Cancer SUCKS!

Hello everyone. Some of you "know" me online, some have barely heard of me. I thought I would share my feelings on this horrendous topic.

Cancer first "touched" my life when I was 20. My mother, then 42 year's old, was diagnosed with uterine cancer. They removed it... in the process also removing a very tiny cervical cancer. She was lucky. No chemo or treatments of any type. Fast-Forward 15 years. She got a pre-cancerous condition in her salivary glad. Also removed with no need for further treatment. Fast forward 6 months... she collapses with a ruptured colon. This time she was not so lucky: colon cancer. From the time her surgery healed she's been on chemotherapy. She's almost done, and if she's lucky and it got all the cancer, she should live another twenty or thirty years.

On Monday of this week my father went in for a biopsy: Skin cancer on his chest, back, and face. We're still waiting for the details.

On Tuesday of this week, I went in to speak with a surgeon. "Abnormal Architecture" was discovered when I had my first ever mammogram. Further mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI confirmed. A star-shaped mass that glowed when fed radioactive dye. Probably cancer. Decision: They're going to go in and take out the entire "architecturally challenged" part of me. Hopefully, they'll get it all. Hopefully it won't be anything but a shadow on the mammogram and nothing in reality. But if not, it should be "early".

Some of the things that this will effect in my life: EVERYTHING. My entire life. Just thinking about it and becoming educated enough to ask the right questions has changed my whole outlook. It's a nasty disease and I'm praying it will pass me by. But even if I don't have it, I'll always think about it because I'm losing a part of me, just due to the scare!

Anyway, I thought I would share. Thanks for listening. If I'm grumpy in the near future, that's why!

Sasheena, I'm so sorry to hear about that. My Aunt just got over her treatment for cancer. My mother is going threw Lymes Disease Treatment starting tomorrow (which she has been on a low grade treatment for the past few months, which now she's going full force). She was recommended to have a wheel chair in hand when she can't do anything.
So about the cancer, I'm hoping it isn't what you think it is. Just hope it's scar tissue, or something like a cist that isn't cancer.
Please keep us updated on your well being. I like happy Endings

The more we talk about subjects of this nature, the better for everyone. It is good for you, Sasheena, to express how you feel about it; as well as giving you an outlet for the stress and tension involved in waiting for the biopsy to be checked at the time of surgery, it is good for everyone else to listen. You may save lives by this thread; by reading this thread and thinking about the implications, women who have put off mammograms and Pap smears may go get them; relatively young men may begin inspecting themselves for testicular cancer; and people of either gender may decide in their mid 50s to have the unpopular colonoscopy.

Cancer does suck. It needs to be aggressively treated. A parade of doctors, insurance companies, endless paperwork descends upon your heretofor quiet life.

What do do if you, or anyone, is diagnosed with cancer:

Study on the internet. A LOT. Knowing what options you have, what treatments are available, how long it should take tests to get back, which tests must be done- do NOT count on others to have all the answers for you, know ALL the answers before you walk into that doctor's office. Have a conference with your doctor. Question anything you do not understand.
Do not let the doctor leave if you do not understand an answer.

Talk honestly to your friends, acquaintances and clergy. Let them know what is going on, and what to expect.

Do NOT let an insurance company deny you a treatment that you and your doctor feel is appropriate. Almost every state has an insurance complaint board. Talk to the insurance company customer service, and if you are not satisfied call the insurance board. NEVER let anyone tell you that...there will be a meeting in 6 weeks.....you don't HAVE six weeks just to wait for a meeting.

Confer with the hospital if you will require surgery or a hospital stay. Many people are afraid of the costs and overwhelmed, not wanting to discuss their financial status. This is a mistake. If you have insurance, sometimes a hospital will waive or let you pay out your copayment. They won't if you don't ask. If you have no insurance, all major hospitals have a social service department whose job it is to help find funding so that you can have all the treatment you need. Let them work in your behalf. Be assertive about it.

Be easy on yourself. Let friends help with stuff. It's time to call in the favors, that's what friends are for.

Sorry, I know this was a little long.
Sasheena, you deserve the very best.

Lucille

Thank you Lucille, it is VERY important that the message get out.

I've spent a lot of time at the breastcancer.org website and have spent hours and hours learning clinical and anecdotal information about this disease I may have.

The thing that is great about breast cancer: When caught early, nearly 100% of those diagnosed are still around to tell the tale five years later. The awful thing about breast cancer: when it goes too long without treatment it usually ends up spreading to other parts of the body: brain, liver, bones, lungs. only 14% of women who have reached this stage of cancer will live 5 years after diagnosis.

I had a baseline mammogram... recommended at 35 years of age, I had mine at 36. Yearly mammograms are recommended after the age of 40. If you're any older than 35 and haven't had one, I would recommend getting one. Approximately 12% of women will get breast cancer at some point in their lives. Annual mammograms reduce the risk of breast cancer getting a foothold in your life and future.

Once your treated, you have a new life. Going threw a lot of the treatment makes you rethink a lot of your steps threw your life. Live life to the fullest.
After all the trouble, you get more smarter over what your mistakes where. It's like, you have given another chance to live.
Good luck girlie girl. I wish you the best of luck!

Take Care of yourself

sorry, I wasn't allowed to edit my last post. Don't forget, there are now a new persentage of women at the ages of 20 and up who also get breast cancer. but not a lot, but a few. maybe about 2 out of 10 women will have breast cancer at the age of 20 and up. With modern medican, there has been a huge amount of women who have made it threw the treatments and have lived a full life. Can you imagine medicine in the next 20 years? They may have a much better way to treat cancer and a much faster way to cure it. Plus the amount of funds that are going to treatments and searching for the cure, we have a better chance of having the cure much sooner. But we have made such a huge dent on the world of medicine, we have improved so much in the past 20 years.

Sasheena,

Again, I want to say I'm sorry you are going through this. Keep your spirits up. I know, easy for you to say buddy.

My experience with cancer is limited to when my mother had it. She had lung cancer that metastasized to her brain.

I am a firm believer that positive thinking and support help greatly in situations like this. If there is a day when you'd rather scream at the singing bird than listen to it sing, shoot on over here to Fauna and I'm sure there will be one of us here to talk to or scream at.

I'm so sorry that you have to go through this. I agree that knowledge, determination, and a positive outlook are essential for successful treatment. Many people, after hearing a devastating diagnosis, are mentally paralyzed with fear. They don't talk about it, learn about it, or question their doctors.

Thanks for posting your experience. I guess I *will* be making that appointment that I've been putting off....

Thanks again for the support. I suppose now i have to be grateful for all the "rest of" my health.

I do want to share one thing that I consider a positive result (or perhaps several positive results) of this experience:

I have come to appreciate more my family, my coworkers, even my students. I appreciate more all of the beauty all around me. I feel like I've become a better teacher, and even a better mom for my stepdaughter.

Aside from that I lit a fire underneath a friend of mine who kept saying he would help build me a new mouse rack. So now I have that new mouse rack, healthier mice, and less work for me. Now I just got to get it on an autowaterer, and the mice will raise themselves.

They say the hardest part of this particular kind of cancer isn't the tests, having the cancer, or even the surgeries... it's the waiting for the results that is the worst part. So I'm in the middle of it right now. By the end of January I will know. Which means that things will certainly be easier for me once February gets here.

I'll use this thread as a good place to post updates as to what I learn from the doctors. Just a warning (especially to the guys out there)... I might get graphic... so if you're squeamish, well watch out!

Thanks for listening.

Been there lady...the waiting sucks. My solution was to actually get angry and go do some things I had been putting off...worked for me (the mouse rack bit seemed familiar) and as you said, take a good hard look at all that you have, every morning, and say "thanks".

The other thing I did was to get into donating time and money to charities...no matter how bad I thought I was off, it seemed there was always someone else worse...helping others through grief can be quite cathartic.

Anyway, I am sending good vibes from over here !!! Keep us posted! (and there is not much for me to gross out on, my wife is a mortician...the stories...yucccchhhhh.)

greg