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tacochris
OG Paint Archeologist
Joined: November 11, 2008
Posts: 984
Location: My garage, Texas
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 Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenn wrote: |
Sorry about your dad but I have the other side of the coin.
Two years ago my friend Sue was driving to work when she got dizzy and pulled over. She called 911 and then passed out. She came to in the ER and after a few tested they found she had a Glioblastoma... brain cancer. Really bad brain cancer, the same type that took Gary Cater's life.
She was transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering where she had surgery. She was told that it will grow back and the average life expectancy was 7 months. She had radiation and chemo but after 3 months, it grew back. She survived the 2nd surgery with no neurological damage. She was weak but fought back. She made plans to die and got her finances in order and updated her will. Monthly MRIs showed clear and after 18 months her doctor told her she should start planning her life for another 5 years.
She's in the 1% that beats the odds. The tumor will come back and will take her life, but knowing what you have and making informed decisions can extend your life.
Knowledge is power. You can choose treatment or no treatment. |
Glenn, thats really awesome that Sue found out what she had in time, brain cancer is a bird of a different color. Good thing she found it in time....
_________________
1957 Lowlight
1962 walk-thru Kombi
"Nothing will ever be as nice as original paint, no matter how much is or isnt left"
"Those that confuse hoodride with the OG paint movement definitely have their wires crossed. Its all about preservation, pulling out its true potential while hoodride is about purposely making something look like a piece of shit." -SKIM |
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zozo
Samba Member
Joined: October 15, 2005
Posts: 5217
Location: South of Ol' San Antonio
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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| tacochris wrote: |
| Glenn wrote: |
Sorry about your dad but I have the other side of the coin.
Two years ago my friend Sue was driving to work when she got dizzy and pulled over. She called 911 and then passed out. She came to in the ER and after a few tested they found she had a Glioblastoma... brain cancer. Really bad brain cancer, the same type that took Gary Cater's life.
She was transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering where she had surgery. She was told that it will grow back and the average life expectancy was 7 months. She had radiation and chemo but after 3 months, it grew back. She survived the 2nd surgery with no neurological damage. She was weak but fought back. She made plans to die and got her finances in order and updated her will. Monthly MRIs showed clear and after 18 months her doctor told her she should start planning her life for another 5 years.
She's in the 1% that beats the odds. The tumor will come back and will take her life, but knowing what you have and making informed decisions can extend your life.
Knowledge is power. You can choose treatment or no treatment. |
Glenn, thats really awesome that Sue found out what she had in time, brain cancer is a bird of a different color. Good thing she found it in time.... |
That's outstanding! She's a very, very lucky woman.
And you're correct. It comes down to choice.
My 23 year old daughter is having surgery tomorrow for Stage 3 cervical cancer. She's been complaining of "problems" for 2 years, and has been dismissed by a grip of doctors as more or less a nut job because she said she knows her body, and knows something is wrong. They all blew her off. Now, at 23, she stands a huge chance of never having children, and that, if it turns out that way, would be a "favorable" outcome. It could very easily be worse, aka "unfavorable".
The world isn't a shitty place. It's all me. Okey dokey, so be it. It's me.  |
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ritchiet002
Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 1676
Location: Kaneohe, HI
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:21 am Post subject: |
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I never trust the person that dimisses someone because they are sure, from their experience that you are wrong---they have usually never expienced it personally, only second hand. They may be right most of the time but what about the rest of the time. My doctor said we have two experts here, you and me! I'll trust you if you trust me. I had tests that were based on my feeling that something was wrong. I felt I had found the right guy. He gave me his cell # and said call or text any time. I did at 11:30PM new years eve, and he replied in 5 min. I'm still am in awe!
My Heart goes out to all of you going through what I have read here. I know how lucky and blessed I have been. I hope for positive outcomes for you all.
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Somewhere there is a jar with your name on it!
From now on, I'm gonna connect the dots my own way!______________________________________ |
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Glenn 
Mr. 010
Joined: December 25, 2001
Posts: 76938
Location: Sneaking up behind you
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| zozo wrote: |
My 23 year old daughter is having surgery tomorrow for Stage 3 cervical cancer. She's been complaining of "problems" for 2 years, and has been dismissed by a grip of doctors as more or less a nut job because she said she knows her body, and knows something is wrong. They all blew her off. Now, at 23, she stands a huge chance of never having children, and that, if it turns out that way, would be a "favorable" outcome. It could very easily be worse, aka "unfavorable".
The world isn't a shitty place. It's all me. Okey dokey, so be it. It's me. |
I'll say a prayer for a speedy and full recovery.
23.. .damn, she has her whole life ahead of her.
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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"
Member #1009
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zozo
Samba Member
Joined: October 15, 2005
Posts: 5217
Location: South of Ol' San Antonio
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenn wrote: |
| zozo wrote: |
My 23 year old daughter is having surgery tomorrow for Stage 3 cervical cancer. She's been complaining of "problems" for 2 years, and has been dismissed by a grip of doctors as more or less a nut job because she said she knows her body, and knows something is wrong. They all blew her off. Now, at 23, she stands a huge chance of never having children, and that, if it turns out that way, would be a "favorable" outcome. It could very easily be worse, aka "unfavorable".
The world isn't a shitty place. It's all me. Okey dokey, so be it. It's me. |
I'll say a prayer for a speedy and full recovery.
23.. .damn, she has her whole life ahead of her. |
Thank you Glenn. She came through surgery without a hitch. Time and follow up testing will tell the tale. |
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Gary
Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002
Posts: 17069
Location: 127.0.0.1
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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21 years cancer free and thankful it was found in time or I wouldn't have made it past 30.
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West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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ALLWAGONS
Samba Member
Joined: June 03, 2000
Posts: 4189
Location: Pasadena CA/DTLA soon China
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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My dad is a prostate cancer survivor. 18 years and counting, though he is 85, I still push him to and go with him to all his checkups.
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Thanks to my Tesla driving neighbors, I feel more relaxed driving my SUBURBAN and old VW's.
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Randall
Samba Member
Joined: October 03, 2004
Posts: 1403
Location: Orange County, Alta California, El Norte
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Zeen
Samba Member
Joined: July 24, 2004
Posts: 1308
Location: The Sunny Part of Michigan
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 11:19 am Post subject: |
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Interesting. I had a physical a few week ago (I'm 54), and the doc said they no longer do routine digital exams or PSA tests, because there were too many false positives. This led to unnecessary tests and treatments, which caused more damage and death than untreated cancer does. My neighbor is a good example; he was laid low and had major complications from a prostate biopsy (I'll spare the details, but the access to the prostate is through the intestinal wall). After all the pain and worry, the answer was "yeah you're getting old and your prostate is enlarged, deal with it."
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The consequences of your decisions should not be confused with fate. |
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69 Jim
Samba Member
Joined: September 27, 2004
Posts: 6264
Location: Chickengeorge's Neighbor
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| Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Had a digital rectal exam last month. It was starting to get a little painful so I peeked around at the doctor and he was using TWO fingers. I said "What the hell"? His reply was he just spoke to the insurance company and they said they wanted a second opinion. |
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ritchiet002
Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 1676
Location: Kaneohe, HI
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| Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| Zeen wrote: |
| Interesting. I had a physical a few week ago (I'm 54), and the doc said they no longer do routine digital exams or PSA tests, because there were too many false positives. This led to unnecessary tests and treatments, which caused more damage and death than untreated cancer does. My neighbor is a good example; he was laid low and had major complications from a prostate biopsy (I'll spare the details, but the access to the prostate is through the intestinal wall). After all the pain and worry, the answer was "yeah you're getting old and your prostate is enlarged, deal with it." |
The digital exam is limited in that they can only feel part of the prostate-----that is part of the reason for PSA testing. My PSA was very low! The physical exam is the thing that worked for me, when done by an exprienced doctor. Which is my POINT here. If you have it done, have an expert in the field do it. I did not and it could have been a bad outcome. The urologist felt a lump that the family doctor did not. The biopsy though not very painful is a risk as you pointed out. They are very careful to inform you that you should go to the ER when and if you have specific symtoms and caution that delaying could be very serious. It went well for me with only slight discomfort. My cancer was outside the tumor, but not outside the prostate. I was lucky. I would not have been a "carefull watch and wait" patient. The stats are 1 in 6 will be diagnosed in their lifetime and 1 in 36 of those will die. I was given options and advice by several doctors and the risks involved. The decision was mine. I chose the surgery----I hope I chose correctly!
_________________
Somewhere there is a jar with your name on it!
From now on, I'm gonna connect the dots my own way!______________________________________
Last edited by ritchiet002 on Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:54 am; edited 2 times in total |
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ritchiet002
Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 1676
Location: Kaneohe, HI
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| Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| 69 Jim wrote: |
| Had a digital rectal exam last month. It was starting to get a little painful so I peeked around at the doctor and he was using TWO fingers. I said "What the hell"? His reply was he just spoke to the insurance company and they said they wanted a second opinion. |
_________________
Somewhere there is a jar with your name on it!
From now on, I'm gonna connect the dots my own way!______________________________________ |
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ritchiet002
Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 1676
Location: Kaneohe, HI
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| Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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Thought I'd bump this up! It an important subject!
My PSA is 0.1 and only need to be tested once a year. WooHoo!
Also had major cornea surgery on both eyes last fall, with outstanding out comes! I was one DMV eye test from losing my license!
Thank Dr. Mark Terry and the Portland Dever's Eye Institute
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Somewhere there is a jar with your name on it!
From now on, I'm gonna connect the dots my own way!______________________________________ |
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Cusser
Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2006
Posts: 31379
Location: Hot Arizona
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| Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:30 am Post subject: |
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There's both good and bad in modern USA medicine, one just has to be aware that they can have a part in their own path to take.
My oldest had catheter heart surgery when about 22 years old, surgeon burned off a nodule that was causing intermittent accelerated heart rate, now she's fixed forever, left hospital next day, never had to do a follow-up.
My youngest is a biomedical engineer, working on stents and catheters now.
Sure, so much of US medicine is run by insurance companies and fear of malpractice/liability. Myself, I've chosen at my age to stay away from doctors as much as possible, and I've had Crohns disease for over 40 years, small intestine surgery back in 1973.
I've seen my mother go through treatments twice (she had no symptoms), and how this can affect a person every single day, like wondering what the check-up in 3 months might show. I'm not so sure that "early detection" is always best, like maybe one lives 5 more years with early detection, lives those five years in fear/stress - or would not-knowing and dying in 4.5 years be better with a higher quality of life (because of lack of worry) be better? I believe the USA will allow euthanasia within a few years, as we treat animals far more humanely than we do people. Everyone dies sometime; my mother is like 83, and I don't want her to outlive any of her four kids, think such event would kill her quickly.
Mrs. Cusser's father spent most of his pension/savings to keep her stepmother "alive"/unconscious in a facility for over a decade (your tax dollars too), she was simply an income-generator for them. Even worse is that she was a bitch/witch to him, but he still visited her (like visiting a table) every day, wouldn't even travel to see his daughter or grandchildren "because he might be away when she died". Amazing. I don't know if that guy is smart enough to realize that he pissed away the last 15 years of his life, he loved the "admiration" of others: "you're a saint for coming to visit every day" stuff. He is a fool. My kids are 23 and 26 now, and he's essentially a stranger to them because of this.
There's so much "Dr. Oz" drabble, trend of the month. This society is so drug-hungry for every little thing, real or imagined. FDA OKs Latisse for thinning eyelashes. Are they kidding, drug companies spend millions to get stuff like that through because there's so much money to be made, ridiculous. And yet rare, but horrible diseases like acanthamoeba kerititis of the eye, a rare amoeba disease present in almost all water, gets like no research because there's no money to be made there, because only about 250 people in the history of the world have had the disease, amoebas eat the cornea, severe pain and you go blind, related to soft contact lens. Mrs. Cusser contracted that, sat in pain in the dark for 6 months, finally diagnosed, had to go out-of-state three times for examinations as no equipment here, 6th largest city in the country or even in all of California (because hospitals couldn't justify cost for such instrument). She had to put medications in her eye three different times PER HOUR, 24 hours a day (try sleeping with that), and the medication had to be shipped in from California as well. After a year she had a cornea graft and can now see out of that eye, and its a non-issue now. The FDA got involved, and made the solution and lens companies change the instructions (they were all fearful of lawsuits if they changed wording which could show liability of previous product), and now incidence went from extremely rare to extremely-extremely rare.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297 |
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