Cancer And Me: A Guest Post By Gem Swallow

Cancer And Me: A Guest Post By Gem Swallow

Update – Sadly Gem has passed away, my sincere condolences to her loved ones.

Fly high beautiful angel.

Before we dive into todays post which is a guest post from the lovely Gem at Quirky Gem’s Podcast, I just want to say a little something.

I am incredibly honoured that Gem has allowed me to share her journey with Cancer so far here on the blog.

Although we hear a lot about raising awareness on the likes of Cervical cancer, Breast cancer and more, we don’t often hear about Throat or Oral cancer.

So, after you read Gems story, there is a little information at the end on signs and symptoms of Throat and Oral cancer.

Cancer and Me: Guest Post By Gem Swallow

Hi, I’m Gem Swallow.

Around 10 months ago I was a normal 30 something, working as a podcaster and multimedia creative, living my life as best as I could.

That’s until one day I noticed a pink patch of skin on my tongue; I was use to getting spots on my tongue around that time of month but this was a patch!

My first thought was “is that a tumour?” but it was late at night and I thought I’ll take a photo of it and just see what it does.

A few days later I contacted someone at my GP practice but was basically fobbed off. I carried on as normal hoping the patch would go down by itself.

I had tried out new sweets (I have chronic fatigue syndrome and the spearmint flavour did help with fatigue). 

The patch got a bit bigger, and within a week started to break down. I assumed my body was fighting an infection of some kind.

It was then I noticed a lymph node on my neck started to get bigger.

Getting Diagnosed

“Great!” I thought my body is fighting whatever that is. As my patch started to break down it started to hurt.

I tried salt water and rubbing an oral gel on it but my mouth was starting to change. I could only eat on one side and I sounded different when I talked.

Then I tried again to get in contact with my GP, this time armed with more photos, and within two weeks of seeing him I was told I had “oral cancer”.

Sharing my Journey

I talk a lot more about this in my podcast Quirky Gems Podcast.

Currently when you read this I will have finished my first round of chemotherapy.

I have learned a couple of things since going through this “journey”, but the one big thing is that there’s not much awareness for “oral and neck cancer”.

So, how can anyone fight something or at least be aware of something when there’s no awareness.

Here’s where I’d like to try and change the narrative.

Cancer is a scary thing from the outside and most people associate it with death (even I did for a time) but as I’ve threatened it, five seconds before having chemotherapy, I looked at my “bump” and said:

“I told you I’m coming for you”

So why not share this journey with me on my twitter: @radi0gem and on my podcast, new episodes every Friday – Anchor.fm/quirky-gems-podcast

Signs and Symptoms of Throat & Oral Cancer

It’s important to know the signs and symptoms of both throat and oral cancer. If you are experiencing any of these of are worried about any changes to your mouth or throat, see your GP.

Signs and symptoms of throat cancer may include:

• A cough
• Ear pain
• A sore throat
• Changes in your voice, such as hoarseness or not speaking clearly
• Difficulty swallowing
• A lump or sore that doesn’t heal
• Weight loss

Read more at NHS – Head and Neck Cancer

Signs and symptoms of oral cancer may include:

• Sore mouth or lip ulcers that do not heal within several weeks
• Mouth pain
• A white or reddish patch on the inside of your mouth
• Ear pain
• Loose teeth
• Unexplained, persistent lumps in the mouth that do not go away
• Difficult or painful swallowing

Read more at NHS – Mouth Cancer Symptoms

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