Ronny, United Kingdom
In July 2010, I was happily working, getting stuff done, making things work - that was basically my job specification! I had sufficient autonomy and freedom and labelled myself a fixer. But then abnormal blood tests changed things. After a few weeks of more tests, I realised I couldn't fix this problem. I even went on holiday in the middle of all the tests not thinking anything was wrong.
While I was on that holiday, I had no idea that as I was relaxing on the beach sipping Piña coladas, I had a 3cm mass in my mesentery of my small intestine, long chains of lymph node metastases, multiple liver metastases, lymph nodes growing in my left armpit, and scary fibrosis growing in my retroperitoneal cavity fusing my aorta and my inferior vena cava (IVC). My body was slowly dying. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t know, it was a great holiday.
One thing led to another and on 26 July 2010, I met with an Oncologist who dispensed the news that I had metastatic and incurable Neuroendocrine Cancer; and that without treatment, I would probably die because of it (…. I did ask!). Over the next few years, by 2014 following several procedures including 3 surgeries and ongoing monthly treatment for the rest of my life, I went through so many emotions, but I chose to hide those by working normally, getting stuff done, making things work, sorting out problems - that was my comfort zone along with family life. It became obvious that I needed to change priorities and try to fix myself or at least patch up what could be patched up. I needed to own the cancer, before it owned me.
I started talking to other people with the same disease, learning as I went along. I started to offer help to cancer organisations, I started to think I could live with what I had and then let others know my story. I also started making time for pleasure and more holidays.
Today, I'm still learning by maintaining a multi-million hit blog about my cancer (3 x awards). Together with several social media outlets which are designed to help others in my situation, I used my previous skillsets. I'm making things work as best as they can and I'm getting things done! However, I now leave the fixing to others!