ABOUT ME

Hi! My name is Patricia, 37 years old, living in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

 

It's really not my thing to be out in the open. Never thought I would ever start blogging or being a social media girl. But current happenings made me realize that I have an important story to tell. There are probably many others in the same situation, looking for hope and answers. I'm sure that with my website and blog we can help each other.

 

My story

In december 2019 I was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, called Phyllodes tumor. In the Netherlands there are only around 15 cases each year with a malignant Phyllodes tumor. It seemed like surgery was enough to cure from this tumor. I was informed that chances of mets was really low, so I slowly started to recover. I had my check CT scan in the hospital in August 2020. That was the moment that my life stood still. The scan showed mets in my lungs, meaning that the changes of surviving are extremely poor. 

My whole life, my soulmate, my family, a great job....... all my perspective smashed away.

 

Having a rare cancer

As far as I know I'm the first patient in The Netherlands with mets of a Phyllodes tumor. Having a rare cancer means that there haven't been a lot of people to do research on and not enough statistics to build a case study from a medical point of view. It also means that doctors don't have much experience with treatment plans for this specific disease. Therefore a custom made plan is really important. With my blog I want to share knowledge, to prove that working with multidisciplinary hospital teams and with patients is possible. When everyone shares their knowledge, we can reap the benefits. 

 

The fight of my life 

By telling my story, with the whole shebang of errors and benefits, I hope we can help each other.

Besides this I want to share tips about food and other things that helped me during this process. I know, it is not the most important stuff if you want to know more about Phyllodes or rare cancers, but it helps not to focus only on being sick, it keeps the head up high.....Above all, we women rock the world...

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This Photo was taken two weeks after my diagnosis, looking at the second world war remains of the port at Arromanches, a D-Day beach in France. This port provided the key to victory in Europe. Inspired by this and the heroic acts of so many young soldiers I started my fight.