San Andreas Gta Story
Thomas
When she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer), Andrea was told she only had weeks to live but here she is six years later to share her story to give others hope. Thank you Andrea.
For the next six weeks, I went back and forth to my local GP surgery and was dismissed every time. It was suggested that I had pulled a muscle or I had indigestion. Even as my pain worsened and I explained that painkillers did nothing to ease the pain, I was not referred for any further tests.
The pain was getting unbearable and I went to A & E twice in two weeks. During my second visit, I refused to leave until further investigations were carried out. Finally, a locum doctor agreed to investigate further. I had blood tests, which were clear, but an ultrasound revealed that I had a tumour the size of a pineapple on my liver.
As shocking as it was, I was relieved to know the cause of the pain but my relief was short-lived as I was told the absolutely devastating news that nothing could be done and I only had six weeks to live. Their advice to me was to get my affairs in order.
Thankfully I decided that I needed to speak to a medical team at another hospital who agreed to review my case. They agreed that I was eligible for surgery and I was sent for an urgent operation to remove the tumour, which due to its size and location, would be difficult procedure.
The operation was successful but further tests revealed that the tumour was cancerous. At that stage, post-operative, I was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer), a form of liver cancer that I had never heard of and I soon discovered it was a type of cancer that not many healthcare professionals were aware of either.
The next battle was to get further treatment as there was no clear pathway in place for CCA patients. This is when I discovered the AMMF, a specialist organisation, who were able to put me in touch with a clinical expert and following a consultation, I was delighted to be recommended for a course of chemotherapy for six months.
I used to be scared of heights but when I was in the headspace that I was going to die, it made me view life very differently. After finishing my chemotherapy in November 2016, I climbed the 3 peaks in the depths of winter when they were covered in snow and ice.
Due to Covid restrictions my big 2022 challenge has been delayed to February 2023 when I will be cycling 1,000km with my daughter and son from Bangkok to Phuket in just 9 days. All to raise funds and awareness for cholangiocarcinoma so more people can survive like me.
It was a really long day that day because my colonoscopy was in the morning, and then I had to go through the CT, go through the MRI. Luckily, the doctor fixed it up so that the radiologist would read those scans when I was there.
So I ended up calling one of the girls I worked with, and she actually snuck me into the E.R. One of the doctors who is a good friend also knew, as well as the provider who took care of me. That level of support was really nice.
And then I got called from the oncology office and they said, we want to see you today to go over what your plan is going to look like. And so I ended up going to the oncologist that next day, and, he mapped everything out for me.
So I went to the radiation oncologist later that day and got mapped. So he tattooed my back, my abdomen, mapped where they were going to do the radiation treatments. And then I think the day or two after Christmas, I went and got a port placed for all of my treatment.
I underwent a pretty major surgical procedure. They basically went in and dissected the entire tumor, plus did a few things on one side of the tumor and then the other side to make sure that it gets all taken out.
I had to be in the hospital for a couple days, just to make sure that everything was working, and that was the first surgery. And then I had that ileostomy for about 8 to 10 weeks, and then I had to go in and have it reversed.
So they go in and they just basically put my colon back together without that tumor in it. And that surgery was actually a little bit more intense. It was much more painful, even though it was a shorter surgery, and I was in the hospital for about two nights with that one too.
Aside from that, I would usually have to take a nap. I got a little bit of neuropathy towards the end where my feet were really numb and it felt like my feet were asleep, just chronically asleep. Which was pretty common for this type of chemo.
She contacted all my family, all my friends in Spokane, like friends that I have in Arizona. She just went above and beyond, and she basically had them send her a letter of everything they love about me and basically wishes for me and then send pictures. And she put together this book. And so each page was like a friend who wrote a letter to me. I took that with me to my treatments because it was just like seeing how much love and support I had.
So I actually completed my last semester of nurse practitioner school while I was in chemo. And I used my colorectal cancer treatments as my study time away from my kids. So, keeping myself busy and just continuing to push through, really helped me.
I was just starting my job as a nurse practitioner. Right after I completed treatment. Right before I had my first surgery. They wanted to rescan me and see just how much the tumor had shrunk. So I ended up having another CT and an MRI, and I remember being at my very first day of work at my new job, I was training, and I got the MyChart result.
I have never smoked a cigarette a day in my life; I do not do drugs; I hardly drink alcohol. I work out and I eat relatively healthy. And I still ended up here. And I had genetic testing. I have no genetic risk factors. I have no family history. So it can happen to anyone, it can literally happen to anybody.
I look at it as like I was chosen to go through this fight so I could help bring awareness to other people. We were chosen for a reason, and we need to be strong through this fight. We need to be there for our friends.
Professional book critic, amateur cellist, full-time polymath. Occasional game designer, perpetual game enthusiast. Mom of 3. Arsenal till I die. I like a good story. My other mystery reviews can be found here:
[This is coming from someone who has played it to death, edited mission scripts and made mods using Sanny Builder, poured over the games lore and trivia, played all the mini-games and knows the map inside out, enjoying every last second of what the 4 or so GB of what the PC version has to offer. So I'm not trying to stir sh*t with my post, and if I appear ungrateful, trust me I'm not.]
- Nines and AK's- wE hAvE nO sTrApS: The exact mission before that: Lets blast on this Voodoo with a automatic sub machine gun! Also all the homies have Colt 45's, so no, the Grove DOES have straps. [Fun fact, 'Nine's and AK's' was meant to be before 'Drive Thru', because if you look at the mission threads, 'Nines and AK's' is labelled as 'SWEET2' and Drive Thru as 'SWEET3'.] They do this so often throughout the story as well. 'We have no guns'. 'We have no money'. And meanwhile, I've got more cash than I know what to do with, high end apartments and a frickin minigun.
-Who the f*ck are the 'Temple Drive Ballas'. Its supposed to be Families, not Ballas, yet their tag says the Ballas. I know it was probably in the beta, but its just this general lack of polish that taints the game a bit in my opinion.
- The mission Drive-By. Not a storyline gripe, but if you play close attention, the Drive-By mechanic is really broken. If you test it and look closely, passengers shooting at targets on the opposite side of the vehicle can do no damage, as their shots don't register. Test it for yourself, using the bullethole mod, or something.
- In the mission 'Sweet's Girl', if you skip the cutscene after killing the Seville members, one of the cars will spawn in a lamp post. Again, its just the lack of polish that frustrates the hell out of me, like in the mission High Stakes Lowrider, the people driving the vehicle suddenly change models if you pay attention. Why aren't the Seville and Temple Drive Families given different character models, if I have to fight them in Sweet's Girl.
-The mission Los Sepulcros. Sweet straight up talks about an event that NEVER happened in the story. He briefly mentions that CJ 'laid out' a Balla with Smoke. Also, the dialogue in the mission is disjointed, as there appears to be an entire cut conversation regarding Kane, the prime target. I know that there was some original Doberman mission that involved killing a drug dealer and you start dealing your own product, and that was cut (funnily enough), because it would be inconsistent with the story. Why couldn't they have put this feature in anyway? In my opinion, having missions that make no sense is worse then having an optional mechanic that makes not sense. Or they could have scaled it down, so you can only sell softer drugs like weed. And tbh, surely CJ doing a lot of the things he's able to do in the game is inconsistent to his street code. Hell, he can jump in a cop car and fight crime, even though 'I dOn'T sNiTcH, according to 555 We Tip mission.
-Why are the gang wars made so tedious and why is the design so lazy? It could have made the zones bigger, but you had to tag up the turf, kill the dealers and the rival OG's to claim the turf. That would have been much more fun imo.
- Tenpenny confuses me. One moment he wants GSF gone, so the Ballas can push based unbothered, but in the next moment, he's giving them advice, helping them get weapons and trying to maintain the status-quo.
-Why does Ryder suddenly become the bad guy. I know that he wasn't meant to initially, but surely the developers could have made him die to in 'Green Sabre' at the hands of the Ballas. That would have made a lot more sense, because, surely it must have seemed unreal to the developers that Ryder isn't talked about like AT ALL for the rest of the story, apart from like one cutscene with Caesar.
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