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My Cancer story

Posted By lollipop

"My Cancer story"

About: Churchill Hospital / General surgery Horton General Hospital / General surgery John Radcliffe Hospital / General surgery

(as the patient),

At the beginning of 2008 I had a routine checkup & it was discovered I was Iron Deficient Anaemic through a blood test. There had been a slight change in my bowel habit but didn't realise what was going on. I spoke to my GP & she managed to arrange an urgent Gastroscopy and Colonoscopy.

It was discovered that I had 3 tumours in the large intestine, following that I had CT and MRI scans. A second Colonoscopy was performed & confirmed I had 3 tumours. On 2 of them, the lymph nodes were clear. The 3rd had 3 clear but 2 had minute cells affected.

I was admitted to JR at Oxford for me to have a major operation to remove the large bowel (6 - 7 hour op). I was terrified and scared of what was going to happen. All the nursing staff were really nice, very caring & I was looked after very well by all the staff. I spent 11 days in hospital with only one setback during that time to do with my ileostomy bag & I wasn't at all well for a couple of days. (They said it was due to the trauma & delayed shock from the operation). It was dealt with very efficiently by the nursing staff. I recovered well & coped well with my temporary stoma.

About a month later I was assess for Chemo & commenced 8 three week cycles of tablet form chemo. I was very lucky to only have one type of side effect from the chemo, which was very painful soles of the feet & palms of the hands. I had the reversal of my stoma the following year & began the difficult time to retrain my internal J-Pouch to operate reasonably properly, which could take about 4 years if I am lucky. I had been all clear till April 2011 when a CT showed I had secondaries (one in each lung). These were ablated (one at a time) in 2012 & up to the time of writing this, nothing has been discovered.

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Responses

Response from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust 11 years ago
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 28/01/2013 at 17:09
Published on Care Opinion at 19:37

Thank you for taking the time to post details of your treatment within our hospitals. We note that you first attended for treatment almost five years ago and are still attending today. We are pleased that during this time you have consistently found our staff to be caring and efficient and that treatment by our specialists has improved your condition. We will, of course, pass your comments to those involved.

We are aware how daunting it can be for patients coping with serious illness. As a Trust we constantly work hard on improving the patient experience. We value all patient feedback because not only does it highlight areas where we have got things right, but also helps us address areas that may need improving.

Once again, many thanks for sharing your experience of our hospitals since 2008 – we hope that you continue to progress well.

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Response from Churchill Hospital 11 years ago
Churchill Hospital

Submitted on 20/03/2013 at 14:30
Published on nhs.uk on 06/01/2014 at 09:28

Thank you for telling us about your experience at the John Radcliffe Hospital. We consistently work hard on improving the patient experience and it is always reassuring to hear that our staff are epitomising our values of ‘delivering compassion excellence’ in such a strong and positive manner. As a Trust, it is important to us that our patients are at the very heart of everything we do and your positive comments, outlining your experience at the John Radcliffe show us that our patients are indeed benefiting from the practical implementation of our core values. We will, of course, draw your comments to the attention of all the staff concerned. In the meantime, we hope you continue to progress – we wish you well.

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