The operation was on a Wednesday and I had to check in on Tuesday afternoon. And we got there, I think it was two o'clock check in time on the Tuesday, it must have been about the 26th or something of July, and, just as we were coming in to the ward, the consultant was doing her rounds. And she saw me and she pulled me off into a side room. And at this stage I'm thinking in terms of, I'm checking in for hysterectomy, other ovary out, massive course of chemotherapy.
She pulled me into a room and said, 'Look, you know, you're not having the operation tomorrow. We have sought a second opinion on the histology from another hospital, and it has come back saying that it's borderline'. And she explained that that meant, as we thought, no treatment, you know, we just monitor it. She said, 'But, you know, I'm keen to get a third opinion, with your permission, I'd like it to go to the international expert, a professor, for the third opinion and, you know, we want to wait to see what he has to say. And that will take a couple of months'.
And then I went back to work, you know, and sat there and just waited for the third opinion to come through. It finally did in the September '98 and, basically it was in line with the second opinion that this was borderline and it needs to just be monitored. And the advice from the gynaecologist was, 'Well look, you know, it was your original ambition to have children. We really think that you're ultimately going to have to have everything taken out, but want you to basically try and get on with having your children as soon as possible, and, you know, we'd like you to have IVF, try IVF to speed up the process'. |
