Help with Info

Durn
After all that I forgot to say that I did not have a clue what a colostomy bag was until I woke up with one after emergency surgery. I spent 5 hours doing yard work and almost died in the hospital within a week after my perforated colon led to acute peritonitis. Spent 3 weeks there living off IVs and they still missed my cancer. We found it 4 months later after testing to have my tempy colostomy bag reversed/taken down. The smartest thing I did was follow my doctor brothers' advice to go the a comprehensive cancer center (longer drive but I truly believe that is the only reason this stage IV survivor is still alive). Heck I didn't know there was such a thing as a comprehensive cancer center, I was only 49 and healthy or so I thought.

I promise I will get off my soapbox now.

Lisa P

lisa42 said:

Lisa P.
Lisa,

I really appreciate reading all your info and statistics. With all the growing numbers of colorectal cancer, especially in the US, WHY do they not spend more efforts/research looking into PREVENTING it?? I know that's been the subject on a couple of other threads, but it just defies all logic to me! Of course treatments for it are still being very needed, but PREVENTING it should be getting huge amounts of research effort right now! Maybe it is by some, but it doesn't seem to be the case- why so many oncologists (mine included) still insist that our diet and other things we do and are exposed to has/have no effect on getting cancer, treating cancer, preventing recurrences, etc- it's maddening!!
Why the screening guidelines for CRC have recently been updated, but still tell people to "make sure to get a colonoscopy at age 50"- hello!! 50's way too late for so many of us!!

Thanks for standing on your soap box- more people need to do so and get into the faces of the cancer societies and the pharmaceutical companies and all oncologists and general practitioner doctors!!

Lisa42

Thanks fellow Lisa
I've met way too many Lisas on this site.......

New parents beware!!! Do not name your daughters Lisa, they will grow up to get CRC!!!! Just kidding of course but there are quite a few of us with the name (I can recall 8 over the years).

Thanks for your kind words and for reading the long post Lisa. But you have asked for an even longer one, Cheryl will have nothing on me with the length of this one!

I have no idea why prevention isn't discussed/researched more often but I can try to guess. Let's think of the impacts since we all know money talks in the US and probably the rest of the world too. As I see it (and please disagree if you or anyone else wants to) we (the USA) have gotten ourselves in a fine mess with some of our history and it feels like a vicious cycle to met that is going to take YEARS to break.

In the 1970s, products were introduced approved by the FDA that made food production cheaper, food taste better, and lenghten the shelf life of the product. Steroids, antibiotics, insectisides and nasty preservatives were approved for use to produce "better, but more importantly cheaper" products.

Steroids and antibiotics are given to meat producing animals (cows, chickens, turkeys, lamb etc.) so more animals would live and get bigger and better producing (more milk, more meat). Growth hormone steroids injected into a young cow add an additional 200 pounds to that cow very quickly. Cows are sold by the pound so a $6.95 injection brings 200 more pounds and at 99 cents a pound, that's a huge rate of return.........$200 for a $7 injection!!! The hormones given to milk cows allow for the cow to produce milk much sooner than it would normally and their life span is much shorter. BUT they produce more milk in that shorter life span, so that's why they do it. Just because your drinking milk is produced by a cow that has been shot up with hormones hasn't been proven to be harmful..........yet. They can do it, our government allows it.

The same goes for the poultry industry. Chickens and turkeys in the wild or free range raised look totally different than the ones raised on traditional chicken farms. I live where wild turkeys are around and I have NEVER seen one that was even close to white in color and none of them have that HUGE breast.

It is no surprise to me that "hormonal cancers" like prostate and breast have soared in a handful of countries in the last 20 years. Steroids will do that, ever wonder why they are not allowed to be taken by our athletes but we can injest them from our food chain? It's all about money.

There is not one single politician in office that will go after those industries, they'd never get reelected. I live in a state that has a huge hog and chicken industry and know that if I came out vocally about the industry and people actually listened, I would be harassed terribly and probably killed. I am very serious here, we are talking about the livelihood of many families that are just trying to survive within the boundaries presented to them.

Vegetation (fruits and veggies both) are sprayed with all sorts of things to keep the bugs and disease away. Once again everything they are doing is "legal" but it is slowly killing us.

So how do we change that? Stop buying the stuff if you can afford to. I can definitely say the cost of organic has dropped drastically the last few years as demand increases.

Next, research. I really should start another threat about it but won't make people ignore 2 posts.

Who does research? Places that are funded to do so; universities, research labs, and pharmaceutical companies. Where do they get the funding? From grants thru foundations, the government, and pharmaceutical companies are the ones that come to mind the quickest.
The universities and research labs all depend on grants or private funding to keep going until they can sell their "results". Taking something to a clinical trial cost big bucks and in my opinion the only way to get investors is for the investors to have a chance to make some money (DUH). THE only way the result will make money is if it is a product that can only be made synthetically (not natural or god made, human made) and then a pharmaceutical companies buys it, finishes the testing requirements, and then produces it. Let's say peanut butter is found by research to help impede the advance of cancer (this is total exageration people!!!!), that product is already in the marketplace and no one will make money off of it other than the ones that already do. Now let's say some university lab finds a way to add aspirin (a man made synthetic product that does good things) to the peanut butter and THEIR studies show it is more effective then the just plain PB is. They go get investors for testing until they get far enough along to sell the "enhanced PB" to a pharmaceutical company that will manufacture it and we will all get to see the commercials on TV. The original investors make a mint, the university gets great accolades and funding and everyone is happy. Does the enhanced PB really work, who knows until a few years pass and there are no lawsuits.

I bring that all up because let's say I'd really like to prove that cancer cells do feed on sugar or that sea salt is better for you than table salt. There is not money to be made on the end result so funding is tough and has to come from foundations or the government. The government funding for all research has been cut drastically the last several years so the only recourse are the foundations and lord knows they too have been cut drastically given the economic climate we are in this days here.

I know that's alot of info Lisa but bottom line, there is NO MONEY to be made off of prevention, a cure is much more valuable, especially if it is something that has to be taken by everyone (vaccine) or daily (recurring income). It is all about money, sad as that is.

From my work, I always tried to come up with a solution if I was bashing something. I never felt right complaining about something without providing a solution even if it was a lame one.

How do we change it? By reading labels and stop buying the crap that is made with things that are killing us, put your money where your mouth is per se. Donate money to non-profit orgs that might help in some of the "basic" research that needs to be done. NEVER believe a study done about man made things versus synthetic one that are funded by the synthetic product maker (DUH). Demand diet and other info from your docs. If you do not have any of the genetic CRC factors you are where I am with a "lifestyle" cancer. Like you I think we have one of the easiest to detect and prevent cancers there are and need to just talk about it every chance we get. I don't wish what I have gone thru on anyone, well maybe a few...........

That's plenty for now and I hope you don't get bashed for provoking me.

Lisa P.

taraHK said:

brief story
My very brief story but I hope it might be helpful:

I was diagnosed at age 44. No risk factors (i.e. no family history. I eat tons of fruit and vegetables, little red meat, exersise regularly).

I had blood in my stool once. Went to general doctor. Luckily, he referred me right away to a specialist. I was diagnosed with Stage III rectal cancer.

That was 6+ years ago. I've had a few recurrences but I'm alive and have already "beat the odds" in terms of stats that were floating around at the time of my diagnosis for my stage.

Tara

My story
I started having cramps one day..Thought they were related to my period..They were getting worse and worse..Went to doctor..Did a pelvic exam and saw nothing..Did a CAT scan and said you need to go to the hospital now!!!! I had a large tumor that was blocking my colon....The only thing that saved my life was that there was a small pencil hole in the tumor just enough to let some feces through otherwise I could have died from Septic shock syndrom...Had the tumor removed along with 10 lymph nodes which 9 were positive...I stared treatment a month later..After 6 monthes of treatment I am DONE!!!!! My CEA test came back good and going to have a colonoscopy this Friday...I am 44 years old and no other health issues..I had lost 144lbs (had lap band surgey) exercised 6 days a week and was in the best health ever in my life..Then I had cancer...The doctor said this was probably growing in me for atleast 10 years if not more...So if I had screening earlier in life I might not have had to go through all of the pain and suffering I did...Good luck with your speech..I think its a great idea to get people more aware of early screening...Keep up the great work and thank you for doing it...Julie