IT HAPPENED TO MEIn the past 12 months Susan Cleary has been diagnosed with three forms of cancer. In that time, she has had very mixed experiences of the health service. Here is her story as told to Fiona Tyrrell
I WAS DIAGNOSED with bowel cancer last year. I was lucky - they caught it in time, but during the course of my treatment it was discovered that I had breast cancer and then thyroid cancer. Really, it has been just one thing after another.
It all started at the end of April last year. I went in as a day patient to the Mater for a colonoscopy. I took bad during the procedure and woke up on the ward. Well, it wasn't really a ward - it was one of those so-called transit units of around 30 beds. Quite frankly, it was horrible. It was like a nightmare. The staff were run off their feet, the ward was very busy with people coming and going, the girl opposite me cried for two days and I couldn't get any sleep.
It was a mixed ward and I was very uncomfortable with that. Don't get me wrong - the people there were lovely, but I had just had a bowel procedure and there were drains and tubes coming out of me. I felt very vulnerable. The toilets were also communal. I'm 58. A mixed ward is just not for me. There is no dignity in it.
By the fifth day I had had enough. I got up, washed myself and told the doctor I was going home. The doctor just shrugged his shoulders. He had heard it before. At home, I felt lousy but at least I was able to sleep.
The next month I went in for an operation to remove a tumour from my bowel.
At the start of July my left breast was removed. They had to be quick because four tumours had been found. After my experiences following the colonoscopy, I requested not to be put on a mixed ward. I had found it hard enough to talk to my husband of 38 years about getting my breast removed, I didn't want to have to talk to a strange man about it. I didn't care if there were 40 people on the ward, just as long as it was a female ward.
After the operation I was put on what seemed like a female ward, but later two men were admitted. They were obviously stuck for space.
The operation was deemed successful. But later fluid began to build up in my breast and I had to go back to the Mater every few days for a while to get it drained.
My surgeon recommended that I go for chemotherapy after the operation. The chemo was due to start in October.
A week before, I went in to the Mater to get briefed on the treatment and to get bloods taken. The girl there couldn't find a vein. After three attempts she had to get someone else in to do it. I had had enough at that stage.
To be honest, I was worn out. I was at my lowest point. I had just undergone two operations in such a short space of time, I didn't feel that I could emotionally and physically cope with chemotherapy, so I decided against it. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake.
Instead, I went to St Luke's for radiotherapy. My treatment started in February and finished up three weeks ago. It went very well. It only lasted for 10-15 minutes every day for a five-week period. I was also given a booster week, because with cancer in my thyroid the doctors reckoned I needed all the help I could get.
I had very positive experiences in St Luke's. Everyone there has cancer. There you feel that you are not alone and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Cancer is a horrible, horrible thing. I am not a crier, but I broke down twice while in St Luke's and the nurses were great. I felt they really actually cared.
In St Luke's I met a man who had to travel from Donegal for treatment. I met a young man with a brain tumour who had his operation delayed two times. You see children and teenagers facing this horrible, horrible disease. I thought my lot was bad, but that is worse.
Now I am waiting to have the tumour in my thyroid removed. I have been told that it is a slow growth tumour and the operation is 95 per cent successful when it is caught in time.
My surgeon told me that it was going to take place at the end of April. I was due to go in on a Thursday and, all things going well, come home on Sunday, but it just didn't work out like that because they had no bed for me.
I had been told that bed management from the hospital would be in touch with me. When I didn't hear from them I rang them. I was told to ring back the next day, the day before the operation. When I did, I kept being told to ring back later in the day, but there was still no confirmation. I even rang St Gabriel's ward where I was told I would be spending that night prior to the operation, but they didn't have me on the surgery list.
Many phonecalls later, I am now scheduled in for the operation this week. If I don't get a bed I will be fuming.
I know that I am not the only one. There are so many people waiting for beds. It is a disgrace that with all the money we are supposed to have in this country, we don't have basic services and proper staff levels.
I know the hospitals are working flat-out at 100 per cent capacity and I know that people go through far worse, but I have had cancer three times - and with cancer, the big fear is that it is growing inside you while you wait for treatment.
I don't feel very unlucky. I feel blessed because I have a very good husband, good children and good friends. I could ask "why me?" but they say that one in three people will get cancer at some stage in their lives. I am that three and that's it.
• Susan has since had her operation and was discharged from hospital last Sunday
Readers who would like to talk about their own health experience, good or bad, can contact this column at health supplement@irish-times.ie