It's that time of year again and the Cancer Council is holding their annual Australia's Biggest Morning Tea rally. To commemorate the difficult and often heartbreaking struggles many face due to cancer I decided to share the story of Rachel Warner who has had a tough few years but has come through it with a refreshingly honest and insightful take on life.
At 27, Rachel was thrown into a storm of uncertainty, tests and surgery after a grim discovery was made just after giving birth to her second son.
“I’d been told that it’s quite common for adults to have nodules on the thyroid,” Rachel explained, “but I wasn’t prepared when the specialist rang me and said, ‘Hi Rachel. It’s got to come out.’”
Rachel was prescribed surgery (total removal of the Thyroid) and Radioactive Iodine Treatment and was booked into hospital almost immediately.
At the time of the surgery Rachel was still breastfeeding Campbell and the operation required a four day hospital stay. Rachel’s husband, Justin, spent those days by her bed, there with Campbell, so she could still breastfeed.
The Radioactive Iodine Treatment (RIT) was much more complicated than the surgery but fortunately it was able to be postponed until after Campbell turned one and had been weened.
“I had the RIT in an isolation room at the hospital and no one was allowed in and I wasn’t allowed out of the room for 24 hours,” Rachel said. “It was a very lonely experience.”
“Even after going home I spent ten days alone in my room, not allowed to kiss or hug anyone (especially my boys). It was a frustrating and went very slowly but we had a lot of family and friends from church who brought us meals and we knew we weren’t alone.”
Rachel and Justin explained everything to their eldest son Jake, who was three at the time. He understood that he needed to stay away from his mummy so that the medicine in her body didn’t make him sick but it was tough on baby Campbell who was too young to understand why his mum couldn’t hug him.
There are two types of Thyroid cancer which are fatal. Fortunately, the type Rachel suffered with was curable.
“Surprisingly, there wasn’t a time when I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Rachel reminisces. “It did get hard though. I just wanted to enjoy my new baby but had this hanging over me for the first 15 months of his life.”
Even though life has changed forever for Rachel, she’s confident about the future. “Whether the cancer returns or I’m faced with more mountains to climb, I know I can do it,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever go through something I can’t come out of stronger.”
Rachel is now fully recovered from the cancer but will undergo tests every six months and requires medication everyday for the rest of her life. She still has trouble with low calcium levels and is working with specialists to find a solution.
“I’d been told that it’s quite common for adults to have nodules on the thyroid,” Rachel explained, “but I wasn’t prepared when the specialist rang me and said, ‘Hi Rachel. It’s got to come out.’”
Rachel was prescribed surgery (total removal of the Thyroid) and Radioactive Iodine Treatment and was booked into hospital almost immediately.
At the time of the surgery Rachel was still breastfeeding Campbell and the operation required a four day hospital stay. Rachel’s husband, Justin, spent those days by her bed, there with Campbell, so she could still breastfeed.The Radioactive Iodine Treatment (RIT) was much more complicated than the surgery but fortunately it was able to be postponed until after Campbell turned one and had been weened.
“I had the RIT in an isolation room at the hospital and no one was allowed in and I wasn’t allowed out of the room for 24 hours,” Rachel said. “It was a very lonely experience.”
“Even after going home I spent ten days alone in my room, not allowed to kiss or hug anyone (especially my boys). It was a frustrating and went very slowly but we had a lot of family and friends from church who brought us meals and we knew we weren’t alone.”
Rachel and Justin explained everything to their eldest son Jake, who was three at the time. He understood that he needed to stay away from his mummy so that the medicine in her body didn’t make him sick but it was tough on baby Campbell who was too young to understand why his mum couldn’t hug him.
There are two types of Thyroid cancer which are fatal. Fortunately, the type Rachel suffered with was curable.
“Surprisingly, there wasn’t a time when I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Rachel reminisces. “It did get hard though. I just wanted to enjoy my new baby but had this hanging over me for the first 15 months of his life.”Even though life has changed forever for Rachel, she’s confident about the future. “Whether the cancer returns or I’m faced with more mountains to climb, I know I can do it,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever go through something I can’t come out of stronger.”
Rachel is now fully recovered from the cancer but will undergo tests every six months and requires medication everyday for the rest of her life. She still has trouble with low calcium levels and is working with specialists to find a solution.
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