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Figured I'd post an update. It makes me feel better to write this down. Chemo day three: So apparently I'm really really allergic to etoposide, one of the main components of my BEP regime. It causes hives and swelling in fantastic fashion. Onc suspects its related to my psoriasis. The hives start at my psoriasis hot spots, and then spread. He said, with auto-immune issues, its anyone's guess. We found a solution that worked yesterday. If we spread the etoposide over four hours instead of two, with constant re-dosing of bennadryl and steroids, all I get is all over rash and itching. No hives, no dangerous swelling. It sucks, but I can live with it. I've also found out that I suck at chess right now. I My roommate comes with me to my treatments. I usually beat him at chess. He's been wiping the floor with me.
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| # ? Jan 16, 2013 14:02 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 02:17 |
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Grayly Squirrel posted:Figured I'd post an update. It makes me feel better to write this down. Cisplatin knocked the poo poo out of me, so to deal with all those allergic reactions on top of it, you have my sympathies. My hardest days were like the 5th-7th days after each Cisplatin dose. I'm following your progress and sending all my positive vibes your way. Stay strong.
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| # ? Jan 16, 2013 14:57 |
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Grayly Squirrel posted:Figured I'd post an update. It makes me feel better to write this down. Since being re-diagnosed I have become terrible at Words with Friends. There have been several occasions where they have had to slow down my injection rates for chemo, since dumping into my body at normal speed causes uncomfortable side effects.
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| # ? Jan 16, 2013 17:20 |
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I just got this text from my uncle. "I talked with the Dr. after they took her to the treatment room today. Best case 2 years if the cancer responds well to the chemo. After the first round of treatments, the cancer will start to grow again after about 6 months. Maintenance treatments do not effect outcomes. The recurring growth will not respond as well to a second round of treatment. If the cancer doesn't respond well to this first round, he said we will be talking months and weeks." gently caress the world.
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| # ? Jan 16, 2013 17:38 |
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Matt got the all-clear for the 6 month follow-up. There is some lung scarring but currently 0 cancer so I am over the moon happy. The doctor (a new one every time because they all want to talk to him) said that they may make a case study about him. Grayly Squirrel posted:Onc suspects its related to my psoriasis. Matt also has psoriasis, luckily he wasn't having any funky reactions to chemo. BEP knocked it right out so he didn't have to deal with itching and that crap. But now its back and seems to have spread :/ Sending positive thoughts. Chickalicious posted:gently caress the world. Positive thoughts to you too 
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| # ? Jan 16, 2013 17:54 |
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So my Dad had a bit of a cough last November after his flu jab, it started causing him back pain after picking up a cold and about 3 weeks ago finally had an X-ray after being given cough medicine when it hadn't cleared after a month. The X-ray picked up some shadows on his lung so he's had two brachioscopy's to get samples. Everyone in the family is dancing around saying its cancer in case that makes it more real or something, but my mum has finally said the hospital has given us a list of treatment options and implied that the test is really more to confirm what stage it is. So now its waiting for results. This is going to be a horrible week.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2013 22:28 |
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Chickalicious posted:gently caress the world. gently caress cancer. I am so very sorry. [e: The only time I really noticed any cognitive changes were with severe anemia. I went from "man, there sure are a lot of words on this page" immediately before a blood transfusion to "I am reading an interesting book on British WWII politics!" immediately after.] Rose Wreck fucked around with this message at Jan 18, 2013 around 16:27 |
| # ? Jan 18, 2013 16:23 |
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Chickalicious posted:gently caress the world. gently caress CANCER! Waiting is the hardest part. No matter what you find out, you will have imagined 1000 times worse. Praying for the best outcome. *my Husband, let’s call him Reggie cause that’s not his real name Our wait seems like it’s taken forever. I guess I’m counting all the time he didn’t want to discuss it. The first appointment at Duke was with the Head of the Urology Department who’s a surgeon. He scheduled another PSA test, a bone scan, a prostascint scan, and the meeting with the Oncologist. That’s what we’ve been doing the past 2 weeks or so. After all the testing was complete, we finally meet met with the Oncologist a couple days ago. His PSA was still high but both the bone and prostascint scan were clear! I’ve never been so happy in all my life. Neither scan showed the current mass but it has been detected by numerous Doctors. Resident informs us that he’ll need 7.5 weeks of radiation, daily, M-F. Cool beans, we can do that. Got it covered. Then the Oncologist comes in and tells us he’s part of a study since the early 90’s where they combined both hormone and radiation therapy. This has increased the patient’s life span by 10-15 years, they can’t say for sure because the people are still alive. They are currently writing up the study paperwork to have it submitted. Once it is, this will be the norm for recurrent prostate cancer patients. It involves one shot to stop the hormones for 4-6 months. After the shot is given, wait 8 weeks to be given/start radiation therapy. The Oncologist then asked when Reggie wanted to start. Reggie asked how long did it take to get the shot, etc and was told he could do it right now. A stick in the butt and it would hurt. I was looking at Reggie, giving him that DO IT NOW look. Reggie told him he’d have to think about it. Seems he’s thinking about all the bad things hormone therapy does and I don’t care because it’s one freaking shot that last 4-6 months, not a life time. It appears he is going to both the hormone and radiation, he’s just trying to fit it into his schedule. HELLO! Is it just me or isn’t killing cancer the most important thing in your life? Who cares if you’re going to miss a couple conference and not make that money? That you will miss the Vegas show and I can’t come with you? drat it’s hard being on this side of the coin. I guess there were never any choices in my therapy. It was more of a do this and live a few more years or don’t & die PDQ . Amazingly, I’ve been very patient and supportive. I’ve let him know that it’s his body & decision. I’ll support whatever he choices to do. So that’s where we are. He’s pretty sure he’s going to do both, start in a couple weeks, so that he can do the Vegas show but miss the one after. He’ll be getting radiation all through turkey hunting season and he might not be able to hunt which he’s not happy about. And I’m hanging trying not to thinking about until he tells me when he’s doing what. UGH!!!! I hope I’m not a stressed the gently caress out as he was going to see the oncologist as when I get my MRI. If I am just start giving me ativan days ahead so I won’t be. Now going back to the ignoring everything & anything concerning cancer until he gives me an answer.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2013 21:21 |
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Cancer (and any serious disease) demands alot of the patient. Sometimes you give up one thing after the other, and dealing with a recurrence can be a back breaker. You think "Christos, what the gently caress else do I have to deal with?" Maybe he's feeling a little buried by this new round of treatment he has to go through and needs some time to absorb it. Sometimes the only power a patient has is to say "NO" to something, even if it's something he needs.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2013 21:38 |
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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'd like some input from internet strangers. I've followed this thread for a long time and you guys seem nice and pretty well-informed. Both my mum and my maternal grandmother died of cancer. Both had breast cancer, and in my mum's case she had chemo and a mastectomy, was thought to be clear and then had secondaries a few years later that killed her. Obligatory 'gently caress cancer!' here. I've been batting the idea around in my head for a while now about looking into genetic counselling. I'm rather conflicted, though - if I have the BRCA gene, then it still isn't a certainty that I'll get breast cancer, and at the moment I work on the assumption that it's very likely that I will get it given my family history. So I don't know what good knowing would really do, but on the other hand I figure that if I can find out then I may as well. I'm really not sure. Does anyone have thoughts?
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 13:14 |
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Bollock Monkey posted:I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'd like some input from internet strangers. I've followed this thread for a long time and you guys seem nice and pretty well-informed. I don't know about doing a genetic session for it, but with a family history like that... It would probably be no different from doing regular checkups. So for safety's sake, do both. Go in for the session, because informed is better than not. And if it comes back false, still get tested specifically on a yearly basis at least- There's no such thing as finding out too early. If the test comes back positive, it's basically just confirming something you are already near sure of.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 14:47 |
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Ariamaki posted:I don't know about doing a genetic session for it, but with a family history like that... It would probably be no different from doing regular checkups. I'm in the UK so I don't really get to just pick and choose when to get tested for things. I'm not sure how it works, but I did wonder if having the genetic counselling would mean that I was perhaps offered mammograms early? I need to find out more about that side of things, I guess.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 15:24 |
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Bollock Monkey posted:I'm really not sure. Does anyone have thoughts? Get it. If you don't have kids now and aren't sure if you want them or not, it will be good to know if you're a carrier. If you do have kids but don't have the gene, they'll know they won't need to be tested. Also what other people said.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 17:40 |
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Bollock Monkey posted:I'm in the UK so I don't really get to just pick and choose when to get tested for things. I'm not sure how it works, but I did wonder if having the genetic counselling would mean that I was perhaps offered mammograms early? I need to find out more about that side of things, I guess. There's a 50/50 chance of inheriting the BRCA mutations if your mother had one of them, but it could be that two generations of women were just unlucky enough to get breast cancer. BRCA mutations don't just increase the risk of breast cancer; they also increase the risk of ovarian, colon and pancreatic cancer. Do these cancers run in your family, including male relatives (except ovarian, obviously!)? If the test is positive, then yes, you will probably be offered check-ups earlier. You will also probably find it harder to be approved for things like mortgages and life insurance, because it will be assumed you'll be unable to met future financial obligations. I'm not saying "don't do it", and all of this will be covered in-depth by the genetic counsellor, but there's more to it than a simple blood test. The Macmillan Cancer Support website has useful info.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 18:52 |
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On the topic of breast cancer, my great uncle recently died of it. I'm a 23 year old woman with no other history of breast cancer. Is there any genetic risk in my case? I mean I always assumed I was lucky enough to not have a family history but I'd not really considered the implications of my great uncle having it until just now.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2013 20:09 |
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Tibor posted:On the topic of breast cancer, my great uncle recently died of it. I'm a 23 year old woman with no other history of breast cancer. Is there any genetic risk in my case? I mean I always assumed I was lucky enough to not have a family history but I'd not really considered the implications of my great uncle having it until just now. I'm sorry about your great-uncle.  IANAD but it sounds unlikely that there's a genetic risk to you with just one relative having breast cancer. There's usually a much, much stronger family trait of cancer, particularly amongst relatively young adults. Even if he was a carrier, you're fairly genetically distant (your last shared relative would be your great-grandparent, right?). If there're no other cases in your immediate family, then it's really unlikely you've got a genetic risk.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2013 00:16 |
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Bollock Monkey posted:Both my mum and my maternal grandmother died of cancer. Both had breast cancer, and in my mum's case she had chemo and a mastectomy, was thought to be clear and then had secondaries a few years later that killed her. Obligatory 'gently caress cancer!' here. Tibor posted:On the topic of breast cancer, my great uncle recently died of it. I'm a 23 year old woman with no other history of breast cancer. Is there any genetic risk in my case? I mean I always assumed I was lucky enough to not have a family history but I'd not really considered the implications of my great uncle having it until just now. As others have mentioned, make sure you get genetic counselling before getting tested. If you're found to have a cancer causing mutation you're legally obliged to divulge that information to any insurance companies so it's quite a double edged sword. At the least, you could take out health/life insurance before the testing and then cancel it if you're not found to have a high risk, but I admittedly don't really know that much about this course of action. But yeah, don't just go order a DNA test off the internet.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2013 00:49 |
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I'm an oncology resident, just wanted to chime in and say thanks for giving me some insight into the patient/family aspects of what we do.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2013 07:31 |
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Lady Demelza posted:I'm sorry about your great-uncle. Nah it was my grandmother's brother. Thanks for the reassurance though, I'll just keep it in the back of my mind for now and hope nobody else in my family (or the world, for that matter) gets it.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2013 10:15 |
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xarg posted:How old were they? If they were under 50 then it's probably worth getting genetic counselling (and possibly genetic testing afterwards). If they were both reasonably old then the risk is much lower that it was due to the BRCA mutation. With or without the mutation, depending on their age at diagnosis this may or may not put you into the "high risk" category, which would involve earlier and more regular screening with mammograms (and ultrasound when <35). Lady Demelza posted:There's a 50/50 chance of inheriting the BRCA mutations if your mother had one of them, but it could be that two generations of women were just unlucky enough to get breast cancer. BRCA mutations don't just increase the risk of breast cancer; they also increase the risk of ovarian, colon and pancreatic cancer. Do these cancers run in your family, including male relatives (except ovarian, obviously!)?
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| # ? Jan 20, 2013 14:57 |
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My mom is starting radiation tomorrow for her breast cancer. I am hoping that she doesn't get too sick from her treatments, but she has one every day this week. Just wanted to pop in and tell everyone dealing with cancer in any way to stay strong. Lady Demelza posted:There's a 50/50 chance of inheriting the BRCA mutations if your mother had one of them, but it could be that two generations of women were just unlucky enough to get breast cancer. BRCA mutations don't just increase the risk of breast cancer; they also increase the risk of ovarian, colon and pancreatic cancer. Do these cancers run in your family, including male relatives (except ovarian, obviously!)? I can understand life insurance, but banks are allowed to access your health records in the UK?
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| # ? Jan 21, 2013 00:05 |
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keyvin posted:My mom is starting radiation tomorrow for her breast cancer. I am hoping that she doesn't get too sick from her treatments, but she has one every day this week. Unfortunately she's got to go through it all again starting with surgery this week, they found another very small tumour on the other side at her 1 year mammogram just before Christmas. Surgery on Wednesday...
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| # ? Jan 21, 2013 00:58 |
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Bollock Monkey posted:My mum was in her 30s and I think my nanna was in her late fifties at the time of diagnosis, and I don't think there are any other cancers that have cropped up multiple times. The insurance/mortgage stuff is definitely food for thought. I'm only 22 so hadn't even considered that side of things. That alone is enough for me to be a lot less keen on the idea. I don't want to gently caress my future over something that I don't have much control over!
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| # ? Jan 21, 2013 07:50 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 02:17 |
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New Thread Time! All new posts should be posted here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3529607
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| # ? Jan 22, 2013 03:11 |
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