My name is Linda. I am 60 years old and am married with 2 grown-up children. Following a routine Hysterectomy in 2002, I was informed that the uterine fibroid removed during my operation contained a rare malignant tumour: a Uterine Leiomyosarcoma. Thankfully, the tumour was completely removed during the operation. Six weeks of radiotherapy followed my surgery and I then began on the road to recovery.
Unfortunately, in 2007, I was informed that my cancer had returned. This time it had returned near to my kidney. I had been telling my consultant for several months that I didn’t feel well, so by the time the tumour was found it had grown very large. I underwent further surgery in August 2007. Due to the location of the tumour, my kidney had died, therefore
necessitating removal of it during the surgery.
In August 2008, I read a newspaper article about Alan Bowley and how he had received CyberKnife treatment for an inoperable tumour. Immediately, I contacted Alan and Janet Bowley, who directed me to the CyberKnife support website. The doctor on the American website advised me to contact CyberKnife centres in Europe. I emailed several CyberKnife centres, of which Madrid was the first to reply. Janet had forwarded onto me the contact details of another lady who had had a positive experience at the CyberKnife centre in Madrid, so I felt optimistic about the treatment Spain would hopefully be able to offer me.
However, despite the change in my treatment plan, I continued with the proposed CyberKnife treatment. My actual CyberKnife sessions, for some reason, lasted between 6-8 hours. This was very difficult as I had to lie still for so long without being able to eat or drink. The one main negative part of my care that I received in Spain was the language barrier. The hospital staff that took care of me during my treatment did not speak English, so they were unable to tell me why my treatment sessions were taking so long.
In hindsight, I can say that I did find my CyberKnife treatment both difficult and stressful. I didn’t feel 100% physically, due to my previous chemotherapy treatment before I arrived in Spain, which didn’t help with how I coped with the treatment. Although the staff at the CyberKnife clinic in Spain were very helpful and friendly, I found the language barrier very difficult; things did seem to get lost in translation!
My consultant knew nothing about CyberKnife before my treatment; I think he has read up on it since!