A Difficult Few Weeks

My first meeting with my (later to be) wife Libby was I think in January1978. I have often thought of this when I hear that segment on Radio National 621 on Sunday mornings, when the subject of interview explains what was, 'The year that made me.'

It is the pivotal year in a person's life that sets their course of destiny. I think to myself, it could be 1972, when I was called up for National Service, because this led to me going to Qld Agricultural College on a retraining scheme in 1974 where I studied beekeeping. So it could be 1974, as this led me to be employed in 1976 by the Victorian Department of Agriculture as an apiary inspector in north-east Victoria based in Wangaratta. So maybe 1976?

No, I choose 1978 because I met Lib. Those other years were important, as those events took me to Wangaratta, but it was meeting Lib that gave my life a greater purpose that exists strongly forty years on. We were married in January 1981, and we have rarely been apart for more than a few days since. She has been a great companion.

So I felt alarm and anxiety when she told me about four weeks ago that she had a lump in her breast. She said it's probably nothing, our little dog Pip sits on her when she lies on the couch and pushed off quickly a few days previously and made her breast sore, so it was probably just bruising or swelling that would go away. It didn't. After a week she made a doctor's appointment at the Cockatoo Family Clinic. He referred her straightaway to a lady specialist in Ringwood for an appointment two days later. Gord and I went with her and took Pip for a walk while she saw the specialist. The lady told Lib she was 99% sure it was cancer and booked her for a biopsy in the afternoon. The next week was another appointment with the lady specialist, this time at her Berwick rooms. The biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. Before we left Lib was booked for a full body scan and a bone scan for the following Monday, to see if the cancer was anywhere else.

This was an all day thing as the body scan was 8.30am afterwhich they injected Lib with something which took a few hours to go through the body so the bone scan would work. We went home for lunch and went back as it was done in Berwick. A couple of days later, last week, an email from the specialist told us the scan results were normal, and that Lib was booked in for the lumpectomy and and seminal node biopsy on the Friday in Ringwood Private Hospital. The seminal node biopsy required injection with dye prior, and we left Lib as she was prepping for this at about 10.30am. We learned later that this procedure took 2.5 hours and Lib described it as torture as she had to hold her arm above her head as she lay with this big machine over her and they manually pushed on her breast to get the dye there so they could find it. Apparently it's pot luck as to whether it's found easily or otherwise, which was Lib's misfortune.

Lib was then booked in for the surgery to remove the lump at 3.30pm. I got home after shopping and mucking around with this and that at about 4.30pm and there was a message on the answering machine from Lib saying she was still waiting to go into surgery. I rang a couple of hours later and they told me she was in recovery and was groggy. We rang next morning to learn she could come home so we went to Ringwood and picked her up.

Lib was sore over the weekend but of course is taking painkillers when it's bad. The swelling has subsided and she's improving. We go to the specialist in the morning to see where we go from here, I think there's some radiation treatment over 8 weeks and perhaps some chemo.

Right now we feel happy that this thing was found early and the action has been so swift. While this was going on I had a rheumatologist appointment and routine skin cancer check and lung cancer ex-ray, which I keyed in to have when Lib was there getting the scan. Skin check was clear and I haven't heard anything re the chest ex-ray so it must be clear too. I think if there was a problem the would have called me in by now. During this period also I had a lousy head cold and a sore heal that made walking painful but this is minor compared to the ordeal Lib has faced.

As always n the forty years I have known Lib, she is strong in a crisis. I came across a little saying the other day that is appropriate to Lib.

In this life of toil and trouble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.