Read Online The Cancer Survivors Club by Chris Geiger - Free Book Online
Authors: Chris Geiger
Tags: Survival Stories, Health, Inspirational, Courage, cancer, uplifting, Coping with illness, true life
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interviewed by local media, which was great fun. This helped raise the profile and awareness of Cancer Research locally. I then became secretary of the local committee and began to raise more money, along with all our other dedicated committee of volunteers. I now attend many functions for Cancer Research and have had several articles written about me and my miracle son. I continue to help at various fundraising events, from abseiling and sponsored walks to the âRace for Lifeâ.
Iâve also been interviewed for television programmes, magazines and newspapers. Iâve been privileged to meet many famous people and spent a rather pleasant afternoon in Cardiff with the Welsh rugby team.
As time went by, Tom continued to grow fast. He went through the crawling, walking and talking stages and soon it was time for him to start school. He loves life on the farm and itâs a wrench for him to leave his cows and calves behind. Luckily, the local school is very rural and Tom spent much of his early days in school watching the farmers and tractors in the surrounding fields. He could only identify his colours by tractor makes. For Tom, red meant Massey Ferguson, blue was Ford, yellow was JCB and green was, of course, John Deere, his favourite colour at the time.
Just as life was getting back to some sort of normality, I began to feel really unwell again. I was experiencing severe nausea, twenty-four-hour sickness and extreme tiredness. I was still taking various medications, such as pain relief, anti-nausea tablets and of course Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). I made an appointment with the Oncology Department and felt very scared attending on my own. Once again, various tests were carried out, including a pregnancy test. I was asked to sit in a corridor while the staff busied themselves to get all the results together. The next thing I knew, I was having an ultrasound and being told I was once again pregnant. Pregnant again, I couldnât be. I was soon to find out my guardian angels had a worse sense of humour than myself, when the consultant came back into the room and said I was having twins. More tests, more hospital visits and more hospital chicken dinners. Once again, I had to have the amino test, this time though it had to be done twice as no one could tell from the ultrasound whether the babies were identical twins in one sac or non-identical in two sacs. Yet again we had another agonizing wait, four weeks this time. Keith and I decided not to say anything to Tom just in case things didnât work out.
Four weeks passed and we were once again sitting in the consultantâs waiting room. Good news: all was well with the tests and I was carrying identical twin boys, who we named Jack and Harry. My family stopped me calling one Richard (Tom, Dick and Harry)! All our boys are named after past family members. Tom was told he was getting twin brothers. All through my pregnancy, we referred to the boys as âthe twinsâ. This pregnancy wasnât without concern; as I was expecting identical twins, the doctors were worried that I could develop twin-to-twin infusion, which means one twin takes all the nutrients, starving the other twin until it dies. Every week, I was scanned as I continued to get bigger and bigger. I got to know so many of the hospital staff. I was on first-name terms with everyone from the porters and cleaners to the nurses and doctors. I have so much respect for the hard work they carry out, for which they get little financial reward.
Once again, I was told I needed to have a Caesarean section and asked if Iâd like to choose a date. I chose 14 March, as this was the only date that I didnât have any other birthdays on. Jack was born first, with a reluctant Harry following a minute later. Harry made such an awful noise as they pulled him out. He was not letting go of the umbilical cord, and it had to be prised out of his hand. They were perfect and both a healthy birth
Iâve also been interviewed for television programmes, magazines and newspapers. Iâve been privileged to meet many famous people and spent a rather pleasant afternoon in Cardiff with the Welsh rugby team.
As time went by, Tom continued to grow fast. He went through the crawling, walking and talking stages and soon it was time for him to start school. He loves life on the farm and itâs a wrench for him to leave his cows and calves behind. Luckily, the local school is very rural and Tom spent much of his early days in school watching the farmers and tractors in the surrounding fields. He could only identify his colours by tractor makes. For Tom, red meant Massey Ferguson, blue was Ford, yellow was JCB and green was, of course, John Deere, his favourite colour at the time.
Just as life was getting back to some sort of normality, I began to feel really unwell again. I was experiencing severe nausea, twenty-four-hour sickness and extreme tiredness. I was still taking various medications, such as pain relief, anti-nausea tablets and of course Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). I made an appointment with the Oncology Department and felt very scared attending on my own. Once again, various tests were carried out, including a pregnancy test. I was asked to sit in a corridor while the staff busied themselves to get all the results together. The next thing I knew, I was having an ultrasound and being told I was once again pregnant. Pregnant again, I couldnât be. I was soon to find out my guardian angels had a worse sense of humour than myself, when the consultant came back into the room and said I was having twins. More tests, more hospital visits and more hospital chicken dinners. Once again, I had to have the amino test, this time though it had to be done twice as no one could tell from the ultrasound whether the babies were identical twins in one sac or non-identical in two sacs. Yet again we had another agonizing wait, four weeks this time. Keith and I decided not to say anything to Tom just in case things didnât work out.
Four weeks passed and we were once again sitting in the consultantâs waiting room. Good news: all was well with the tests and I was carrying identical twin boys, who we named Jack and Harry. My family stopped me calling one Richard (Tom, Dick and Harry)! All our boys are named after past family members. Tom was told he was getting twin brothers. All through my pregnancy, we referred to the boys as âthe twinsâ. This pregnancy wasnât without concern; as I was expecting identical twins, the doctors were worried that I could develop twin-to-twin infusion, which means one twin takes all the nutrients, starving the other twin until it dies. Every week, I was scanned as I continued to get bigger and bigger. I got to know so many of the hospital staff. I was on first-name terms with everyone from the porters and cleaners to the nurses and doctors. I have so much respect for the hard work they carry out, for which they get little financial reward.
Once again, I was told I needed to have a Caesarean section and asked if Iâd like to choose a date. I chose 14 March, as this was the only date that I didnât have any other birthdays on. Jack was born first, with a reluctant Harry following a minute later. Harry made such an awful noise as they pulled him out. He was not letting go of the umbilical cord, and it had to be prised out of his hand. They were perfect and both a healthy birth
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