Cancer more extensive than i thought

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  • jsabol
    jsabol Member Posts: 1,145 Member
    #42
    Wishing you all the best
    Hi Eric,
    I don't post much anymore, but I found myself reading all the responses to your original post, and wanted to add my support to the chorus. You are one amazing guy; I am now 5 years out of my original stage 3 diagnosis. One of the "benefits" of this disease is that I feel privileged to have a window into the strength of the human spirit.
    When I was in treatment, I went to hear a talk by a local Boston oncologist, Groopman, who wrote "The Anatomy of Hope", in which he speaks of the oncologist's role in helping patients navigate this roller coaster of a disease. Really hit home for me.
    A good friend with diffuse lung cancer and mets to the brain was in treatment 1 year ahead of me; we are both celebrating NED for over 5 years. Her motto was "I may have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me."
    Wishing you continued strength and ongoing hope,
    All the best, Judy
  • eric38
    eric38 Member Posts: 583
    #43
    jsabol said:

    Wishing you all the best
    Hi Eric,
    I don't post much anymore, but I found myself reading all the responses to your original post, and wanted to add my support to the chorus. You are one amazing guy; I am now 5 years out of my original stage 3 diagnosis. One of the "benefits" of this disease is that I feel privileged to have a window into the strength of the human spirit.
    When I was in treatment, I went to hear a talk by a local Boston oncologist, Groopman, who wrote "The Anatomy of Hope", in which he speaks of the oncologist's role in helping patients navigate this roller coaster of a disease. Really hit home for me.
    A good friend with diffuse lung cancer and mets to the brain was in treatment 1 year ahead of me; we are both celebrating NED for over 5 years. Her motto was "I may have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me."
    Wishing you continued strength and ongoing hope,
    All the best, Judy

    Thanks to all
    Thanks to all for the support and thank you so much Judy for the copliment and the inspirational post. I hope you and your miracle friend have many more years on this earth. The world needs people like you.

    Eric
  • pluckey
    pluckey Member Posts: 484 Member
    #44
    eric38 said:

    Kim - It`s not that my
    Kim - It`s not that my current chemo is not working. I haven`t been rescaned so I don`t know if it is or isn`t. I`m going to believe that it is. Those were the results of my pet scan after surgery but before chemo. It`s just that the doctor and I never discussed the scan in depth before. We had already talked about the liver involvement and the surgeon took out the original tumor, all of my ascending colon, and 13 lymph nodes. I was under the mistaken impression that that was all there was(as if that wasn`t enough) but yesterday, for the first time, I asked the oncologist to explain the details of the scan and the future plans for taking care of my liver mets. He explained to me how extensive my cancer was and that it would be pointless to think about any kind of liver surgery as long as all those other areas are involved. He said he is more worried about putting out fires and that even if he did it wouldn`t last and we will constantly have to try to keep ahead of it. Basically, it`s all about keeping me alive as long as possible. That is what I get for being curious. On the bright side, he didn`t make it sound like he expected me to go anytime soon. But he was preparing me for what he believes will be the inevitable. That there will come a day when we run out of options and it will eventually catch up with me. But, I am still staying positive and so much can happen in the next few years. The medical community automatically labels stage 4 as terminal anyway.

    Eric

    Eric (:.)

    You are inspirational
    All I can say Eric is what a blessing you are to this board and I will keep you in my prayers

    Peggy ((HUGS))

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