Free The Cancer Survivors Club by Chris Geiger Page B

didn’t work and my neck continued to hurt, so the following week I went back again. This time I was given yet more painkillers, but stronger ones; again these didn’t work either. Four weeks later and the pain just kept getting worse. Then one night I went to bed and woke up to find that I had lost most of the use of my right arm. My initial thought was I’d had a stroke, which was terrifying. So back to the doctor I went again; calmly I showed him that my arm had stopped working. To my amazement, I was just packed off home with even more painkillers. A week later, I went back yet again and this time they still appeared to ignore what I was saying. It was becoming very frustrating, not to mention painful. It was now eight weeks since I’d started getting the pain while gardening and it continued to get worse. At times it was so severe it prevented me from sleeping normally.
    During this time, there wasn’t one doctor who suggested I should have a scan; I’d now been seen by all five doctors at my local surgery, too!
    Each week I went to see them and each week they gave me different types of painkillers, which provided no relief from the pain. I was at desperation’s door, so in one last-ditch attempt went back to the doctor. This time, I really did have a good old moan, I was so frustrated and angry.
    At last, this doctor made an appointment for me to see a physiotherapist, to see if they could help with the mobility of my now useless right arm. The physiotherapist started various exercises, but the pain they caused was so intense it felt like my whole body was being kicked.
    Eventually, the physiotherapist stopped the exercises, as they were actually making me feel ill. She thought I should see a doctor at the hospital. By the time I arrived, I was doubled up in pain. I begged for the doctor to do something for me and quickly. She arranged for me to have a scan. At long last, after nine weeks, somebody was actually listening to me. Just three days later, I was having a scan of my back and neck.
    The following day, while I was waiting for another appointment with the physiotherapist, which I was obviously dreading, my doctor called asking if I could pop down and see him. This really started to panic me. It was then I was given the news that I had a tumour on my spine. Words can’t describe how absolutely devastated I felt. Immediately, the doctor made an appointment at the main hospital. I was told I should collect the MRI scan results from another hospital en route.
    My husband and daughter arrived at the hospital within an hour with the scan results and I was immediately admitted. After months of moaning that nothing was happening, suddenly people were listening and things were moving quickly.
    The next morning, I was to have a life-or-death operation – literally. When I came round from the operation, I was connected to a life-support machine. Thankfully, from there on, I progressed and got loads better each day. While I was recovering from the operation in the hospital, doctors told me they’d removed a large tumour from the top of my spine. This was why I’d been experiencing such terrible pain in my neck and back. Thankfully, now the pain has totally gone. I was told I was lucky to be alive. The surgeon said, if the tumour had not been found and dealt with, I’d have soon lost the use of all my limbs, not to mention my life. I was told I had an extremely rare type of cancer and it was even rarer for the spine to be the primary site for cancer. This news was such a massive shock to both me and all my family.
    Each day, I kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m sure I didn’t hear this right’ or perhaps I’d been having some kind of bad dream. While I was in hospital I never once thought, ‘Why me?’ My focus and concentration was purely on getting better and surviving. The doctor once asked if I would like to see the hospital chaplain, which I agreed