Episode 005: Become Your Own Case Manager
Mar 18, 2018•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
In this episode, I'm talking to Daniel Sencier who shares his perspective in battling prostate cancer, dealing with a broken health system and finding new meaning and a new way of life despite cancer. Here's what you going to find out in this interview:
The hammer-blow of your diagnosis
How to deal with a broken system if you fall through the cracks
Why starting your blog can help you deal with cancer
The importance of gathering the facts about your cancer
Why some folks disappear from your life when they found out about your cancer
Starting a new way of life with cancer
Links
Prostate Cancer - Daniel's Blog
Full Transcript
Joe: Hey, this is Joe and welcome to Simplify Cancer Podcast. Today, you’re going to hear from Daniel, who found a new meaning in life and a new way of life through prostate cancer, which is incredible, so check it out. Daniel, thank you so much for coming and chatting with me. I really appreciate it. Daniel, I really want to start at the beginning and I really want to understand where you’re coming from with prostate cancer. When did it all happen and how did you react when you first found out you had it?
Daniel: I only found out because I was having annual checks because my father had died of prostate cancer, and I knew it ran in families. I just went for an annual PSA check, never expecting it to be that at all, but yes, one of the times I went, and my doctor said, “We need to look at this a bit more.” I wasn’t outside the limits, I was still 3.6, which is one inside the 4 in the UK that you have to breach before they send you to a specialist. He said because it had gone from, well, it had doubled within about a year, so even though it had gone from 1.8 to 3.6, normally, I wouldn’t have been seen, it would have been classes as an okay by a less experienced doctor.
Joe: Yes, how did you react? What was going through your mind?
Daniel: When I was given the news?
Joe: Yes.
Daniel: Well, I skipped into hospital that day because I had just been accepted onto a University degree, a four-year course. I thought, wow, this is going to be amazing. I didn’t even have test results on my mind because that’s all I was thinking of. You know, at the age I was at then, you’ve been back to your doctor and the hospital so many times for your test results, and it’s so boring, isn’t it? They say, “Yes, everything’s fine, Daniel, come back next year.” I just sat down for more of the same. Unfortunately, you have got prostate cancer. You know, when you see in the films, when someone’s given news, and all the background goes blurred and the sound goes off? I thought, god, I’m having a stroke. It was just like that. Everything just went fuzzy and I couldn’t hear his words and his words started to fade out, all I was thinking of was, my god, I’m dying. A child of the 60s, so cancer equals death. There wasn’t any other scenario really. Looking back, I needn’t have been as worried at that stage. At the time, it was pretty shattering.
Joe: Absolutely. I remember that’s what happened to me, as well. The whole world came to a stop and everything was in slow motion and the whole sound was muffled. It was just bizarre. Yes, I remember I was sitting at the urologist’s office and nothing made sense, it just didn’t connect.
Daniel: That’s right. I left that day with a pile of leaflets and the worst thing that day I left with was this 24-hour helpline number. I looked at that number and I was like, “This is like having a connection with god, at least I can ask anybody anything, anytime I want. I took that number home. The first time I rang it, it went onto an answering machine. Voicemail. I thought, wow, so I tried it a few more times. About the fifth time I tried it, there was nothing. At a later date, I found out there wasn’t actually anyone manni...
