Please support me to get through my battle with high grade bone cancer.
Auckland
Hi! My name's Colm, I'm 24 years old, I was born in the UK and moved to Auckland, New Zealand in 2011.
I was set to move over to Brisbane, Australia to be with my partner Isabelle on 16th October 2016, unfortunately a few weeks before this I fell down the stairs and was hospitalized. It was after this accident, in the subsequent visits, that we discovered an irregularity in my blood tests.
We investigated further with a variety of scans, and on 19th October 2016 I was diagnosed with bone cancer (High Grade Osteosarcoma). This has come as a complete shock, I have been healthy and fit for all of my life and never had deal with any major illness with myself or any immediate family member.
The tumour is a single large mass on the left half of my pelvis, which is why I didn't notice it growing. It is cancerous and aggressive. It is very likely to spread, even though it hasn't as of yet (fingers crossed!).
The tumour is located in my left pelvis/hip which is compressing a large amount of nerves going down my left leg - including the sciatic nerve. Due to this I have been dealing with chronic pain non-stop, I have been unable to sit at a desk, walk further than 10-15m or drive a car without excruciating pain attacks. As a consequence I can now no longer work or have an income. Being young and (I thought) healthy, I don't have any form of income protection to fall back on.
I am going through my rainy day fund at the moment to pay my weekly bills, and my family are helping me where they can but eventually this will not be enough to support me - the recovery process will take years and I haven't even factored in post-recovery costs/physio which I'm sure will be required as I've already suffered significant nerve damage. I have also found out I will be paralysed from my left knee down for the rest of my life no matter what now, unless the chemotherapy fails in which case I will lose my entire left leg and hip.
I've created this GiveALittle page in the hope that I can get support with my ongoing medical costs, living costs, and to take as much pressure off my family financially, as they support me emotionally.
I've never asked for anything like this before, and to be honest I don't feel completely comfortable doing it - however I am faced with the reality that my life has just changed drastically and I need all the help I can get. Even the smallest amount of donation would mean the world to me and my family.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I am staying strong and positive. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for me.
Life After Hospital So Far 16 May 2017
Hi all,
I am really, really, really sorry about such a delay in my update on GiveALittle. I have had a few small ones on my Facebook but no proper ones on Give. My excuse for the delay is mainly that I have been completely tied up with getting used to living at home with a missing limb and sickness along with my family experiencing it too. I also have mostly daily visits from district nurses who change my dressing and assist me with other medical needs which can take up a lot of time alongside regular medical appointments I must attend.
It's been a strange experience coming home from the hospital, in a way I'm glad I waited this long to provide this update as I've had enough time to properly experience it.
Leading up to me going home from the hospital it was ALL I wanted, however being truthful once I had been home for a few days I actually wished I was back in the hospital. I was disappointed on returning home and I have been told this is very common for people in my position. I guess I hadn't fully thought it out but I was expecting things just to be better in every way but they weren't obviously. Don't get me wrong, being around my family all the time was the better part and in some ways I was more comfy...but in others I wasn't. You don't realise the support systems and things you have in place at the hospital that you won't have when you get home - even as small a fact as in the hospital I had a temperature controlled room and at home I did not. Lots of things like this contributed towards a feeling of disappointment when returning home due to a drop in comfort when I was already in extreme discomfort and pain, but honestly I feel the biggest contributor was me somehow thinking I would be better when I was in fact not. I was still missing a leg, I still required a ton of medical assistance and dressings, I still could not effectively go to the toilet in any manner, and being in constant high levels of pain and discomfort.
Since then, which was about 6-8 weeks ago, I have become much happier at home as I've become more adjusted at not having nurses all the time at a whim, and being more independent. Don't get me wrong, my family have not left my side and have been amazing for which I'll always be grateful as they have had to help me with some horrible things however it's not the same as having nurses 24/7 from a press of a button and all my drugs managed for me, and a doctor on hand anytime. You can see the differences.
So essentially I've gotten much happier at home since becoming more independent and coming to terms with my wound and the situation I'm in and will be for the rest of my life. It was one thing thinking about it at the hospital and I thought I was used to not having a limb already, but it was different once I actually started 'living' when I got home. It's still hard at times when I go someplace I haven't been since before I lost my leg and it's hard to get about, or fit under a table with my wheelchair, or even get in the entrance. It dawns on me even further how much I've changed. To counter balance the negative element I feel with that, I do know that things will change a whole lot once I get more better and also I begin using crutches / a prosthetic instead of wheelchair.
Anyways, onto the details of my cancer and my wounds. Everything is going well on both fronts. My wounds are pretty much all healed on a basic level except for one small hole which still needs time to fill out. Also my graft donor site wound is still taking time to heal, these can take a while I'm told though. In regards to my cancer I recently had a CT scan and it was clear, showing no cancerous items in my body which is fantastic. I just need to start chemo, however I cannot until my wounds are fully healed (not so much the graft site but my actual wound on my side/back). So we are trying to speed up my healing of the main wound as fast as possible but it's taking it's time.
Thanks everybody, I apologise again if any of you were waiting for an update or worried.
I love you all.
- Colm
P.S. Chelsea won the f***ing league! Yesssssssss!!!! We are the champions! Bloody brilliant, FA Cup here we come and Champions League see you soon!
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