Five years of Golgotha, but the 42-year-old does not give up… She fights with her nails and teeth to win for the second time, the most important battle, this one for her own life!
Motivation and support in her effort are her two children and her own people who are close to her to give her courage in the difficult moments when she loses it!
Irene was diagnosed at the age of 38 with breast cancer.
"I palpated myself every month as part of prevention and one night I caught it. Two months ago I had nothing. The next day I went and had an examination, I was referred to a doctor in Agios Savvas, I was admitted and then a total mastectomy. "After the surgery, after the breast was removed and the biopsy was performed on the lymph node, which was clean, rehabilitation surgeries and chemotherapy began."
He did 7 chemotherapy treatments as part of prevention. The following year he had a prophylactic mastectomy on the other breast, while in the third year, a third surgery to insert the silicones.
"Today, five years after the annual examination, we saw that the lymph nodes on the armpit side where the breast had the problem, had a problem and we removed them because they had exactly the same cancer. I did 8 chemotherapies again and now I do radiation ".
There were moments of utter sadness, such as when I bowed my head to see that my breast was missing. "It's what we say you lose the earth under your feet, absolute fear, I have not been so afraid again, we think we have been afraid until it comes."
Her first thought was that her two children would be orphaned. "I was in a state of panic. They all came like a torrent. I did not have time to think of something. For when the surgery was done, for the pain to go away, for the chemotherapy to start, it was all like a rolling snowball. There were moments of utter sadness, such as when I bowed my head to see that my breast was missing. I had not stooped for many days. They bathed me, I did not look down. When I saw it I was in a lot of pain, just like when my hair fell out. I overcame it when I started the rehabilitation process ".
"There are two little creatures, I have to fight"
Motivating her children. "I really had no choice. There are two little creatures and I have to fight. My daughter was 8 then and my son was 6 ".
Her big mistake was, as she says, that she did not discuss it with them. "Clearly we had said that I was seriously ill, that I would take strong drugs and my hair would fall out. But we never mentioned the word cancer because then the death of a famous actor from TV was playing cancer and did not want to draw the parallel. It turned out to be a huge mistake, because my daughter, after about a year, had various serious problems at school ".
The child psychologist encouraged her to talk to her little daughter. "I told her, my little girl, I want to tell you openly what I had. He made a strong denial. He told me I do not want to listen and tell me, I know very well what is happening. I was sick, I stuck to you and you suffered what you suffered ".
Indeed, a few days before she entered the operating room, she was ill because she had been stuck since she was little. The child felt guilty for a whole year. He felt she was to blame. "It was tragic, I was shocked. Now, for the second time, we talked directly. We said, guys mom made a relapse, we know the script. My daughter was crying and telling me you will go through the same things again and you will be in a lot of pain. I replied that we know that the end will be good. It doesn't matter if I didn't feel that way. "
"What I am experiencing is the scariest thing I have ever experienced. "Then the worst feeling was like someone stepped inside me and snatched my right to dream of tomorrow."
Irene asked for psychological help for the second time. The first just finished them chemotherapy, while up to that point, paradoxically, as he mentions it was very good psychologically.
"I felt like someone came inside me and took away my right to dream of tomorrow"
"As soon as I finished her chemotherapy, I fell terribly. My friends encouraged me and I went to the Jump of Life. There they explained to me that this is normal, because as long as you fight, you do not think about what is happening to you completely. So it comes to you later like a cuff. Now, with what I learned, I started (visits to a psychologist) because I can not fight it alone. At the same time, for the first time, I spoke with a social worker, who asked me about my lifestyle. If I burden myself with the responsibilities of others. If I have a lot of stress. I thought I was very well in my life and finally with psychotherapy I found out that I had all the above ".
At that time, Irini did not work and did housework, but she was "forced" because her husband was addicted to electronic games. But all this ended after he learned that his wife was ill. "It was as if he had eaten his slap."
But he was not the only one who was terrified and Irene, who by now had learned to be strong, saw herself bending at the sound of cancer! As he characteristically says in newsbeast.gr, what he is experiencing is the scariest thing he has ever experienced. "I felt as if someone had entered me and taken away my right to dream of tomorrow."
He did not dare to think of anything for the future. As she went to think of her children, she thought she would not be there. "It's horrible not to be able to dream. I can not describe it. I had never felt it. We are drowning in things we should not. The first time I got cancer, we changed gears, however you do not take the lesson completely. The years passed, we felt strong and that we are on our feet, however we repeated some very big mistakes ".
The odyssey of cancer patients in order to procure their medicines in Greece, the President and founding member of the Association of Cancer Patients, Volunteers, Friends and Doctors of Athens KEFI, Grammatoglou Zoi, describes us in relief.
"Right now there is a huge shortage of medicines in the hospital. Not that there are no drugs, but hospital pharmacies do not have the money to buy them, while companies do not credit them. This is a problem we had all these years when September came, the budget in hospitals was running out. Last year they had succeeded and gave some extra money earlier and there was not so much shortage. At the moment, the big problem is located in Attiko, Laiko and Larissa. I believe more or less most hospitals will have a problem because the budget is ending ", says Ms. Grammatoglou.
Regarding the measure that has been announced so that cancer patients receive the medicines from the pharmacies in their neighborhood: "We welcome the measure as a patient. Of course we want the medicines to come to the pharmacies in our neighborhood. The state must find a way. "We want better access to our medicines, but this must be regulated by the government and the pharmacists," he explained.
Finally, referring to the long wait for radiotherapy: "The issue arose why the old equipment was replaced. No new units have been installed and with the understaffing that the hospitals have, they cannot operate from morning till night like the private ones to cover the patients in the treatments they need. It is definitely not six months, it is up to three ".
I consider the situation in the pharmacies of EOPPY unacceptable, it is not possible to wait in this situation for 4 hours in line.
On the other hand, Irini reports to Newsbeast.gr that there was a delay for the rehabilitation surgeries. "In Agios Savvas, people transcend themselves in order to cope with what is happening. Unfortunately, plastic surgeries clearly do not have the same priority, so it takes me three years to recover. It was soul-destroying. "The surgery to remove the tumor was immediate."
"In 2014, when I was doing the chemotherapy, I was taking a medicine that I would continue for a year." There was a procedural issue and he had to go get the medicine from his pharmacy EOPPY. "It is tragic to be in this situation and wait 4 hours in line to be served. I consider the situation in the pharmacies of EOPPY unacceptable. You have to be armed with too much patience to deal with it. " As for the hospital, it had a problem with the plastic wing. "I was leaving the room to go to a shared toilet with pipes, the drains with the bags, with unbearable pain and to go to the toilet with a broken glass. It had a stench, a tail, anyone could enter. Unacceptable. "
She advises people suffering from cancer. "To change our priorities. I believe that in any way we need to remove stress from our lives. I have convinced myself that I clearly have a gene mutation, but it is triggered by long-term stress. I hope I took my lesson and not repeat it a third time "
Calm in the first steps and a second opinion is necessary, the 42-year-old emphasizes. "Always listen to the doctors and do not open the Internet. "Everyone has their own course of action."