Some news about my friend Cate

I'm sorry for falling behind in my emails and all of your blogs this past week. Please know I am still reading and plan on catching up with you all but it has been a bit of a tough week so it has gotten on top of me for the moment.

You might all recall my friend Cate was hospitalised in severe pain a little while ago. She lives in Sydney with her boyfriend and they were in Melbourne to attend a wedding when she had a sudden onset of abdominal pain and was admitted to hospital over here. For those that don't remember she was eventually diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome which, because it had gone untreated and unnoticed for so long, had gotten very out of hand and was causing such bad pain. When she was discharged and flew back to Sydney she was referred to a specialist for follow up care in Sydney. The specialist agreed that she had IBS but didn't agree that it was the sole cause of that amount of pain. Because the bowel is close to the reproductive area he sent Cate to a specialist in that field to rule out ovarian cysts and things like that.

After seeing the new specialist he was quite confident she had severe endometriosis and Cate went in to hospital again for some surgery to confirm that diagnosis and fix the problem (remove the endo) on Friday November 13. The doctor said he would be unable to stay long after the procedure and that when she woke up in recovery the nurses would tell her the main gyst of the surgery and then he would see her a few days later at a post operative appointment. She woke up and the nurses said that yes she had endometriosis and that it had been removed, but that it had been quite an extensive surgery and she should expect some painful days ahead while she recovered.

The following Tuesday the 17th she saw the specialist for the post op check and he showed her some photos of some funny looking tissue that he had discovered in her uterus while removing the endo. Cate asked him what it was and he said he had never come across it before in 30 years of being in his profession and that he had sent the tissue to pathology. We had a nervous wait until Friday the 20th to get the pathology results.

On Friday afternoon I got a text from Cate that she has got pathology results and the doctor says it is a slow growing cancer. The fact that it is cancerous was bad obviously but the fact it was slow growing seemed positive. Because the doctor was inexperienced with it he said he would prefer to consult with some experts in the area on a plan of action and then speak to her on Monday the 23rd when he would know more.

After receiving the text I have tried calling a few times and have been unsuccessful in getting an answer. I tried again tonight, knowing that she would have spoken to the doctor regarding the prognosis and plan of action for the cancer. No answer again. Then two seconds after I hung up my phone I get another text from Cate again saying she will call in the next few days as she heard from the doctor on Monday and is unable to talk to people at this point in time. She said she just doesn't feel up to it.

I am very worried as I am guessing the fact that she is unable to talk to me, her best friend of 15 years, means that the news has been quite a shock for her. This indicates to me that it was not good news. I really hope she is dealing with things ok emotionally as well as physically. She only moved away to Sydney in August and I wish she was here close by. I'm sure she has lots of support from her boyfriend though as he is a lovely person. Please keep her in your prayers.