Climb the summits, even the most difficult, Caroline Gilles knows how to do.
Since she reached it by bike, she has even made this motto her own: “You did the Ventoux, you are capable of anything!
But a few days ago, a call made his legs wobble, his body stiffened.
“I know how ready you were, I can measure your pain,” her doctor repeated, sorry.
Scheduled for October 20, the preventive removal of her right breast was postponed, with no new date set.
"The more the curves of the epidemic go up, the more my operation goes away", she is aware.
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At 39, the Lyonnaise is one of the waves of patients whose interventions have been deprogrammed.
Of those whom the Covid-19 deprives of an additional chance in a course of care.
She, in this case, has a high risk of developing new cancer.
Avoid a new tumor
Caroline is the carrier of a mutation, known as BRCA, which predisposes her to the disease and has already claimed several victims in her family.
No sooner had she found herself carrying the gene than the disease inserted itself into her chest.
In June 2019, he was diagnosed with aggressive cancer.
Removal of the left breast, chemo then radiotherapy.
"I went to attack each session, surrounded by my army: my friends and my family," she says.
But just after winning stage 1, Caroline, human resources manager on sick leave, had to think about the second.
Mastectomy of her other breast to prevent a new tumor from lodging there.
“I live with a time bomb.
It is only removing everything that can preserve me, ”she sums up.
It costs her a lot: part of her privacy, her motherhood plan, but it keeps her upright.
So, with her athletic soul, she prepared herself physically and psychologically for the operation on October 20.
“I was listening to the news, the deprogramming announcements, my fingers crossed, but three days before my hospitalization, I received the call: it was canceled.
Caroline the optimist says it without bitterness, she does not want the Lyon hospital but an "unjust system" and its side effects.
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In addition to the threat of new cancer, she had to have her chemo box removed, still under her skin.
“I don't want to be judgmental.
I too am young and good alive, but people without masks, I have seen many.
In my building, I even had to call the police because of illegal student parties.
While some people deny the reality of the virus, others cannot be properly treated.
"
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This is also why she confides, to make people understand the impact of each of our actions on others.
For the new confinement, Caroline has gone green.
In February, she will be 40 years old.
She will still need to have her ovaries removed and her breast rebuilt.
Her greatest gift, to be able to begin her journey as quickly as possible, to offer herself a new start in life, a new Ventoux.
Hell for Mohamed
Before seeing his doctor this Monday morning, Mohamed did not drink coffee, too stressed out of the consequences on his bladder.
And for good reason, his treatment no longer acts on the adenoma of his prostate, an abnormal lump that he has been treating for several months.
At the Paris hospital Cochin, he had an appointment to talk about the rest.
"You have to have an operation, but the surgeon told me, very annoyed: impossible for him to program me, the beds are reserved for the Covid", explains Mohamed, 67 years old.
Without perspective, the retired Parisian trader has bad blood: “My bladder is not emptying completely, I risk getting infections, or even a blockage.
"
The hyperactive grandfather feels "like a caged lion".
“I need to urinate every 30 minutes, I think about it all the time.
As soon as he restrains himself, like the nights when he cannot find the courage to constantly get up, the reverse happens.
“In this case my whole bladder is swollen but nothing comes out.
It's really crippling ”.
Mohamed is divided, he understands - "Of course, the priority to Covid" - and other pathologies more serious than his.
But nonetheless, he points out: “The sick remain on the sidelines.
"
This is also the case for Michel, a 62-year-old retiree from Château-Thierry (Aisne) whose operation scheduled for Monday for the same reason was canceled.
“I take it with philosophy, I know the enormous work of nurses with the virus.
But, it's annoying, the prostate is a special area, I was psychologically ready.
This health crisis, we are all undergoing it.
"
