@CuddleDuncan I am so sorry to hear this. I hope you are able to get the treatment you need 🥺
@Morpheus That’s horrible and I hope they caught it early enough to where you get back some positive results 🫂
@Morpheus I’m sorry to hear. Sending good healing energy your way with prayers for the best prognosis possible 🫂
Thank you gentleman, I am as optimistic as I can be. The 22nd is not far away and I will know then. I will update when I know.
I am so sorry to hear this news and so uplifted at all of the nice people showing their love and support. I am sending big engulfing hugs and good vibes through the interwebs to both of you @CuddleDuncan and @Morpheus.
@Morpheus Thoughts and positive vibes going out to you and your family, as well. Do keep us updated. 🫂
~ Sunset Snuggles
🦄 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Fiend 🐘 Animal Lover
Happy summer vibes! 🐬 🎹
♥️🫂
Sorry to hear that. Cancer sucks. You have our full support!
So sorry to read this and for anyone dealing with a cancer diagnosis. I’ve been there also but a few years ago. Scariest thing I’ve ever been through. I still worry all the time, but try to keep my focus on enjoying or finding value in every day, We never really know what’s coming ahead.
Cancer is a b*tch and I wish we could just nuke it already.
It sounds like you already have a lot of support, @CuddleDuncan , but if you ever need an ear (or a host of homecare tips and tricks for dealing with chemo effects), my DMs are always open. Sending more hugs across the pond 🫂
Just wanted to give an update on my own cancer. Quick recap. I had a colonoscopy and drs found a mass which tested positive for cancer. I did bloodwork, my cancer markers tested 1.2, normal for a person without cancer is 0-5 so 1.2 is very good. The tumor is grade 2 so 2 out of 4 the lower the better so that’s really good. I had a ct scan on Sunday, dr called me today and said it’s only 1 tumor and has not spread to other parts of my body so this is also really good. I have an mri on Monday and see the surgeon on Tuesday. Most likely I will have surgery to cut it out either in late July or in August. I hope there is no chemo involved but I’ll find out on Tuesday.
Yay @Morpheus ! Good news!
@Morpheus hooray hooray hooray! That's about as good news as it gets under the circumstances. Good luck for the MRI.
Deepest thanks to everybody who has posted good wishes above. I have been very touched by the response ... it really helps.
No major news from me. The hospital system is creaking into gear and I've had various scans and tests since my last post, but not all the results have come through yet. I remain in excellent spirits, and in good health for me. I'll post again when there is a significant update.
@Morpheus I’m glad to read your good news and I hope everything can be solved fairly easily. @CuddleDuncan Continued prayers & best hope for you too.
I found out yesterday that my cousin has lung cancer and it’s spread everywhere and the prognosis is not great. It’s all so scary, Cancer seems to touch all of us through family, friends or ourselves.
Fuck Cancer.
Sending positive thoughts and virtual hugs 🫂.
Quick update. Had an mri today, no results yet. I’ll be seeing the surgeon tomorrow. Hoping for a simple surgery and no chemo.
Great news. I saw the surgeon today. She said my lymph nodes are fine. I’m going to have surgery within the next 30 days. They will cut out a section of my colon that has the tumor and splice my colon back together. At this point, it does not look like chemo will be needed. The dr emphatically said don’t worry, I’ll be cured.
That is great news, @Morpheus !
Oh wow, that's really cool @Morpheus.
Thank you
@TxTom and @CuddleDuncan
@morpheus good news but it won’t be easy for you. Physicians tend to undersell the recovery end of things as smooth sailing because they aren’t the ones going through it. When they do every nurse who works in a hospital will tell you doctors are the worst patients.
But no chemo is definitely great news.
@Morpheus @CuddleDuncan As someone who has had two major surgeries—one that was 8 hours long and one that was 15 hours because of complications, you do feel that phantom tap on the shoulder by Mr. Mortality that whispers in your mind “you thought you were different didn’t you?” It does make you evaluate perspectives on what life you have left. Mainly I don’t sweat the small stuff as much and I kind of chuckle at what some people consider traumatizing or scary—not because they are stupid, but because I was there once. You are right, when a physician comes in and levels with you the night before surgery as mine did, and begins by saying, “look a lot of people do not survive the type of surgery you are having tomorrow …” your mind is more in shock at first. Then he continued with a fighter pilot’s overzealous confidence to say but I have done over 300 of these and you should be just fine and you recover some of your lost bravado. That lasts until he says “we will be taking out many of your organs and you will be on life support during the surgery” you go back to doubts and what ifs. The point is it is a fearful roller coaster ride and you hope if anything goes very wrong that you are deep under anesthesia and won’t feel anything.
I did have complications that put me in ICU for 5 days, and then was in the hospital an additional 7 days, for a total of 14 days (I spent two days previous to the surgery for tests and prep). You will be bored, apprehensive, angry, depressed, and maybe even experience a bit of self-pity—all at the same time. But you will get through it. Then you go home and you are alone during the day with your thoughts in a lift chair—I have never had depression a day in my life but it crept in a week after I was home and I didn’t know what it was. Why did I suddenly feel like I don’t care about anything? I wasn’t sad. I was emotionally numb and didn’t care to do anything or even care what happened to me in the moment. It was as if I had sprung a leak and all mental feeling leaked out into the ether. And it struck me—this must be what depression is.
I say this only as a cautionary tale to not try and be macho, because that’s what I did and I was stupid for doing so. The nurse in charge of all the post-op and recovery therapies came in the day before surgery and was handing out resources and she handed me a resource pamphlet for mental health therapy that I could get for free for three months after therapy. I told her to keep it because I have never had mental problems. She pressed back and said 3 out of 4 people who get this surgery develop some form of depression or worse. I jokingly gave her back the pamphlet and said, “but I am the 1 out of four. Glass half full nurse.” She said we would see, She had the last laugh, but this is how much she cared about the patients—she wrote the number in my discharge papers I went home with.
@Morpheus @CuddleDuncan please take all the support and help offered to you in the spirit it is offered. I did not and wish I had. It does not make you weak and keeps you around much longer.
@FunCartel that's a really beautiful post, thank you. Sounds like you've been some pretty rough times. Well, I know you have.
And it's wise advice. I'm taking all the help I can lay my hands on - I'm going to need it. Indeed I'm actively seeking it. So far I've only had one consultation with the surgeon, but he placed the hand of mortality very firmly on my shoulder. There is much to hope for, but the statistics for somebody in my situation are not pretty. However, I am fortunate in many ways. Not just in the support I'm being given from people on this site and elsewhere, but in other ways too.
I was emotionally numb and didn’t care to do anything or even care what happened to me in the moment .... this must be what depression is.
Yep, pretty much. I've had dsythymia^ and depression for fifteen years or more, and this is the first time it's been a benefit. My diagnosis has not made me additionally miserable or more depressed, at least not yet. So I've got cancer? Well ....
I've also had the good fortune to have stared death in the face more than once, mostly in the hills. (Spoiler alert: I didn't die.) Once I had hypothermia when alone up a mountain; another time I was trapped in mud in a very remote spot as night approached; and then there was that time I fell off a cliff in Bolivia and survived only by grabbing the branch of a bush like Indiana Jones. Moreover, both my parents and one of my sisters have had cancer and they are all alive and well: as a family we've been down this road before. Long before that, as a child, my playground was a graveyard.
I kind of chuckle at what some people consider traumatizing or scary
Must confess I sometimes do this privately too. Not to belittle them or their fears - quite the opposite, I'm very happy to help - but because 'if you think this is bad, I can only congratulate you on what an easy life you've had'.
Mentally and emotionally I'm in a very good place considering the circumstances. It's not that I haven't felt anything at all - I certainly have. But overall it's not worst thing I've been through or faced, not yet anyway.
^ Look it up like I did. (Joke ©Spike Milligan)
Hello all. My surgery has been scheduled for July 31st. The surgeon will be performing a high anterior resection of my colon. I’m very optimistic.
Good luck @Morpheus. Not too long to wait.
Your optimism is realistic - the statistics for somebody in your general situation are very favourable.
Thank you @CuddleDuncan i appreciate that
Update. I had my surgery pre-op appiontment today and everything is set for Wednesday the 31st at 730am.
I avoided this discussion, I'm currently dealing with my one brother who has a return of cancer. This time is stage 4 kidney cancer, that is spread throughout his whole body, I lost my mom in 21,sister in 22, best friend at work in 23. So now this. Cancer is a bugger, but a positive attitude and will to survive can make a big difference, as well as proper food and exercise. I wish nothing but the best to anyone dealing with cancer an I hope all you all continue on like it was just a bump in the road. And I can honestly say you are very brave, I'm not really good at this stuff, but I want everyone to be happy and healthy hang in there
@TeddyCuddle45 that's really tough, I mean really tough. My sympathies.
Thank you again to everybody who has offered support. This is a good thread.
I have news, good news: this morning I had an appointment with the oncology team, and received the results of my last scan. The cancer has spread from the colon to the liver via the lymph nodes, which we already knew, but it hasn't gone anywhere else. Hooray! (We had already discovered that the bladder is clear, which was a major relief.) This means I am a viable candidate for a major operation to chop all the bad bits out.
But first, three months of fortnightly chemo starting in a week or two. A neoadjuvant treatment. You can say what you like about having cancer, but it does wonders for your vocabulary. The chemo sounds a little grim but no worse than any other chemo and better than some. It's not one of the hair-falling-out ones which I'm quite pleased about: my hair has been short my whole life up until lockdown, and people - including me - seem to like it long.
That's indeed some good news right there. I hope everything will go well. I hope the operation will go well and I hope a speedy recovery, chemo is gonna suck not gonna lie. I would recommend looking into cannabis as a form of treatment during the process. Those cancer terminologies are so sophisticated.
I wish nothing but the best, get through this rough patch and keep your eyes on the prize