Cancer

[Bodhi]

Trigger,
I wish your Dad luck.  On a side note, I have a bit of experience with this.  My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 8 years ago and told she would not live for more than 1-3 years.  She is still alive albeit a bit slower, but lives a very rewarding and happy life.  Cancer is there, they are fortunately keeping it in remission with meds.  A big portion of the treatment we were told to use was positive reinforcement. 

Hang in there.  Your Dad is in our prayers here.

[des506]

its a cursed disease... prayers are wit ya family...

[MarineUS]

 

[lambo31]

I'll be praying for your Dad as well Tigger. Like Bodhi said, positive reinforcement is as big a portion of the treatment as the chemo and radiation.
 And to reiterate what Tigger said, regular check ups and self examintion arecritical in catching this stuff early. My wife found a lump by self examination that turned out to be cancer. She had a double mastectomy, a year of chemo and radiation treatments and she was just 35 years old. The doctors said had it went as little as another month undetected it would have spread into the rest of her body because it was already attacking her lymphnodes. As of her last check up she's been cancer free for 2 years.

So check yourselves and make your wives/girlfriends check themselves.

Lambo

[iron650]

My father survived blood cancer. I know how it feels. I'll keep him in my prayers.

 

[SmokinLoon]

Best of luck. 

[VonMessa]

   Tigger

Listen to what he said guys.

Not to be crass, but a camera in the rear is much better than a bag on the hip (or worse)

[Maverick]

Tigger, sorry to hear about it. Don't give up hope yet. Thoughts and prayers otw.

My wife and I are both cancer survivors, she 13 years plus and me just starting my third year. That simple word, cancer, makes the world a small place. There is hardly a family that is not touched by it.

Your statement about getting checked is spot on. Both of us caught it early because we were not afraid to go to the doctors with questions and check ups. Yeah ignorance can be bliss, but it can also be deadly. It depends on how much of a "man" you are. Are you too much of a wussy to let the doc check you out? Man up and get checked, it ain't the end of the world and if that is the worst procedure you ever have you will have lived a very sheltered life.

[Midway]

I have had a spot on my forearm for just about as long as I can remember (sometimes they are called age spots or coffee marks). This mark was not raised or "discolored", so I never gave it much thought. Anyway about two months ago I noticed that this mark had changed shape. I went to my doctor who sent me to a dermatologist. He took a scraping saying it was probably nothing. Two days later he called back and said get in here NOW! He said it was a "regressive" melanoma. This means the melanoma was breaking down and casting off cancerous cells. I went back in the next day and he remove a diamond shaped piece of skin 3"x"2" and about 1/8 deep (I now have a scar that looks like a shark bite). They sent the sample to a specialist in Columbia hospital in NYC. He called me back later and said I was one lucky man. The cancerous cells hadn't left the local area. I had literally caught it in the nick of time. He said that if I had even waited a week, I would definately be going through radiation/chemo now, with a 50/50 chance of survival. Now I have to go back every 3 months for a full body scan, forever. There's no telling how or where I got it, though I am outdoors a lot, and I never wore sunblock. I also don't have a history of this in my family. Now I treat the sun as an enemy that I must defend against. Oh yeah, I'm 59 years old.
 
So listen to what Tigger29 says. If you see something that doesn't look right, get it checked!!!

 

Was in the same place six months ago.  Was very lucky myself and now just have a 7inch scar on my arm (and 2inch one under my armpit) to remind me too much sun is really bad for you.  Get checked if you're worried!

 

 

[tassos]

I hope its not to late
My Mother 70 had 2008 Bowel Cancer in 1st Stadium
We Drove her to Hospital after Blood pressure was high than same hour to Low
They found out that she had Bowel cancer
2 Months Later she was ok
Now she is in Great Condition
She and My dad go every 6 month to check
I go every Yeahr

Best wishes for you re Dad

[321BAR]

Dad's holding his own. In fact he's doing ok....He's done with all the chemo crap....radiation crap... and the throat cancer is cleared....the lung , well , thats gonna just have to be managed they say. It did shrink some though. All in all he's hanging in there...thanks man...Prayers for your mom!!!

thank you bud <S> and PM reply sent

[Sonicblu]

Cancer took my father when I was nine..he was 35.

You are blessed to have a father of the caliber you describe  and to have the relationship you have for so long.

 There has never been a day I don't think of him and knowing him better.

Shalom,

Daniel

[Tigger29]

Yeah it keeps getting worse with every bit of news we learn about it.  The good news is I see many people that still had it much worse that made full recoveries.  I'd say the odds are still on his side.  Having spread to his liver and much of his digestive tract they've classified it as a stage 4 cancer.  They are going in Tuesday to fix his colon and in a couple weeks starting chemo to deal with where it has spread to.

I'm not concerned with the physical treatments so much as my father's mental condition.  He's been dealt a bum hand in life ever since mom left him several years back and the last year or so has had no motivation to do anything other than to work his shift and be lazy at home.  I've found out that he's actually TURNED DOWN three promotions at work because he didn't feel like he "deserved" it.  I also think his lack of motivation is another big reason he's been putting off getting checked even though his doctor has been trying to talk him into it for several months now (I was surprised to hear about this recently and really had to hold my tongue because it doesn't matter at this point).  All of us have worried about depression and all that but it's kind of good to know that there's been something actually wrong with him that may have been contributing!

Anyway I feel the biggest fight of all is going to be to keep him positive and motivated.  He's in good spirits now but I don't think it has quite set in yet as he thinks he's going to be in the hospital for a couple of weeks and then go back to work like nothing was wrong.  He also keeps saying things like "I've been through worse" and really downplaying the severity of all of this.  I wish I could go on letting him think this but he's going to have to face the facts sooner or later and I'd rather him do so soon while he's still relatively healthy instead of while he's recovering from surgery and enduring chemo.  We're working on getting him some kind of counseling while he's in the hospital.

One good thing that I am very excited about is that his cataract surgery that he had planned next month will still be able to proceed as planned.  That's all he's been talking about the last few months is how he can't WAIT to be able to see normally again!  I think getting his eye fixed will be a HUGE morale boost for him while he's dealing with the chemo!

To be honest, this "tragedy" may end up being the best thing to every happen to him.  I firmly believe that once he gets past this he'll be a changed man and will be able to truly appreciate life... something I haven't seen him do in years!

[Babalonian]

Make sure you put a serious effort into getting him some therapy before the kemo starts, many people can vouche that kemo treatments are far worse on you physicaly and mentaly than the cancer itself (including myself as I had to help my mom through it and her colon cancer, but we were lucky in that her cancer was only getting to stage 3 when it was removed).  The kemo is gonna be hell.

We're just thankful each day that passes and my mom is clean, purely in the hopes she'll never have to recieve another kemo treatment in her life. 

The worst IMO is that most the drugs they can perscribe you to help fight the consequences he'll incur from the treatments are A) expencive and B) often innefective or only marginaly so.  You might think its funny or a gimic, and I'm not here to start a conversation about it or try and persuade good personal morals, to each their own, but I'm just being sincerly serious to you - medical pot was the only thing that helped my mom in the end and also with everything she was having discompfort with.  She had an apetite, could finally hold down food, and get some sleep at night during the worst of the kemo (and this was after a few grand dumped into trying every "normal" perscription to find her some relief, short of heavy pain pills).  She has no interest in it since the kemo ended though, she had been there - done that - graduated college with an art degree in the 60s.  Life after surviving kemo is an eagerly embraced high of its own.


Best of luck to your father, your family and yourself Tigger.  Take good care of him.   

[Tac]

I hope your dad beats the monster man. Good vibes sent his way!


I'll add to the advice many are giving:

4 years ago, almost a month apart, both my mother and one of my aunts-in-law were diagnosed with cervical cancer. Both had it at the initial stage where there was a good chance of taking it out before it became fatal.

My aunt-in-law went the path of the insurance companies and hospital regulations.. delays, delays,delays. My mother did not risk delay and went out of the country to get immediate surgery and treatment.

My mother's cancer was removed and she survived. My aunt-in-law sadly passed away..the delays literally killed her as the cancer spread during the delay period. She left behind two teenaged kids and a husband.

Dont wait. Dont put up with insurance or hospital BS. Get on the phone and find a hospital anywhere in the country or outside it that will perform your treatments the very next day & get your arse on a plane that very night. Money may be a problem but I guarantee you death is a much bigger one. Dont F! around with cancer.