Alison's Breast Cancer Diary
Feelings after diagnosis, surgery, and chemo-therapy

11 December - Decision Making
Dear Reena came down from Auckland and stayed the night.  It was so good to have a cancer specialist talk about the different stages and grades of cancer as well as the different treatments available.  She's very supportive and caring.  We spent hours talking about cellular structures and how drugs work on cancer cells.

e-mail to a new client.
Now, I’m sure you have heard of the Christmas rush.  Our firm is in one of these at the moment.  The rush is exacerbated by the fact that I am going into hospital on Wednesday for major surgery – very inconvenient but when I talk with you I will stress to you the importance of having Critical Care /Living insurance and also private medical insurance.  I am ‘on the other side’ now because on Tuesday last week I was advised that I have an aggressive form of cancer.  right out of the blue.  Changed my plans for Christmas completely!

The first thing I did after I came home from talking with the surgeon and having blood tests was to check out the level of insurance protection I had.  I can now say with a passion that it doesn’t matter what level of debt you have, even if you have none, it is absolutely essential that you have trauma insurance.  $200,000 gives peace of mind.  Ideally, you would have enough to pay off debt and a lump sum.  This is in addition to income protection insurance.

Why?  Because when you suffer a serious illness there are many other costs involved some of which may be about lifestyle things you want to do with your family.  I know that right now I can do virtually anything I want to including having a long holiday.  Wigs, new cars, change of house etc will all require money.  The last thing you want at time of serious illness is a money worry.

Consider the income protection insurance quotations attached to this email and then we can discuss Critical Care /Living insurance  and medical insurance. To be without medical insurance in New Zealand is just absurd. It is also important that you have medical insurance that pays for 100% of costs rather than some policies that only pay 80% because some operations and procedures are so expensive that the 20% the insured has to pay becomes prohibitive.

In my situation on Tuesday I was diagnosed after x-rays and ultra sound.  I talked with the surgeon and had blood tests.  The next day I had a biopsy (results of which arrived on Friday and were somewhat depressing).  I have not discussed costs but believe they could be tens of thousands of dollars.  Cost is not an issue or a worry because I am well insured.  The Public Health system may have worked.  It was never a consideration but the surgeon said there is always a rush at this time of year and I could come back in January. 

A very good friend of mine is a pathologist.  She read my biopsy and gave me the news.  My cancer motivated her to have a mammogram and on Thursday this week an 8 cm tumour, Grade I cancer was found in her abdomen.  She is having surgery next week. The operation is very serious and two surgeons will need to 'work on her’.

Why am I telling you this?  To stress the prevalence of ‘serious events’ that can suddenly come along and surprise us.  One of my best friends and me being diagnosed in the same week is uncanny. 

Warm regards, Alison

We talked with the surgeon today and we agreed to have a Mastectomy and Axillary Dissection - full lymph node removal under the left arm.  Given the size and grade of the cancer this seemed to be our best option. The surgeon said based on the size and grade of cancer there was a 70% probability that it would be in the lymph nodes. Strange, our last newsletter (Dec 06) was quoting the terrible statistics of New Zealand  women who have full mastectomies versus lumpectomies (partial mastectomies).  Now it's me having a mastectomy!  We are very pleased to be getting that nasty invader out of my system.  I feel as though I have been invaded.

Useful websites
www.cancerhelp.org.uk 

Alison Renfrew - Profile          Alison Renfrew - Financial Planner of the Year    Alison coping with cancer