thanks. She's been thru the wringer before, but it's an entirely different battle facing the big C in your mid-70's than it is in your early-50's. It's a different, more-deadly battlefield this time too
I once experieced a woman crying over sports on TV. It was my mom in 1992 on Blazer Cable, Bulls vs Blazers in the NBA championship. Thanks to her my love of the team. Thanks to cancer she went to heaven in 2022.
Cancer is a real mother fucker to say the least and go ahead and fuck right off!!! To those who have beaten it I applaud you and to those who have lost meaningful friends and family I offer my condolences. It’s had a effect on my life too often and don’t wish it on anyone.
I didn’t think I would see somebody actually starting an argument in this thread. Seems like a weird place to take it.
Hearing all your stories of dealing with this, really puts shit in perspective. Wishing you and your families all the best.
Agreed Fuck Cancer That disease is an asshole. Took my mom. It can fuck itself. Kick it's ass Happy New Year
First, I think you deserve a promotion to "Asterisk Man," with a big asterisk plastered on your helmet. An asterisk denotes a mere footnote which, while too unimportant to be above the bottom of the page, is still written in a formal non-mediocre style. So congratulations. June 2023 my ex-wife got some fluid in her lungs and became short of breath. She phoned the doctor. He said, and I paraphrase, "Sounds like you have Stage 5 cancer. Better phone the hospital and have it checked before you croak." I embellished that a little, but it seems strange to me that he diagnosed her on the phone that she must have cancer. But she doesn't care. She goes in after a day or two, and they say, yep, Stage 5 is when it's spread to other organs from where it started. You have Stage 5 Ovarian cancer, spread to the lungs. She isn't worried because, she exercises at the gym, so she may be invincible. They put a tube into her side to drain liquid at home and say to make an appointment in Seattle, an hour and a half away on the freeway if you avoid rush hour. Seattle makes an appointment for about 3 weeks in the future. She keeps draining liquid draining from other organs into the lungs, then goes to the appointment. Seattle says yep, you qualify. You have Stage 5 cancer. We'll see you in a month for your first chemo. She tells me that she exercises, so probably no problem. I complain about the long waits between appointments. She doesn't care. Fast forward. The chemo, or gym according to her, works. But after chemo, a $100,000/year drug starts. Who will pay? Due to Democratic legislation, Medicare has a program for this situation which goes beyond its normal pharmacy limits. She will only have to pay $8000/year. It will last a year or two, then since your body can't take any more, they declare you in remission and stop the pill. I research it and name it the hundred-thousand-dollar pill. I ask her now and then, how's the hundred-thousand-dollar pill going? A Seattle nurse says she's their trophy and they brag about her to other patients. I guess everything's fine. I saw her and said, you went back to bangs. (She tried bangs for a few months when I lived with her 14 years.) She said, huh? Then said, oh, that's one of my wigs. This makes me wonder about you, Asterisk. I hope there are programs for you to decrease drug costs. Texas likes lean government spending. Economizing on pharmaceutical spending must add to the stress. I just hope that the financial side of cancer hasn't been a problem all these years. I won't ask the details. You'll just answer, "Asterisk is a girl's name." Keep on keepin' on.
The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! heartfelt message from me to you and yours' sir
in 2004, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her oncologist could not accurately stage the cancer because in the early 90's, she had a lumpectomy on the same breast. That surgery removed most of the lymph nodes on that side of her body to determine if the cancer could have spread. Fortunately, the lab results from the lymph node biopsies was negative. But without those lymph nodes, the oncologist, thru the lab, could not gauge her stage of cancer in 2004. But the assumption was at least stage 3, but might have been stage 4. it was a rather large tumor now, for decades, the fairly standard protocol for a series of chemotherapy treatments was a treatment every three weeks. Keep in mind that chemotherapy is, for the most part, a fancy word for poison. Anyway, the protocol was every 3 weeks because not only do the chemicals hammer your cancer, they also hammer your blood by wiping out your red and white blood cells. So, the three week interlude between poisonings is meant to give your body time to recover your blood counts such that you are strong enough to go thru another poisoning without dying. It's the old "the cure is worse than the disease' conundrum. But the big problem was that at the same time the blood cells were rebuilding, so were the cancer cells. Two steps forward, two steps back can be a death sentence in cancer treatment However, the University of Washington has a 1st class oncology research school. And they were able to develop two drugs that were capable of rebuilding your red and white blood cells to normal levels in 3-5 days. Thus, they developed a new protocol: dose-dense it was a simple math equation. If a single dose of chemotherapy kills 50% of the cancer cells but the cancer cells only recover marginally in that first critical week, being able to apply another batch of chemotherapy a week later, instead of 3 weeks later, wins the battle, at least in theory on a mathematical level. Those two drugs maintain an acceptable level of blood counts allowing a blast of chemo every week instead of every 3 weeks that's what my wife faced. First, a double mastectomy to eliminate any cancer-prone breast tissue, and the installation of a port to allow for easy chemo injections. That was pretty impactful surgery but they started he chemo treatments about a week after the surgery. Chemo every week...for 40 consecutive weeks. Even with the drugs, that's an extremely aggressive protocol. And she was wiped out after 30 weeks. After the 40 weeks of chemo, she was scheduled to undergo 10 weeks of a drug like chemo called Herceptin. She had 2 injection of that but her temperature kept spiking and falling and they couldn't get in under control so they discontinued the Herceptin for a period. And in that period new data came out questioning the effectiveness of herceptin. So they discarded that protocol bottom line was she went into remission for 20 years. That was an excellent outcome and I'd encourage anybody who knows a woman who gets diagnosed with breast cancer to ask about dose-dense protocol. unfortunately, during a laryngoscopy Monday, the doctor discovered a mass in my wife's esophagus he suspects is malignant. And esophageal cancer is a different, more deadly battlefield, than breast cancer. So, we are waiting for the results of biopsies of the tissue samples taken during the procedure. But chances are pretty high it will be cancer. My wife is brave for sure. Probably braver than I would be. She has already decided that she will only go a certain distance in treatment. She'll have surgery, if it's a viable option. Maybe a little radiation; maybe some mild chemo...but not both. And depending on the prognosis, maybe none of the above. That 'treatment worse than the disease' has robbed too many people of some decent weeks and months at the end of life. Somebody in their 40's or 50's has good reasons to utilize every option. Somebody in the mid-to-late 70's doesn't have the same reasons. so, that's where she's at. I feel kind of helpless but I don't really matter right now. I just have to be what she needs me to be
I've lost many family members to cancer, and have quite a few relatives surviving after. Thoughts are with any and all of you dealing with it
