The F*** Cancer Thread

My dad found out he has Asophygeal Cancer last summer. His last round of chemo ended late last year, and they successfully shrunk the tumor to 2cm, and gave the go-ahead for surgery. Queue dicking him around between the two surgeons needed for the tumor removal and Asophygeal repair. They finally got him in yesterday, did a pet scan of the area - which was clear - and opened him up for the surgery. The surgeon puts the scope in and finds tumors all over the abdominal wall. They close him up and decide to keep him over night. Not a single fucking doctor came up to see him. Not a single fucking one, and nothing was written in his chart. What the actual fuck.

McQueen_sl said:

My dad found out he has Asophygeal Cancer last summer. His last round of chemo ended late last year, and they successfully shrunk the tumor to 2cm, and gave the go-ahead for surgery. Queue dicking him around between the two surgeons needed for the tumor removal and Asophygeal repair. They finally got him in yesterday, did a pet scan of the area - which was clear - and opened him up for the surgery. The surgeon puts the scope in and finds tumors all over the abdominal wall. They close him up and decide to keep him over night. Not a single fucking doctor came up to see him. Not a single fucking one, and nothing was written in his chart. What the actual fuck.

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Dude I'm sorry to hear that. That was pretty much the same scenario as my mom-- everything looked clean on the Pet-Scan and when they opened her up they found micro-tumor everywhere. One minute we were celebrating and the next we were being told she had maybe a few months left. I've never felt so instantly sick in my life.. My only suggestion at this point is to take as much time off of work as possible and spend it with your dad. When I got the news about my mom I was knee deep in planning our imminent office move (whose failure would have resulted in my termination) and I didn't take as much time off of work as I would have liked, mainly visiting an hour each night after leaving the office. Since she died the guilt over not seeing her enough tortures my soul on a daily basis.

10 years ago my dad went into remission from bowel cancer following surgery and chemo, for the last 10 years every test has came back clean, 3 months ago his tests came back clean from bloodwork and colonoscopy.....2 months ago he was diagnosed with liver cancer secondary to bowel cancer, 6 weeks ago he died from it.

Fuck cancer and fuck tests that show nothing is up until your liver is like 80% gone.

At least work were good about things and I spent 2 weeks with him before coming home when he started chemo and being told he had at least 6 months...3 days later I got a call that he had about a day to go so I drove 11 hours and stayed up there, he started to look better, was up and talking with family and friends on the weekend, tuesday they had a bed at the hospital like 300m down the road form his house so mum didn't have to drive 115km each way each day so they had the transport team there, he died as they were moving him from bed to transport gurney....don't know if being in the room and seeing his face and the fear in his eyes as everything shut down is something that I wanted to see or not, just know I still see it every time I close my eyes.

Terribly sorry to hear that McQueen.

Found out about half an hour ago my 6am port placement on Wed. has been moved to 11am which fucks up *everything*. Chemo being pushed back accordingly. It's going to be a long ass day. I will probably be at Dana Farber until at least 7pm. Angry!!

They just gave my dad ~1 year, with chemo. He's seeing some specialists at a university hospital this Wednesday.

After losing my father in 99' due to the aftereffects of chemo (his second bout with testicular cancer. Technically he beat it twice, but his heart couldn't take the strain of the final chemo blasts) I am fervently hoping that something better than the chemical equivalent of a shotgun blast is developed and put forth as the standard for cancer treatment. It is literally "Boom! Is it dead? No? Boom! Is it dead? No? Boom!" treatment, where it is effectively a competition between the resilience of the body vs. the resilience of the cancer in most cases. That's a shitty game no matter how well it is played.

Good luck with the alternate medication route, I hope it pans out and they can do something, McQueen.

Just got done with the port bout an hour ago. They had a cancelation and was able to get me in earlier. My bday was monday and a couple of the nurses surprised me with a small birthday cake when I came out. It's stuff like that that just helps so damn much in making things even just a little less stressful.
This is going to suck later when all the numbing meds wear off but at least I'll have some yummy cake to eat if I'm not too sick.

edit: For anyone wondering what a freshly placed chest port looks like...wonder no further. Taking the damn dressing off and finally able to take a shower it feels sooo much better. The dressing was really pressing down on it pretty good making it feel even more tender.

Quick update.
The chemo is absolutely working. From what I can feel the tumor is about half the size it was when I started treatment. I had this past week off from treatment and have 3 more rounds in August to make it 3 months of treatment. I have a CT Scan scheduled for Sept 18th. After the scan we will make a decision to continue or not. The side effects haven't been absolutely atrocious so I think I could handle going until this thing is completely gone.

Awesome news man, keep at it!

Last November my dad returned from his vacation with his shoulder hurting, it had been hurting him for a while but it got to the point he thought something was broken. Sure enough he had cancer in the bone (metastatic), and it had split. They put a rod in there and he was eventually diagnosed with bladder cancer. Having spent 20 hours reading up on it, I was pretty miserable. The odds of surviving a cancer of the bladder that had already spread so far across the body wasn't good, to say the least.

He was doing Gemzar and some really awful one I cant pronounce alternating Thursdays, with only 1 week off between. Today he got the news from his scan that it's decreased to the point where this Thursday will be his last treatment (until it returns /knock on wood). Couldn't be happier. I don't usually share anything personal, but having your dad be able to stick around a while longer to see his grandkids grow up has me over the moon.

I went to the doctor in mid February because I had some weird cramps in my stomach and a high fever that wouldn't go away. The doctor told me it was most likely appendicitis, but after a CT scan they told me it looked like an inflammation of the small intestine and that I needed surgery. Woke up after the operation with a large part of my colon removed, but the surgeon told me that at least they didn't see any signs of cancer. Three weeks later the test results came back and it turned out they missed the tumor during surgery and it was colon cancer after all. About a week after that I was told tests showed it was an aggressive type of tumor, but that it was unlikely that it had spread since out of 35 lymph nodes around the colon none showed signs of cancer. In May the result of the CT scan on my lungs came back and about 15 mets were visible. 15 mets on both lungs is a death sentence btw. Statistically I have around 20 months to live. Actually more like 13-14 now since it happened in Feb, but who knows. The median age for colon cancer is around 70 and I haven't even turned 40 yet so I can probably take higher doses of chemo than the average 70 y/o.

I've decided to take it like a man and have made a bucket list. Anything particular any of you would have done if you were in my shoes? It's not as easy as one might think to come up with cool shit to do.

Dunhill, Sorry to hear man I just lost my Uncle last Friday to cancer.

As far as a bucket list. Paragliding, parachuting from a plane were extremely fun for me especially since I had a fear of heights at the time. Climb a mountain to its peak, I've done Mt. McKinley and Mt. Fuji along with some peaks throughout the Rockies. Nothing like the view and the feeling once you get their. Scuba diving is high on the list of some awesome things to do especially if you've never done that sort of thing. If you can afford it take a trip around the world and just take in as much of the world as you can. A lot of beautiful places to see. The first time I went to Africa and was out on a Safari seeing the wildlife was pretty amazing to take in. There has to be a lot of places you wish you went and saw and just never had the time for. Well what do you have to lose?

Good luck with the fight and hope by some miracle you beat it.

Thanks! And I'm sorry about your uncle.

I actually booked a vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico yesterday. Five star hotel which I wouldn't normally pick since it's expensive as hell, but it's not as I have to think about my financial situation in the future, so I figured why not. My fear of heights is pretty horrible though. I have to get shit faced every time I fly because of it. I always wanted to climb Everest, but I've realized I would need more time to prepare. I'm thinking Kilimanjaro as it's very easy to climb.

I'm visiting Italy in two weeks. For some reason I've never been there before. I plan on doing an American road trip next fall, but that's still far away so it might not happen.

Or how about I help you cure your cancer guaranteed. It's actually easy and non invasive and no shitty side effects. Between everything you'll need it costs around 5,000$ which is far cheaper than dealing with quack job doctors and has a 99.9% success chance.

Luminati_sl said:

a 99.9% success chance.

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Not 50.0001%.

No.

99.9%.

Damn man, that's harsh. Are you married? If not, what's stopping you from getting a few (or as many as you can haha) high limit credit cards and/or personal loans to help you live life to its fullest?

What made you happiest in life? Make sure you relive those experiences as well.

If I didn't have a wife and kids and was diagnosed, I'd certainly get coked up and play some high roller tables. And thanks for sharing. Takes a lot of balls to talk about it on a forum like this. I really hope I have half the outlook and perspective you do when my time comes.