I saw the doctor and we didn't know what it was. He said he would book me a Ultrasound to get a clearer picture since the X-Ray just didn't pick it up. A very long time went past before I heard anything about this scan.
Two months (February 2014) after the X-Ray, I woke up with pains coming from the site of the 'cyst'. Around 10pm, while I was on Skype with someone, a sudden stabbing pain came from the area of the 'cyst'. I ended up going into A&E. They ran some blood tests and my blood came back fine, they gave me some pain killers but it didn't work. They told me to come back the next morning to see the child consultant (anyone under the age of 18 in the UK is classed as a child). I went back to see the consultant, his name was Dr. Bhatti. He examined the 'cyst' and even he said it was a 'cyst'. He prescribed me some pain killers to get rid of the pain it was causing. These tablets took over two days to have any affect.
Two months (April 2014) after this and lots of phone calls to the hospital and local doctors. I got that ultra-sound I mentioned about -four months- ago. I went to the hospital to have it, and it didn't go too well. The doctor/nurse performing the scan didn't quite understand what it was and wanted to push for an MRI /CT scan. She told me she would get in touch with Dr. Bhatti and inform him of her findings.
Four months (August 2014) passed after the Ultrasound and I finally got in touch with Dr. Bhatti after trying to call him so many times. I booked myself in to see him ASAP. I spoke to him about the lump and told him it hadn't caused me any pain/problems in doing physical activity. For this reason he didn't believe it was anything more then a 'cyst'. I told him that the person who performed the ultrasound scan wanted to push for an MRI/CT. He didn't know of this and said he would get in contact with her. He got in contact with her and rung me a week later and said I had an MRI on the bank holiday Monday in August (4th of August). I done the MRI, and waited for my results. He rung me that week, and said I need to come in a soon as possible. At this point, I knew something was incredibly wrong. I went in on the Friday (8th) that same week I had the MRI; I was told I need a biopsy.
Still in August of 2014. I have a biopsy on the 13th of August. It usually takes around 7-10 days to get the results of a biopsy.
20th o f August 2014. Biggest day of my life. This is the day my life completely changed. I went to the place where my biopsy of the 'cyst' had taken place. I was diagnosed with a Ewing's Sarcoma. It's a incredibly rare primary bone cancer. After months of the doctors pushing it to one side saying it was a 'cyst', they were wrong. If I didn't keep ringing my doctor to try and get in touch with him and push for an MRI, I could be dead by now.
I had been expecting to be something bad from the start. I just didn't expect the amount of time I had to take off work for the Chemotherapy. My treatment will go for the duration of a year. I have already done one cycle of chemo and I'm going back this up-coming Tuesday for five days. Sadly, my hair has already started to come out.
I'm not afraid of what could happen to me, but that's just me. There are lots of draw backs in life, I'm not letting this one stop my life. I never let anything stop me in life. We all have times where it's hard, but you have to just build bridges over these problems.
If you have any questions about what is happening to me and you want to understand my case more or someone you know who is going through chemo and you just want a better understanding, feel free to ask me. I really don't mind answering questions about it.
tl;dr, I've got cancer and I'm not quite sure if it's curable just yet.
need to explain a few more things but will add at later date it's 2:30am. I NEED SLEEP TOO YOU KNOW.
P.S. This isn't a sympathy post, I just felt that you needed to know how my life has completely changed.
There are many reasons as too why I am doing this, the main one being I'm not sure how much longer I will be here for.
It all started nine months ago (December 2013), I had an itch on the right hand side of my chest, around the 7th rib. As you do with any itch, you itch it and so I did. I then felt a weird lump in that area. Straight away I thought it could be something bad. The next week I went to the doctor, he said it was just a cyst however, for safety he booked me an X-Ray. Two weeks later, I did the X-Ray, they said they'd give the doctor I first saw. A week after the X-Ray, I saw the doctor and we didn't know what it was. He said he would book me a Ultrasound to get a clearer picture since the X-Ray just didn't pick it up. A very long time went past before I heard anything about this scan.
Two months (February 2014) after the X-Ray, I woke up with pains coming from the site of the 'cyst'. Around 10pm, while I was on Skype with someone, a sudden stabbing pain came from the area of the 'cyst'. I ended up going into A&E. They ran some blood tests and my blood came back fine, they gave me some pain killers but it didn't work. They told me to come back the next morning to see the child consultant (anyone under the age of 18 in the UK is classed as a child). I went back to see the consultant, his name was Dr. Bhatti. He examined the 'cyst' and even he said it was a 'cyst'. He prescribed me some pain killers to get rid of the pain it was causing. These tablets took over two days to have any affect.
Two months (April 2014) after this and lots of phone calls to the hospital and local doctors. I got that ultra-sound I mentioned about -four months- ago. I went to the hospital to have it, and it didn't go too well. The doctor/nurse performing the scan didn't quite understand what it was and wanted to push for an MRI /CT scan. She told me she would get in touch with Dr. Bhatti and inform him of her findings.
Four months (August 2014) passed after the Ultrasound and I finally got in touch with Dr. Bhatti after trying to call him so many times. I booked myself in to see him ASAP. I spoke to him about the lump and told him it hadn't caused me any pain/problems in doing physical activity. For this reason he didn't believe it was anything more then a 'cyst'. I told him that the person who performed the ultrasound scan wanted to push for an MRI/CT. He didn't know of this and said he would get in contact with her. He got in contact with her and rung me a week later and said I had an MRI on the bank holiday Monday in August (4th of August). I done the MRI, and waited for my results. He rung me that week, and said I need to come in a soon as possible. At this point, I knew something was incredibly wrong. I went in on the Friday (8th) that same week I had the MRI; I was told I need a biopsy.
Still in August of 2014. I have a biopsy on the 13th of August. It usually takes around 7-10 days to get the results of a biopsy.
20th o f August 2014. Biggest day of my life. This is the day my life completely changed. I went to the place where my biopsy of the 'cyst' had taken place. I was diagnosed with a Ewing's Sarcoma. It's a incredibly rare primary bone cancer. After months of the doctors pushing it to one side saying it was a 'cyst', they were wrong. If I didn't keep ringing my doctor to try and get in touch with him and push for an MRI, I could be dead by now.
I had been expecting to be something bad from the start. I just didn't expect the amount of time I had to take off work for the Chemotherapy. My treatment will go for the duration of a year. I have already done one cycle of chemo and I'm going back this up-coming Tuesday for five days. Sadly, my hair has already started to come out.
I'm not afraid of what could happen to me, but that's just me. There are lots of draw backs in life, I'm not letting this one stop my life. I never let anything stop me in life. We all have times where it's hard, but you have to just build bridges over these problems.
If you have any questions about what is happening to me and you want to understand my case more or someone you know who is going through chemo and you just want a better understanding, feel free to ask me. I really don't mind answering questions about it.
tl;dr, I've got cancer and I'm not quite sure if it's curable just yet.
need to explain a few more things but will add at later date it's 2:30am. I NEED SLEEP TOO YOU KNOW.
P.S. This isn't a sympathy post, I just felt that you needed to know how my life has completely changed.
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and get some sleep!
