Anyone know the answer to this?

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Comments

  • queenieb52
    queenieb52 Member Posts: 48 Member

    Life and stats
    I am right there with you Elaine! Once I realized that I am in charge of nothing and have no power over anything I was able to live.
    My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer twice. The first time she was agressively treated the second time she chose a lumpectomy. My mom never complained or at least not to me. The second time when she chose the lumpectomy and no further treatment we were angry with her but it did not sway her in the least. 4 yrs after her second diagnosis my mom and dad were traveling over a bridge in Siesta Key Florida when the operator of the bridge opened it as my dad was driving across. My mom was killed instantly as his car hit the end of the bridge as it opened. As it turned out my mom made the right decision.
    We can not determine the length of our lives no matter how much we want to live or how much others want us to. We can however determine how we feel about the day at hand. If we cant bear the day we need to lay it on another's shoulders. You all are the shoulders. Thank you for that.

    I have the same thoughts Marleyboo...
    When I was first dx with stage 3 ovarian cancer, I guess I viewed it as most of us did. The fact is that cancer...all kinds...runs rampant on my Moms side of the family, and she passed from breast cancer @ 63 in 1997. I suppose I have always had the thought in the back of my mind that 'if' any of us would get cancer (I have 4 brothers-2 sisters)was not a probability, but more like 'when'. But my youngest son actually has helped me come to terms with the fact that we don't KNOW that THIS will kill me. And I too believe that we have no control over any of this & hard as it is- you have to let it go & live. I'm still learning to do this, but he has helped me a lot to accept this. I have always had the belief that we all harbor cancer. Stress-diet-environment,genetics all plays a part in if we end up having to fight it. I see every day the people-friends-family...around me take these days & times for granted. I buried my husband of almost 30 yrs 2 1/2 yrs ago @ 47 after he refused to take Diabetes seriously. I learned the hard way to 'seize the day'.... but it is great to have a place like these forums to vent.
  • katie.bug
    katie.bug Member Posts: 14

    Nancy........how do you do
    Nancy........how do you do that (stop obsessing about a recurrence)? It is ALL I think about. I told my doctor, this is much harder than the surgery or the chemo. I just HATE waiting to see if the other shoe is going to drop. Or WHEN, I should say, because odds are, I will have a recurrence.

    Statistically, 85% of all ovac patients experience a complete remission following first line treatment. Yay for us! Oops....not so fast. Most of us will experience a recurrence within two years:

    ■Patients diagnosed in stage I have a 10 percent chance of recurrence.
    ■Patients diagnosed in stage II have a 30 percent chance of recurrence.
    ■Patients diagnosed in stage III have a 70 to 90 percent chance of recurrence.
    ■Patients diagnosed in stage IV have a 90 to 95 percent chance of recurrence.

    I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but at the same time, this disease can be such a heartbreaker - first it gives you hope (remission), then snatches it back (recurrence).

    I guess I need to try harder to live in the moment. Damn! Cancer sucks! It really, really does.

    Carlene

    wow
    wow i had no idea the stats were so bad for a recurrence.

    damn, i was stage four..

    good thing i am enjoying each day now and taking nothing for granted!

    scary but eye opening. I asked my dr once for those stats but she wouldn't tell me. Now I see why...