Jean - Interview 13

Age at interview: 61

Age at diagnosis: 59

Brief Outline: Jean was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer after a routine mammogram, aged 59. She had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and is taking tamoxifen for five years.

Background: Jean is a widowed home carer for the elderly with two grown up children Ethnic background / nationality' White British

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Jean responded to our request for volunteers who had DCIS found through a routine mammogram. Jean had invasive breast cancer found through a routine mammogram. Like many women, she had heard about breast cancer but not DCIS, and was unaware that there was a difference between the two.

 

After a routine mammogram in 2007, Jean was recalled and, following tests, diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and is taking tamoxifen for five years.

 

Jean said that losing her hair during chemotherapy was very difficult for her. She also had some problems with swelling in her arm after surgery, which was drained on several occasions.

 

Jean took eleven months off work because, as well as her treatment, she also had to come to terms with the death of her husband. She had a lot of support from family and friends and said she was very happy with the care she received from doctors and nurses. Jean said she met lots of other people with cancer when she was going for radiotherapy, and advised women with breast cancer to take one day at a time.

 

Jean was interviewed for the Healthtalkonline website in 2008.

Results should be given to women as quickly as possible because they can fear the worst at this time.

I think the main thing is for doctors and that to realise people want answers quick. I mean, you read some of the, you hear a lot of people that’s got, I was lucky, mine was all dealt with very fast. But people that have to wait three weeks and four weeks for results, that’s, to me that’s worse, that’s really the bad thing because there’s nothing worse than your mind works overtime, doesn’t it?

 

Yeah. So when you had your tests done and had the results on the same day, didn’t you?

 

Yes, they said that you would get the result on the day but they can’t give you the full result. And, as I say, it was for the biopsy and we had to go away.

Jean had six weeks of radiotherapy, five days a week, and met some lovely people at the hospital.

I went on to radiotherapy in November. So that was six weeks. Five days a week [laughs].

 

Five days a week?

 

Aha.

 

Travelling to the …

 

To [hospital name], which is about half an hour away. Cancer Care, they came picked you up every day and it was a driver in a car which was very, very good and, you know, everybody as I say could not be nicer. And even all the treatment and everything, you met, I met a lot of lovely people all through it, you know. That was the thing and you’re on the same sort boat you know. So it was easy to deal with.