So....talk about.....CANCER SUPPORT THREAD !!

[Outpost JWB]

When I was in my 20s, I worked at a church and used to take an elderly lady to the church. She smelled funky. My son was only 4 or 5 years old. I would roll down the windows as soon as we pulled in her apartment complex. I got a job elsewhere after 5 or 6 years of being at the church. I heard a year after I left that she passed away from cancer. She was seen regularly by doctors though. No idea how they missed it. Wish I would've know then what I do now.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's the thing about cancer, a lot of people don't know they have until it's too late, it flies under the radar.

 

[NanaKat]

This thread is such a comfort to those with cancer and those with family fighting the battle. There are no magic wands or easy cures...but the comforting and encouraging words we read inspire us to get up each morning and face each day.

Checking in on some old friends...sorry to have lost a few...and missing some who haven't posted in a while.

To the newer folks, prayers for your battles and strength for the days. Let us know how you are doing.

My aunt..just a few years older than me... is recovering from brain surgery to remove a cluster tumor that was compromising the sight in her good eye. Fortunately for her the surgery went well and her eyesight has been saved. She has had all the chemo, gamma knife, radiation etc she can have over the 15 years battle. We are more hopeful this time because pathology tests indicate this was a benign tumor.
My mother lost her battle with cancer in 2000...miss her every day.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Good thoughts for your aunt, no one should have to ever experience such things, andsorry about your mom, sending you luck and hope.

 

[NanaKat]

So glad you are feeling better. The physical well-being is so entwined with the mental outlook. Sounds like you have focused on what is important to you now.
Thank you for the kind thought for my aunt. Her struggle has been a long one and my mother's was so brief...just 3 months from diagnosis to her loss. Yet, both have faced their treatments with courage and determination.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you for your kind words.

 

[donrae]

Since I'm (tentatively) on the other side of a cancer diagnosis, I hope you all can understand when I say.....

When you're diagnosed with cancer, no one tells you how freaking bored you're going to be

.

I'm not talking about the sheer terror when you're first diagnosed. I'm talking about all the waiting, and the time just, well, waiting. For me, I didn't have horrible side effects but did have a LOT of fatigue. My brain was still functioning---more or less as well as it always has

----but I couldn't DO anything. Either it was medically prohibited for one reason or another, or I was just plain too tired and out of breath. At least at home, I could watch TV or get on BYC

. But waiting.....in doctor's offices. In the infusion center. In the hospital waiting room for more tests. In the hospital itself. Back to the clinic. And infusion. Seriously, you can only sleep so much, I think I'm caught up til 2020. And yes, I'd bring books, etc, but I was still bored out of my ever lovin' skull for the best part of 2 years. Thankfully, I knew how to crochet, and You Tube has great tutorials on new projects.

Anyone else have this?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I turned into a mushy pumpkin brain, I couldn't think right.

The eight hour days of chemo were boring, the being up all night long was boring, I watched a lot of HGTV. I found it all really lonely, and I like being alone. I think I mostly watched tv and slept.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Since mine was only skin cancer, I fortunately have not been thru what most of you have. Nowhere close. I will never forget the phone call. Left on the answering machine. Confirmed basal cell carcinoma. I was minimizing the fact that it is just skin cancer & that the dr said its the most common & most easily treated. BUT also most likely to come back. Most people have the mentality that you cannot die from skin cancer. Wrong. And while i was having MOHs surgery-(google that sometime) at the skin cancer center, all the other patients asked me "is this your 1st time here?" Many had been there 4-10 times. Big eye opener for me. Every new mole, freckle, bump, discoloration, I just cringe. I have moles on my face now that need checked soon. I am putting that appointment off. I just don't want my face jacked up again for the holidays.

 

[donrae]

I had chemo brain also---I still claim that, in fact

.

Agree on the lonely, and I also like being alone.

And the memory loss or boredom....I do have some times I know I "lost", either from the drugs, or sepsis, or sleep deprivation. But mostly the days just blurred together. Not that I want to go back and remember each and every day of treatment. When it was happening it was just kind of "put your head down, do what they say, each step in the process, and get through to the other side". Well, I'm on the other side now and I look back and can't believe I didn't go bat**** crazy during the whole thing. I think that's what would scare me most about relapsing. Not the high probability I could die if it came back, but the "Oh man, I'm not sure I can do all that treatment again" feeling.

At least when I was in the hospital I could watch HGTV or the Food Network

. We don't have cable at home, so I had to have some kind of perk for being in the hospital.