The Beginning

When I was 11, I started getting headaches and vomiting. I thought it would just go away in time but it didn’t. People just said it’s probably just my hormones because of my age and that I’m a girl. But it got worse so I went to a doctor and he gave me painkillers that didn’t work. When I went to the doctor again, I got a blood test that was fine. I also had to get a C.T scan which was scary because I was alone in a room and it was noisy.

The next morning I had to get up early to go to the hospital. When I got there I went into a room where there was lots of doctors and nurses, I just wanted to go home, I was scared. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything all day because I had to fast then I had to get an MRI scan. I was so frightened and I tried not to cry because they said it would take longer if I moved. After the MRI I was put into the PICU ward (The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit) I was scared, I felt like I didn’t belong there.

I was scared, I felt like I didn’t belong there

Later that day a nice doctor and my mum sat down and told me I had a lump in my brain. I really didn’t understand. The next day they said I had to get an operation on my brain to fit a shunt, I was petrified and confused. They had to give me medication to calm me down when they were about to operate on my brain. I didn’t even know how felt, but then they gave me aesthetic and I was out.

I woke up I feeling terrible, I had just had brain surgery then I heard the doctor talking to my mum about chemotherapy. I was frightened because my Papa had recently died from lung Cancer and he had chemotherapy.

This was my experience in the first 3 days of being diagnosed with cancer. Erin xox