‘It has a huge effect on the people around you’

12 April, 2022 | By Ingrid Fuchs

I recommended a book to my husband, Jean. It is a book written by the husband of a woman with triple-negative breast cancer. The book is full of tips for the partner. However, Jean is not keen at the moment, I think he wants to deal with it in his own way. Me having cancer is hard for him too, he has a very demanding full time job, which he tries to combine with taking me to the hospital on a very regular basis. Of course, he is dealing with his own emotional feelings too.

We don’t talk too much about my diagnosis. He likes to focus on the present and doesn’t want to think too much ahead, which is probably a good thing. It’s true that if one member of the family has cancer, the whole family is very much affected, It has a huge effect on the people around you.

Today I had an appointment with the oncologist to discuss my chemotherapy and side-effects from cycle one. After the second cycle, I will have an ultrasound to see what happened with the tumour. If the tumour has grown instead of shrunk we would need to discuss the next step.

The support I get from colleagues, friends and family is great. Every day I get messages asking how I’m doing. I’m so spoiled with cards, flowers and presents. I really appreciate what everybody is doing for me.

I have one friend and cousin who were both diagnosed with breast cancer about two years ago. At the time I thought I supported both, but I’m not sure anymore. I wonder now if I had perhaps too much of my professional hat on instead of just being Ingrid. I will feed it back to them as it has been bothering me.

Today my hairdresser came in to cut my hair. In the last days more hair kept coming out and it started to be annoying. My tops were covered with hair and the brush was full of it.

First I asked my husband to shave it off completely but it would have been tricky as there was quite a lot of it. At the moment I’m happy with this in between phase.

On a positive note, I heard today that I’m negative for the BRCA genes. That’s really good news, my breast cancer is not genetic.

There are moments when I forget that I have cancer, I drove my son somewhere and the radio presenter was talking about cancer patients. I realised just then, that I belong to that category.

I had my second cycle of chemotherapy last Monday. There was a lovely lady there having treatment too. She told me this was the third time that she was having chemotherapy for three different cancers, I was so impressed how brave she was. She had a few good tips for me, she advised me to cover the ice lolly you have with one of the chemotherapies with a plastic bag so that you don’t have to taste the sweet taste of the lolly. The ice lolly helps to prevent mouth ulcers.

My symptoms are the same as last time, having little waves of nausea. I cannot bear tea anymore and had to go over to water or juice. At the moment I like cranberry juice, soups also work well for me. I have still been going to the gym and do a walk or run. I try to take it easier than before.

One part of my white cells, the neutrophils were only 1.8 which is quite low, if they go under 1, I can’t be treated. I have read that exercise sometimes can have an effect of the neutrophils going down, so I will try to listen more to my body.

This blog was originally published in the Nursing Times. Many thanks to them for sharing Ingrid's story.