The Cancer Club

[WØTKX]

I kept it pretty quiet, but on 12/08/10, I was diagnosed with oral cancer. With Albi's becoming an SK from cancer and others here dealing wiith it, I decided to "let it out of the bag". The staff here knew all along, as well as a select few, especially suddenseer.

Pretty bad news after almost getting killed on my motorcycle six months earlier, and rehabbing my ass off.

Noticed a lump in my neck when shaving. It had metasized from the very back of my tongue, this was not noticable by me at all. Or the dentist. This stuff does NOT show up on any bloodtests, either. It was pretty frightening, and very dangerous.

I have excellent health insurance, and took a very agressive treatment option, based on the fact that otherwise, I am in very good health. A combination of five chemo's followed with 35 X-Ray treatments. The neck tumor shrank to nothing very quickly with the chemo, and the radiation cooked the crap out of both tumor sites.

Right near the end of the radiation treatments (last April), I had a bad pulmonary embolism that almost did me in. Put me in the hospital for three weeks. My oxygen level was less than 60% when I went in... a huge clot formed right between my heart and lungs. They injected me with some serious roto-rooter, and it dissolved without any further scares. This was a known, but uncommon side effect of the chemo. I started walking the corridors with an oxygen bottle ASAP, so I could get the HELL out of there.

While I did have risk factors from bad habits, I had quit drinking for almost three years before this, and had quit smoking cigarettes in the very late 80's. I did drink quite a bit (3 or so) every night for quite a while... but the number one risk factor? The damned HPV virus. It causes about 50% of the oral cancers in men these days. Yes, it's an STD, and I'm pretty sure I know the infection "vector". Sigh.

Get vaccinated if you have not been exposed.

I got the latest scan results last week. No sign of cancer anywhere. :dance:

[KB3LAZ]

I kept it pretty quiet, but on 12/08/10, I was diagnosed with oral cancer. With Albi's becoming an SK from cancer and others here dealing wiith it, I decided to "let it out of the bag". The staff here knew all along, as well as a select few, especially suddenseer.

Pretty bad news after almost getting killed on my motorcycle six months earlier, and rehabbing my ass off.

Noticed a lump in my neck when shaving. It had metasized from the very back of my tongue, this was not noticable by me at all. Or the dentist. This stuff does NOT show up on any bloodtests, either. It was pretty frightening, and very dangerous.

I have excellent health insurance, and took a very agressive treatment option, based on the fact that otherwise, I am in very good health. A combination of five chemo's followed with 35 X-Ray treatments. The neck tumor shrank to nothing very quickly with the chemo, and the radiation cooked the crap out of both tumor sites.

Right near the end of the radiation treatments (last April), I had a bad pulmonary embolism that almost did me in. Put me in the hospital for three weeks. My oxygen level was less than 60% when I went in... a huge clot formed right between my heart and lungs. They injected me with some serious roto-rooter, and it dissolved without any further scares. This was a known, but uncommon side effect of the chemo. I started walking the corridors with an oxygen bottle ASAP, so I could get the HELL out of there.

While I did have risk factors from bad habits, I had quit drinking for almost three years before this, and had quit smoking cigarettes in the very late 80's. I did drink quite a bit (3 or so) every night for quite a while... but the number one risk factor? The damned HPV virus. It causes about 50% of the oral cancers in men these days. Yes, it's an STD, and I'm pretty sure I know the infection "vector". Sigh.

Get vaccinated if you have not been exposed.

I got the latest scan results last week. No sign of cancer anywhere. :dance:

I like the last line. Dont scare me like that. None of you are allowed to get sick or go anywhere!

[W1GUH]

Was so happy to read the good new in the last line. May I be so lucky to have THAT for an eventual outcome. Probably not. As far as I can determine now, the best I can hope for is many, or maybe even many, many years of on and off chemo. But that's almost as good. Good enough to be done in by something else along the way.

Way to hang tough there...your efforts were well rewarded!

I really understand about your not revealing that earlier. That was the number one question on my mind when I was first diagnosed...how to tell friends, co-workers, bosses, like that. Well, I'm not the type to hold things in and anyway, how do you hide cancer, so I wound up just letting it all hang out. Turns out that was a good thing to do. It didn't take long to find out that there's a lot more cancer out there, and close to home than I'd thought. Seems most people have a cancer story, either for themselves or someone they know, and are very willing to talk about it.

Again, so happy to hear the good end!

Charles, set this man up, he desereves it!

[N2CHX]

I'm so sorry to hear that, Dave. Glad to hear it's in remission though. Between all the cancer, my heart troubles and god knows what else, we're quite a bunch huh? I spent yesterday in the hospital and have missed this entire week of work because of my cardiomyopathy.

[w2amr]

I got the latest scan results last week. No sign of cancer anywhere. :dance:Great news Dave.

[rot]

Good news man. Wish you the best as always.
rot

[KG4CGC]

Jebus! Followed up by good news. ☺
Damn Republicans and Illuminati! They're gonna kill us all.
One way ... or another.

[KC9ECI]

Suddenly, my root canal this morning doesn't seem all that bad. Glad to hear you're on the mend old man.

[N8YX]

^ What they said. Keep a positive outlook - that and a good diet will really help.

[ki4itv]

Glad you're on the upswing Dave. Good news!
You guy's are really starting to scare the shit out of me...

[w3bny]

Thats what you get for eating bad.....

Anyhow, Kick its ass! Adds you to the list to keep thinking/praying aboot!

[W1GUH]

Glad you're on the upswing Dave. Good news!
You guy's are really starting to scare the shit out of me...

Would've me, too, before I heard the words. The thing is, when the gastroenterologist told me after the endoscopy, "We found a tumor and it looks cancerous. We won't know for sure until the biopsy is done, but I've seen enough of these to know..." I didn't freak. Somehow those words didn't sound nearly as scary as I always thought they would and my reaction was pretty much a phlegmatic "Oh shit. What do I have to go through, now?" Of course I thought of nasty chemo, but when the alternative choice is what it is, whatever it is that one needs to make the right choice just seemed to be there. What I'm trying to say is that it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd always believed it would be. As I've expressed elsewhere, the biggest emotional question for me was telling people that I had a new role in life -- that of a cancer patient.

One thing that has been a pleasant surprise is that cancer care, at least where I'm getting it, is different from other medical care. I have yet to meet one doctor who played the "arrogant god" role. They've all been wonderfully caring and involved with their cases, and are totally down to earth about things. The other day I asked my oncologist, now that I'm gaining back the weight I've lost, what my target weight should be. He said, "whatever you're comfortable with." Basically his orders are to live as normally as possible...eat anything, drink anything, do anything.

And you've seen the kind of support there is amongst cancer patients. That makes all the difference in the world.

[K7SGJ]

Jesus H Crust on a stick. After reading these posts the last few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that between all the Islanders, we couldn't even make ONE HEALTHY ham between us.

Well just one more thing to bring the group a little closer.

Dave, you keep on keeping that thing at bay. Fuck the politics and such. You got a hell of a lot of folks on your team pulling for you. Peace

[WØTKX]

Thanks for all that. Lucky to have really good insurance, because the cost was insane.
Between the accident and the cancer, I am (over) a Million Dollar Man.

And I still can't handle eating green chili, dammit!

[NA4BH]

Always nice to hear good news. Keep kicking it's ass.

[ki4itv]

... green chili, dammit!

I Like that new hat, there... avatar man.

[NQ6U]

Suddenly, I don't have anything to complain about. Glad you hear you're doing okay, Dave.

[KA9MOT]

Damn..... I don't deal well with shit like this and never know what to say, so I usually read, feel bad, say a prayer and don't say anything. Your news has a good ending even though it started bad. Thankfully you caught it and are on the mend. Take care of yourself.

[suddenseer]

Dave, I am happy for you. I know what it is like to hear, "you have an abnormality.Then,"the abnormality is malignant". When I was at the tail end of the chemo, the side effects almost killed me. You were there with words of encouragement. I want to publicly thank you for that. Every word made me feel better. I did learn that the chocolate Ensure is ok. The vanilla Ensure made me puke worse than the chemo did. I am almost a model of good health. It took a disaster to make me examine myself. I changed my diet to eat my way to better health. I have 7 months invested in it, and so far it appears to be working.

So, I guess it is time to welcome Paul(GUH) to the Island Cancer Club. This is a club that one should not want to join. Early detection is the best way to fight it. I found out like Paul did from a gastroenterologist after visually spotting an abnormal polyp in the colon. I would encourage EVERY Islander over 40 years old to get a colonoscopy. The earlier the detection, the better chance of kicking it's ass.

Dave, Paul, please enjoy your speedy, complete recovery!

[kf0rt]

Hope everybody does well with their versions of the big C. Man; known so many it seems. Some made it, some didn't, but the odds improve all the time.

Here's one from the good side: My brother in law (wife's sister's husband) was diagnosed with stomach cancer about two years ago. Salt of the earth dood (but a loyal RRW'er); known him about 35 years now - a true brother. Going into the diagnosis, he was beyond obese. His "cure" consisted of radiation, chemo and surgery. In surgery, they removed the lower 6" of his esophagus and the upper third of his stomach. Somehow patched it all together so it works. They removed two ribs "for access."

Visited him over the holidays and couldn't help but tell him that he's looking better than I've seen him in decades. His remark? "I haven't felt this good in over 20 years." Down to 180 pounds -- he was on the roof doing gutter work when we drove up.

Wish they all worked out like that.

[kf4wxd]

I'm new here on the Island but I am just over one year of "No Evidence of Disease" for prostate cancer. It took surgery and radiation therapy to kill it but I hope it's good and dead.

The linear accellerator used for rad therapy is pretty cool. It uses a 1.5 kw 2.8 gHz source to feed the accellerator. I was the last patient before the maintenace engineer took it down for PMs one evening and he gave me a pretty comprehensive tour.

Russ

[NQ6U]

Hmmmm, 1.5 Kw, what an interesting number...

Glad to hear you're recovering, Russ.

[w2amr]

I'm new here on the Island but I am just over one year of "No Evidence of Disease" for prostate cancer. It took surgery and radiation therapy to kill it but I hope it's good and dead.

Hope it stays dead Russ.

[W1GUH]

Very happy to hear of your happy ending. Since joining this club I've heard so many of those and it's good to learn, sometimes over and over, that the big "c" can be controlled or even eliminated. Enjoy our health!

As for my case, it appears as if the tumor has shrunk significantly. The stent I had put in at the esophagus/stomach junction has fallen out & is hanging out trying to get into the small intestine now -- I'm getting that taken out later today. There's a high probability that that means that the chemo I'm getting that has very mild side effects is effective, and it just may be that the worst I'm facing is what I've been doing for a couple of months. And that's very good news!





I'm new here on the Island but I am just over one year of "No Evidence of Disease" for prostate cancer. It took surgery and radiation therapy to kill it but I hope it's good and dead.

The linear accellerator used for rad therapy is pretty cool. It uses a 1.5 kw 2.8 gHz source to feed the accellerator. I was the last patient before the maintenace engineer took it down for PMs one evening and he gave me a pretty comprehensive tour.

Russ