@marklewismd@StanfordCancer That just seems like such a lot of work (& side effects) to kill a thousand cells. But as long as my cancer doesn't recur, again, the 11 cycles of 5-fu have the same value proposition as everything else in my treatment history: "it beats being dead."
When in doubt, scope it out!! It's not JUST that this story is both common and familiar, but that colonoscopy, or even sigmoidoscopy, is just really not so difficult compared to the disease they can prevent!!
I just learned that friend’s Stage 3B colon cancer was missed for at least 10 years (he had symptoms) bc docs thought he was too young to have cancer (43 at time of diagnosis) & told him it was hemorrhoids.
His MDs at Sloane said he wouldn’t have needed radical, life-altering surgery & it wouldn’t have metastasized had it been removed when he first saw GI doc for it.
I hate these stories and hear them too often. Get second opinions, get third opinions, push doctors to do more when things don’t feel right or make sense. Don’t worry about offending them. Not advocating for yourself (or loved ones) could have devastating outcomes.
My friend is in his 3rd year of surveillance and there are concerns that require more frequent scans than hoped. It didn’t have to be this way.
I’ve learned a lot helping my family get my dad into hospice but one of the biggest realizations I’ve had is that our country is facing a geriatric financial time bomb. It is absolutely insane how much elder care costs. For my family if we were to have someone 24/7 it’s $450k a year
@Jaylee2076 My donc suggested melatonin for the steroid all nighter.... But Not those little pills that "regular people" use-- he told me to take 10mg, and once I went up to that I started getting some sleep
@NiuSanford@KrishanJethwa@nbn426@adapthyun Well, this sure gives me something to discuss with my oncologist in our appointment next week! (Not for me since I've already been resected, but I'm planning for my surveillance scan to be negative and our appt to therefore be a simple conversation) What makes pMMR "lower risk"?
@ThanksCancer Every time I had a new tumor or procedure, I did a bunch of reading and information gathering, and then I declared myself to have an effective Master's degree in that field. Highly-educated-carcinomie is my MO
I didn't know when I passed from " if it's too loud you're too old" to "if it's too loud you're not old enough to have started losing your hearing," but apparently that's where I am..... Dancing to punk rock in running shoes and earplugs.
@jeanquan@Kaplan4Oakland@OaklandBallers Just how is this going to benefit West Oakland? I'm not exactly skeptical, but I live there and I'm still trying to figure outit if this will take be good for us