Tumour in Emmerdale

[sammason]

In the UK soap opera I watch, Emmerdale, a story is going on about a brain tumour. As so often, they're not telling us what will happen, and I usually prefer not to know in advance. If you don't want to know what happened a few weeks ago, don't click this link.I've no personal experience, unlike the actor whose character (Brenda) has the tumour.

Comments

[cariadwen]

I don't watch soaps unless they are comedies, this is because to many of them trigger stuff I can't cope with.

I can't say I have ever experienced a brain tumour myself but I do have quite a lot of friends and family who have had them.

Twenty two years ago my husband suddenly collapsed. He had previously been treated for a heart murmour and given a pace maker. He was on life support for 3 days before they asked us if we would give permission to switch it off. Oddly enough we had talked about this possibility before we actually married. And I knew he hated the idea of being kept alive artifically, so we relieved when we were finally allowed to make that decision.

We assumed it was his heart that was the problem. The autopsy said it was not his heart but a massive untreated brain tumour. It was 10 days after his 50th birthday.

A year later my new best friend Azzi (not his real name) told me that he to had a brain tumour. That it was his second and he had all the proper treatment last time, kemo and radiotherapy and it went into remission. Now it was back with a vengence and he had about 2 years left to live. I don't know if that was the prognosis of his doctor or his experience as a radiotherapist that came to that conclusion. He was 27.

At about the same time another friend Sion, from my home town was also told he had a brain tumour. They operated and found it was so large and wrapped around his spinal cord. The risk was to great so they sewed him up again. The prognosis was not good. He was 24.

Azzi hated his treatment the last time so decided that he wanted to enjoy what time he had left. He refused treatment, gave up worked and partied hard. Plus took up meditation to calm himself. He went into remission but it left him with severe epilepsy. He's still alive today and has hit his 50th birthday.

Sion never asked any questions. Many doctors don't like giving a bad prognosis, so take the view if you don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer. His mother a nurse did all the asking, but he refused to believe what she had to say, because he said she was well known for making a fuss. He refused to believe there was anything wrong with him and later decided the operation he had, had solved the problem. He also went into remission and is left with severe epilepsy. He later developed Enceffylitis (sp?) He survived that without much damage.

Mean while two aquaintences died of brain tumours. They were in their 30, but also had AIDS.

Lastly the leader of my Druid grove told us 10 years ago, that he also had a brain tumour. The doctors said with new keyhole technology they could go through his left ear and get it that way. There was a danger that he could be completely deaf in that ear or that he could lose all movement of the side of his face. Not a good prospect when you are a university lecturer. He had the operation. It was successful, he is a little deaf in one ear but it was a small price to pay. He is still with us and he's 62.

I don't think there is one way of dealing with it. Eveybody has to deal with it their own way.

[deborahw37]

I'm so sorry for the loss of your husband and the loss of your friends,

I'm really pleased about Sion though!

I absolutely agree with you that everyone deals in their own way , there is no right way or wrong way.

[cariadwen]

Thank you.

[sammason]

Most of these stories are awful. I'm sorry that you and yours have faced these horrors.

Going back to the Emmerdale story: brain tumour is being portrayed as an acute problem, life-threatening in the immediate future, easily fixed by an operation. The operation is described as 'sawing into the skull' with no mention of keyhole surgery and no mention of possible relapse into more cancer.

Thank you for telling us more reality. Soap operas do need to keep their storylines quite simple but I'm now thinking that this particular one has been oversimplified.

The story moved on after I started this thread. Brenda now has noticeable symptoms - she's become forgetful, she had an 'episode' which looked (from my inexpert viewpoint) to be an absence seizure but which was described in the script as 'nodding off'.

We're still getting a story all about whether or not the decisions are hers, and hers alone. I'm not convinced by that, to tell the truth. I find that people's lives are intertwined, so what somebody like Brenda does will affect her daughter, grand-daughter, boyfriend and so on. Brenda is a 'people person' who I'd expect to be more concerned about her family than we're seeing in the story. In last night's episode of the soap, she and her boyfriend discussed her tumour in graphic terms while his young children listened.

[cariadwen]

I think it depends on where the tumour is, as to how they can operate. I hardly think that Sion's tumour could have been accessed through his ear, like that of my Grove leader. All operations hold a risk even if it's one of the more ordinary ones like a hernia. It all depends on the surrounding factors.

I'm disturbed to hear that the characters discussed it in front of the children. I'm not saying the children shouldn't know about it but a detailed discussion should I believe be between adults.

[sammason]

I thought so too. We did see the kids looking round as they listened. It wasn't the usual way for this soap, in which kids are routinely sent 'upstairs to play on your new computer game' when the adults want to talk about adult matters. So you never know, we might get a dramatic scene with one of the kids asking Brenda to have her op.