Robert B - Interview 10

Well, you know, I’m actually quite health conscious, you know? I do a lot of walking and so on, and I decided I’d volunteer to get my cholesterol checked right, and it was a wee bit high and I was sort of back and forth – and I noticed I had just a wee sort of growth under my nipple. Just a small one. When I was at the nurse for my cholesterol. I said to her, “You know do you think I should see the GP about that?” And she sort of had a wee bit of, “I think you should,” she says. So I went to the GP, and he looked at it and he said, “I’m not worried about that at all, but,” he says, “I think your breast’s a wee bit swollen,” he says. “I think I’ll send you to the breast clinic.” I went, “what?” you know really? And to make matters worse, I’m very friendly with [name of friend] in the [hospital]– he’s just retired from the breast clinic. I said, “[name of friend], I have to go to your breast clinic you know.” “Why?,” he says. I said, “Well, the GP said I’ve got a wee swelling.” “Aye,” he says, “I’m sure you’ve nothing to worry about. There’s not many, you know, male breast cancers about,” you know? But he couldn’t have been more wrong you know. So full marks to the GP. And full marks to the health service – they were very good to me. I went from the time I went to the GP and got referred, and my consultation in the outpatient was only about two weeks, and they tested it there and then. And the other thing was, too, it was a Saturday morning I went for this test, and the doctor that was running the test, I knew him as well, you know? And he says, “What are you here for?” And I told him.” Oh, I’m sure you’ve nothing to worry about.” But he actually ran the test, you know? So I’d too many friends at court, I think – so the consultant told me there and then that I had breast cancer.

 

So I was very, very fortunate. If I hadn’t been that I was getting my cholesterol checked, I probably wouldn’t have gone you know to the doctor for it – until it became really, you know, evident you know. So I was really fortunate that way, that they got it very quickly you know.

 

It was a wee sort of growth – almost like a wee wart, that sort of thing.

 

Yes, just under the nipple, below the nipple, just on the skin.

 

It had been there for a wee while, and I thought, I wonder if I should go and see about that, you know? And the fact, I probably wouldn’t have gone just for that, but the fact I was going for something else gave me the opportunity, you know?

 

So the GP, good on him for spotting it, you know?

 

It was actually a good few months I’d been looking at this, you know, and I’m saying, “I wonder if I should be asking about it.” I was just a wee bit concerned about that, and then the fact that I was getting my cholesterol checked, I thought, “Ah, this is a good,” and I said to [my wife] – “Do you think I should let the nurse see that?” And she said, “Yeah”, and she had a look at it and I said, “Do you think I should get the GP to look at that?” And she said, “Yeah, I think so.”

 

No.

Had the surgery, oh aye, that’s right, of course.

 

Yeah, it’s fine – I mean, ok, my nipple’s away and everything, and the consultant said, you know, “you can have cosmetic surgery,” and I went, “at my age? Forget that,” you know?

 

Yeah, I was offered that.

 

Before… When I went initially, you know, they were discussing the surgery and said, you know, “you can have cosmetic surgery.” I says, “…don’t need cosmetic surgery at my age,” you know? If I was a young guy or something, uh uh, but I didn’t worry too much about that. But anyway, they made a very neat job of it.

 

Well it’s, I mean, I’ve got enough scars as well, you know? But the fact that the age I am, it doesn’t bother me at all. The thing is I feel ok – that’s the main thing, you know?

Well, I had to change my routine because I was going every day, you know, and I found that a bit of a discipline, you know, coz I’m quite busy. Aye, and I found that a bit of a discipline, and I didn’t change my routine any more than I had to, quite frankly, you know?

No it wasn’t, actually – it was a bit of a nuisance. Sometimes they had to change it, and then one day they phoned up in the morning and say their machine had broken down and I couldn’t come that day – and then they phoned up at lunch time and said, “Oh, you can come in the afternoon, they’ve fixed it.” Then there was another time that I wanted a day off to go to a funeral. Oh no they were quite, “Oh, I see. Oh alright then.” But they were quite, you know? I said we would add on the other end, you know, but they were a wee bit kinda iffy about that, you know?

No. You’ve got your twenty treatments and that’s it, you know? They’re quite, you’ve got to go every day. And then you met the same people coz they were going too.

 

Yes, aye.

 

Yes I did. And also the radiologists or the girls that did the machine, they were good as well. It’s very precise – you probably know it’s very precise – they put it up in the computer and get you in the exact position and so on. The first time I was really surprised, you know, how short it was – of course, it’s so powerful. But you’re in it for such a short time. But I got used to it alright you know.

 

Ah yes, but most of the time, not unduly. Not unduly – their appointments worked pretty well.

Well, the way they do things nowadays, in the health service, you know? They don’t tell you. They suggest, you know? And you’ve got to make the decision, you know, which I find a bit strange – but that’s the way things are done nowadays, you know? They said, “Well you know we recommend that you have radiotherapy, but you know, do you want it?” In fact, the chap, it was quite a young oncologist – he said, “If you take no treatment at all, you have a sixty four percent chance of living for ten years,” you know? “But if you have radiotherapy, then that’s increased greatly, you know?” So he told me that. But you know, I had to make the choice, you know? Yes or no, in other words.

 

I felt as if he should be telling me, not just asking me, he should be telling me, you know? That’s just the way it is now, and I find that a wee bit of getting used to. That and the other, the way that they tell you, give you so much information now. That can be quite overwhelming, like when I went for my consultation to the [name of hospital], you know, they were hitting me with all sorts of information you know and trying to take it all in – that’s why they say that you should take someone with you, so that if you don’t pick it up, they will, you know?

I actually think I felt I got too much information, you know? I would have preferred to have just got on with it and didn’t tell me quite so much, but you’ve got to know everything, you know? And my neighbour [name of neighbour], too, he’s the same – you know, they almost blind you with science. I think they tell you too much, quite frankly. Maybe that’s just coz I’m a male. I mean, I was quite happy to have my anaesthetic and just go into that theatre and not know anything about it until it was all over, you know? But no, they tell you everything and I would have been quite happy with less information, quite frankly – just get on with it, make me better, you know? That’s how I felt. That’s a male thing, maybe. It could be, you know? 

Yeah, that’s right. If I hadn’t had that, I might have wanted some support – but no, I was well supported. It was quite – it was actually almost overwhelmed by, you know, the care that I had from everybody. I really was. It was quite a sobering experience, really, you know? And as I say, it made me think of my mortality you know – but no, I was fine, and people were so good to me, so good to me. I like to think, myself, that I was positive about it, you know? I didn’t sort of, I never felt sorry for myself – no. But you know, it was certainly was a sobering experience, but people were very good to me they really were. The hospital and just my family and my friends in the church and everything – yeah, they were very good to me, and that helped tremendously – of course it did, of course it did.

Oh yes, there’s no question about it – and the church that, you know, has been a big factor in caring for us as a family. Not just… Caring for [name of wife] too, they’ve been tremendous.

 

Uh huh. So I mean that has been the major thing, no question about it. Coz, you know, if you’re getting older, a bit, and you don’t have faith in the future, you know, then things aren’t quite so good, you know? If you’re just living for this life and you’re getting on a bit, you know, I wouldn’t like to be like that. No.

Just when I met them – I didn’t make a big deal of it, you know?

 

Probably quite, you know, the fact that it was – not the fact it was cancer, the fact it was breast cancer which surprised most of them, yeah. Again, coz it was a male – that surprised most, that surprised them all, probably.

 

Quite quiet.

 

Not saying too much about it, you know?

 

No.

 

Didn’t say too much about it.

 

I think probably weren’t quite sure what to say because it was breast cancer, you know? And men don’t get breast cancer. They probably didn’t know what to say. But that didn’t mean to say that they weren’t supportive – probably just didn’t know what to say.