Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer - the long winding road it has become

[Eddy Gordo]

 

What just a normal morning looks like.

 

At night it is almost the same. Just one tablet less and only half a sleeping pill. For some reason chemo keeps one awake. And after 4 days of not sleeping I asked the doctor for help. And he was astounded that the other doctor overlooking my case did not prescribed me sleeping meds.

 

Also got a little nasty surprise yesterday. A R8400 bill for a Single (K-RAS marker) blood test. The doctor did not give them my correct details to Lancet so I never received a bill. Only because they could not give the correct e-mail details or the correct medical aid details to Lancet. So hope that the medical aid will pay for the test.

I hate taking tablets. But what can you do. Fortunately mine is on supposed to be 4 a day, which I only take one a day(i Know its not the same as yours). My wife on the other hand, shame she takes 10 or more every morning and night. One of her ailments is lupus.

[Mr. G]

God bless and keep strong Cois.

[Pieter-za]

My mom worked in a cancer ward from 1982 to 2007

 

In the early days MANY patients were diagnosed too late, and the mortality rate was scary !!

 

 

Public awareness, diagnostics, etc all contribute to much earlier diagnoses.  Which ironically means more full term treatment, which will show an increased cost in treatment.  Hopefully though the mortality rate is better today ...

There are perhaps two sides to that coin?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27canc.html  (ref https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/184747

 

Cancers Can Vanish Without Treatment, but How?

 

By GINA KOLATA

OCT. 26, 2009

Continue reading the main story

 

Call it the arrow of cancer. Like the arrow of time, it was supposed to point in one direction. Cancers grew and worsened.

 

But as a paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association noted last week, data from more than two decades of screening for breast and prostate cancer call that view into question. Besides finding tumors that would be lethal if left untreated, screening appears to be finding many small tumors that would not be a problem if they were left alone, undiscovered by screening. They were destined to stop growing on their own or shrink, or even, at least in the case of some breast cancers, disappear.

 

“The old view is that cancer is a linear process,” said Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health. “A cell acquired a mutation, and little by little it acquired more and more mutations. Mutations are not supposed to revert spontaneously.”

 

So, Dr. Kramer said, the image was “an arrow that moved in one direction.” But now, he added, it is becoming increasingly clear that cancers require more than mutations to progress. They need the cooperation of surrounding cells and even, he said, “the whole organism, the person,” whose immune system or hormone levels, for example, can squelch or fuel a tumor.

 

Cancer, Dr. Kramer said, is a dynamic process.

It was a view that was hard for some cancer doctors and researchers to accept. But some of the skeptics have changed their minds and decided that, contrary as it seems to everything they had thought, cancers can disappear on their own.

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Edited July 30, 2019 by Pieter-za

[Cois]

I hate taking tablets. But what can you do. Fortunately mine is on supposed to be 4 a day, which I only take one a day(i Know its not the same as yours). My wife on the other hand, shame she takes 10 or more every morning and night. One of her ailments is lupus.

Last week the nurse had to give me 3 tabs to drink. Two for headaches and one to avoid an allergic reaction to the chemo.

She gave me one, and wanted me to drink the one Paracetamol filled pill. I asked her if I can drink all 3 at once (chemo makes me pee like you wont believe, but they run all the drugs via IV’s)

She was surprised that I gulped all 3 pills down without flinching. Most people can’t drink more than one pill at a time.

 

BUT, my sleeping pill I drink on it’s own. It is the nastiest little pill that starts to dissolve as soon as it passes your lips. It is a mission every night to swallow it fast enough. I still have to find the trick with that little bugger.

[Cois]

There are perhaps two sides to that coin?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27canc.html (ref https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/184747

Would be great, but for this...

 

 

Of course, cancers do not routinely go away, and no one is suggesting that patients avoid treatment because of such occasional occurrences.

 

“Biologically, it is a rare phenomenon to have an advanced cancer go into remission,” said Dr. Martin Gleave, a professor of urology at the University of British Columbia.

 

I wish the cancer I have can just disappear. Just getting a fair chance in the labour market will be a great boost.

[Pieter-za]

I hear you Cois - my wife went through this with breast cancer.  Keep the faith.

[Cois]

I hate taking tablets. But what can you do. Fortunately mine is on supposed to be 4 a day, which I only take one a day(i Know its not the same as yours). My wife on the other hand, shame she takes 10 or more every morning and night. One of her ailments is lupus.

That must suck. One thing I wish they can do is make all tabs to work on the same ground.

The one tab must be taken 1 hour before meals, one 30 minutes before, the 4 pinkish pills are 30 minutes after a meal, and the one that is green and cream must be two hours after a meal.

 

Took all the pills at the same time as I had severe nausea, so my meals were in liquid form and then having to swallow pills at some intervals does not work at all.

And they all can work together. Know it might not be the best, but don’t want some pills to get in the water system as they are the worst pills and most toxic things (after the morphine and other opioids in my house) I have to drink and handle every day.

[RobertWhitehead]

Put a bit of water in your mouth prior to putting the pill in your mouth. This will eliminate the bad taste. 

 

All the best with the latest round of treatment and happy birthday for the 28th 

Last week the nurse had to give me 3 tabs to drink. Two for headaches and one to avoid an allergic reaction to the chemo.
She gave me one, and wanted me to drink the one Paracetamol filled pill. I asked her if I can drink all 3 at once (chemo makes me pee like you wont believe, but they run all the drugs via IV’s)
She was surprised that I gulped all 3 pills down without flinching. Most people can’t drink more than one pill at a time.

BUT, my sleeping pill I drink on it’s own. It is the nastiest little pill that starts to dissolve as soon as it passes your lips. It is a mission every night to swallow it fast enough. I still have to find the trick with that little bugger.

[Cois]

Put a bit of water in your mouth prior to putting the pill in your mouth. This will eliminate the bad taste.

 

All the best with the latest round of treatment and happy birthday for the 28th

Will give that a go. Will help not to grab the nearest sweet thing to eliminate the taste.

 

Thanks Mate. And thanks for the belated b-day wish. Really appreciated

[RobertWhitehead]

No worries, glad to help. Is the pill you take a little pink one? 

 

Reverse the sequence you normally follow to take the pill - water first then the pill  . 

 

 

Will give that a go. Will help not to grab the nearest sweet thing to eliminate the taste.

Thanks Mate. And thanks for the belated b-day wish. Really appreciated

[ChrisF]

....

 

BUT, my sleeping pill I drink on it’s own. It is the nastiest little pill that starts to dissolve as soon as it passes your lips. It is a mission every night to swallow it fast enough. I still have to find the trick with that little bugger.

 

I take 1 off pill twice a day for my diabetes.  Easy enough to swallow, even without water.  Few months back it was out of stock and the gave me a generic alternative ... MAN !!  you start tasting that thing before it hits your mouth .... yuck !!

 

 

Pills in the morning and at night is sort of easy to get used to.  But I struggled with pills at lunch time.  Thankfully I dont have to any more ....

 

 

Cois - STRONGS !!!

[Eddy Gordo]

Just watched an episode of New Amsterdam. Man cancer is HECTIC!!!!

[Cois]

No worries, glad to help. Is the pill you take a little pink one?

 

Reverse the sequence you normally follow to take the pill - water first then the pill .

It is a white little bugger.

I tried skipping drinking the pill because of the taste.

[Cois]

I take 1 off pill twice a day for my diabetes. Easy enough to swallow, even without water. Few months back it was out of stock and the gave me a generic alternative ... MAN !! you start tasting that thing before it hits your mouth .... yuck !!

 

 

Pills in the morning and at night is sort of easy to get used to. But I struggled with pills at lunch time. Thankfully I dont have to any more ....

 

 

Cois - STRONGS !!!

I have two pills that I was told to drink in the afternoon as well, but glad I check with the pharmacist who told me it is not needed. It is a beta blocker to slow my heart down, and lower my blood pressure, but I suffer from low blood pressure, so not a good idea to take it 3 times per day

[Cois]

Just watched an episode of New Amsterdam. Man cancer is HECTIC!!!!

New Amsterdam? Something worth watching?

[Traveler]

Glad you did check on that Beta Blocker, that can be a terrible experience if taken in too high a dose. And you definitely do not need anything to add to what is already challenging to the extreme. 

 

Thinking of you and your family going through this very testing time. 

 

Get well.