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Post-treatment stuff I wish they'd told me
I have found the ongoing "lists" on this website (that everyone contributes to, sort of like a wikipedia work in progress) very useful. I am 7 months out from radiation (33) and erbitux (8 weeks) treatment. These are the main things I'd wish they had told me (but they didn't). This list is probably only relevant to those…
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Bilogical medicines
Hi, I have another post here - http://csn.cancer.org/node/251404 - which explains all these questions are on behalf of my father. This is a quick one - Has anyone here treated with Biological medicines along with Chemo? My father's docs gave him three options: 1) Radio + Chemo 6 weeks but will be tougher for the patient 2)…
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NP with no beside manner!!!!!
I felt like a total idiot at my husband's weekly follow up visit. His regular MD onc who we love and is so amazing and comforting was on vacation and a NP filled in. Stupid me asked a question about what they plan to do to monitor lungs as we always hear about monitoring neck. So I was basically looking for reassurance.…
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FINALLY : follow up lung scan tomorrow :)
Hey All, Gosh I think I have talked aobut this so much "about to happen" ...but tomorrow's FINALLY the day. The first denial came from insurance bc I was in Seattle, not my normal treatment center, as I flew out the next day back to Boise (while on the plane) the approval came in ...grrr. LOL....then the weather prevented…
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first restaurant trip
5+ months post treatment, finally bit the bullet and ate in public tonight. wish I could say the eating part was fun, but points for trying anyway. ;-) taste was working OK, but the trismus is not fun. got down some seafood soup, a bit of pork fried rice (had to spit out the pork, yuk), and one jiao-dz (steamed…
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Pre-Existing condition?
My Medical Insurance company is starting to question weather or not I had a pre existing condition. I'm on my wifes insurance, she is a nurse at a local hospital and, one would think have excellent insurance, it is expensive enough. Any body else had this BS thrown at them? It's bad enough having to face Radiation and…
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Upgrade Insight
As I know it... I'm not totally sure of the upgrade reasoning other than an old platform, hardware, etc.... There were some discussions on what would be nice as add ons to the existing forum. Mostly all functionality enhancements I had thought. But just to clear some mystery a little (again, as I know it)... Greta is the…
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finally got chocolate back
Well, i am about 2 years post treatment. many thanks to all that post here for their help in my fight. I am pretty much back to normall with a few exceptions. the reason for this post is that i recently got chocolate back. my taste buds slowly returned after treatment, but choclate just kept tasting like dirt. i just could…
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Just need some thoughts
I recently posted about having ear pain and neck pain and received some calming replies. However I called my Onc Doc today about it and received a call from his nurse. She said that the ENT doc we see on the 31st would be able to evaluate that, and then I asked if any information on the PET scan, that was I made my…
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Employee Discount
Well, I think I'm now getting the "Employee Discount" on those rare occasions when I actually eat something in the hospital cafeteria. Husband has now been in there for 10 days and is in his third room. He was given clearance to move from the Telemetry Unit to the Liver/Kidney floor. His heart is functioning as well as it…
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Merry Christmas
Hey all you wonderful warriors, I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I have not been on in awile, my hubby is doing well. Still has balance issues, massive sore throat and now I believe a pinched nerve in his leg. Other than that he's great. I was wondering a few weeks ago I noticed he had…
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Week 4 is the one where the caretaker pulls their hair out?
I am soooooo frustrated, we saw the dr on Friday, and My husband refused to go to the bathroom before his weigh in.. He said water has weight. He then went to sleep last night and in his many trips to the restroom dropped 5 lbs overnight on our scale, in 8 hours. He's suppose to get in 3000 calories, tries things and says…
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It appears that we can send and receive emails...
but there is no notification that there is one waiting in the box....probably a glitch, but one that they should know about. p
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Followup scans....
The other day Staceye was talking about follow-up scans....since she and I have the same Oncologist...and go to the same ENT's office, I suggested that we ask about them at the ENT's since she was getting no where with the Onc. Well....I had an appointment with the ENT, and mentioned that tho the Onc had scheduled my 3…
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NEW NEWS MADE MY DECISION EVEN EASIER
As I have posted recently regarding going on SS Disability and getting the stress out of my life, My decision to actually try to make this happen has just gotten easier. For any of you with kids in college a long way from home, or kids struggling with drug and alcohol abuse, I have one of each. My youngest son is home on…
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There's no place like home !
Hello guys and gals ! Things went well with the VATS/WEDGE resect of my right lung. I lost right around 10 % of the lung itself, and am on oxygen.....for .....???? I will be having a Lung PT person coming to the house a few times a week, until I'm back to a normal routine. Day 2 in hosp.....was tough (pain wise)....still…
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tender and swollen neck 7 weeks post radiation
My husband 2was diagnosed with invasive squamous cell ca of the epiglottis. The staging was cT2N2cM0 Stage 4a. He had 35 radiation treatments totaling 7000cGy and 2 6 hour treatment session of Cisplatin. He finished his treatment on October 26,2012. The past week and a half he has been having throat pain saying it is…
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Strange following breathing treatments
I will repeat myslf partially for newbies and/or those like me with Chemo Brain. After 13 years post treatment I encountered several pretty rough side effects. The first to show up was my chin went totally numb followed by numbness from my right ear all the way down my lower jaw. When I say numb I mean that in the past…
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salivary gland cancer
Is there anyone who was recently diagnosed or had a recurrence of salivary gland cancer?
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Afraid of Possibility of SCC
Hi everyone - I was a long time lurker on these boards because about 10 years ago I lost my father at age 27 to a rare large tumor in his leg that eventually metastacized and caused an Aneurysm. So my story is this, about a year or two ago I saw white patches on the sides of my tongue and immediately was concerned as I'm a…
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Peace, Comfort & Healing to My Online Family
I just wanted to wish each of you all (cancer patients, survivors and caregivers) a very Merry Christmas. I know we are all from different geographic areas as well as many walks of faith, but you all, everyone of you will never know how strongly I feel towards each of you. So no matter where you are physcially at or your…
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Merry Christmas
Just wanted to send everyone on this site a very Merry Christmas wish and hope that the new year brings the best gift of all...the gift of health. God bless all of you and thank you for all of the support, advice and care that you have taken the time to offer me since our fight with cancer began.
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Merry Christmas to all...
Whatever your holiday, whatever your celebration, I wish you all a very pleasant and fulfilled Day. i am grateful you have all touched my life and my heart. hugs, Kari
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Merry Christmas to all!
I wanted to wish all of my CSN friends a Merry Christmas. A year ago I had no clue that I would have found all of you this year. I had just noticed a swollen gland in my neck(or so I thought). The Dr. said oh it will go down, don't worry about it. A year later here I am, done with treatment and have had a clear pet scan.…
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Marry Christmas
Just wishing you all the best as many of you continue in your fight with Cancer into the New Year. Life is a struggle and fight but it can be won, never give up and keep your focus on being a survivor. I just finished HBO treatment Friday; it did not do what the doctors had hoped it would do but there was a lot of other…
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Have a safe and forward looking holiday.
Be grateful for your friends and family (both on and off line) and that you have a reasonable chance to beat this beast. Even though it seems that my reaction to the RADS have manifested themselfs much earlier than others have reported (Only four treatmemts and the back of my throat already feels like hamburger and…
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acute paronychia from erbitux
for those who care about such medical geeky things, I've just learned the technical name for the dreaded "erbitux nails". also sometimes known as "felon" or "whitlow". did a search of these boards for "paronychia", and didn't get a single hit, lol. my docs didn't give it a name either. but there's actually quite a bit of…
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Life path change
As everyone knows David's prognosis is not good and measured in months. I have talked with my work about extending my FMLA, but was unsuccessful. They want me to take a leave of absence and pay $1650 a month for Cobra. David and I have talked and we have decided that it is time for me to cut my ties with my school…
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Good News
A few good things have happened in my life. * I have a new grand daughter, Mia Rose. Unfortunately, she lives in the Midwest and I'm stuck in the Pacific Northwest. It is unlikely I will see her except in photos. * I met with my youngest son and his girlfriend. They came up to Seattle from Oregon. * I successfully used…
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Fridge clean out
So hubby and I decided to come home to Vermont this weekend. We arrived home after a wind storm to a house with no power (nothing unusual for the mountains in Vermont). We got our kids, cranked the wood stove, collected water from stream for flushing toilet, and snuggled in the living room all together. My mother in law…