Art & Inspiration Stand up to cancer - who have you lost?

Lost my dad,my uncle,my mother-inlaw,my other uncle has it,my moms new husband has it, I went through the tests last winter/spring cause they thought I had it......turned out I,m okay...for now.

 

Lost my dad to bladder cancer at 64, he worked like a dog all his life and died 3 months before he was to retire. Cancer runs on his side of the family, His brother and 5 sisters all died of some sort of cancer. There is a reason they call it practicing medicine, it's about time they found a cure, but realistically they're is more money in treating cancer than curing it.

 

My dad had Prostate Cancer. Was in denile for months and finally accepted it and beat it. They were pretty shitty times

 

Lost my best friend to colon cancer when he was only 29,watched him waste away for 2 years.In 1998 I was diagnosed with renal cell cancer.Lost my left kidney,but the Doc's were optimistic that they got it all.In 2001,I had a chest x-ray and there was a spot.After a cat scan they told me it was the same renal cell from the kidney.I have a Dr. visit every 6 mo. and a cat scan every other 6 mo.The course of treatment is find the tumors and remove them because renal cell doesn't respond to chemo or radiation.The trick is early detection.If you feel something isn't quite right GO TO THE DOCTOR.

 

My father with a blood cancer 1991.......he was an inspiration.

 

2 Grandparents and my beautiful wife.

 

My Mother, in a cruel way. Last year when she was on the heart transplant list, they discovered a benign cancer mass in her stomach. It was removed, but it disqualified her from the heart transplant (you have to be cancer-free, of any kind, for five years). She died two months later.

 

My wife has been fighting it for four years. It started of as breast cancer they did the standard treatment Chemo & Rad. plus a biopsy. They thought they got it all. Doc told us that if she made it 24 months we would be ok. 22 months later they find a lesion on her lower vertebrate. It has metastasized and is all over her body(Bones,lungs,liver,brain)They says she has until November or April. It depends on which specialist you talk to. They don't like me much at the cancer center. Just answer the fucking question, I don't need the 20 minute of bs. She wants to go through the shit again just to try and make it until our anniversary. It's not till May 29(15 Yrs). she is only 39.

James

 

my wife of 18 years and she was only 38, she had breast cancer. RIP Arleen

 

My wife, Tina, December 22 2006. She was 29 years old. She survived 6 years after her initial diagnosis gave her 6 months at most. The strongest, yet gentlest person I have ever met. She never asked why, she never complained, she had the most incredible attitude and outlook on life. I miss her with every single cell of my being.

 

I lost my dear Mother back in 1985......she never smoked or drank & ate all the right foods! first she had part of her breast removed....chemo, then it went all through her body.......I freaked out at the hospital on the tues. night, she died sat. morn. My Uncle said it was a good thing i didn,t go back!!!!!! Life sucks sometimes......God bless my Mom................Marty

 

My dad Harold Davison 8-14-2003. He licked it once and it sneeked back and got him.

 

My Grandpa Ray in 1995.

 

I've lost a few relatives to cancer. My 91 y.o. grandmother has beaten it several times over the last 5 decades. She's a tough 'ol redhead. Now it's back in her throat. She's decided against anymore treatments.

4-1/2 years ago my high school sweetheart and wife of 34 years was diagnosed with an Oligodendrogiloma brain tumor which manifested itself as seizures and severe headaches. It's located in her left Temporal lobe and the size of an egg. The location is bad news if you're right handed and she is. The doctors pretty much said "sorry we can't operate because she'd have extreme cognitive deficits"

Through the Internet I found another doctor with experience in this type of tumor. He says "she's probably had it for at least 20 years as they're very slow growing."

With that knowledge, he suggests an interactive MRI and discovers she uses a different section of her brain than normally used for speech and short term memory. He consults all his doc buddies at the National Brain Tumor Foundation and at The Cleveland Clinic, then recommends surgery.

A week later she has brain surgery. They woke her up during surgery to test her speech as they operated. A 7 hour operation with 2 surgeons but they were only able to remove 1/2 of the tumor. 80 staples in her scalp, Titanium plates and screws to hold her skull together.

About a month later, she goes in for (Gamma Knife) radiation treatment. 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Most all her hair fell out and I buzzed off the rest but she's lucky as it's grown back well.

It's been 2 years now. She's been the subject of published medical reports collaborated on by her Neurosurgeon, Neurologist and Oncologist due to the rarity of type/location and outcome. With extensive neurological tests, she is still rated "average to slightly above average" in cognitive abilities other than speech.

She gets an MRI every 3 months. According to the MRI / Radiologist not much has changed but I can tell the fuckin' tumor is slowly taking her away from me. She's had increasing trouble with her speech, spelling, memory, finding words and often says things backwards "hot means cold" "big means little" or she'll leave out parts of a sentence and/or skip words.

Now days, we try and squeeze some joy out of every day, appreciate each other a little more and spend more time together. I've even taken a low wage driving job because she can ride along.

My suggestion to others diagnosed with cancer is:

Research, research and research. There's new treatments and trials all the time, discuss them with your doc. Not all the doctors stay on top of new info and they may learn something from you, which in turn will make you more of a "special" patient.

Understand what's happening to you and go to the doc with a large list of questions. They love explaining in detail to someone who understands their answers.

Sorry for the book!! ......... but it's an important subject to me.

 

Two years ago. My girlfriend of 13 years, mother of two. We married on the Friday, she was gone by the Tuesday.

Barely drank, never smoked, ate a healthy life. Lost her to secondary breast cancer. She's still never not there...

http://hotrodfil.blogspot.com/2006/09/grief-kids-and-norm-grabowski.html

 

my dad on may the 12th this year

 

My father to Colon Cancer. He was a simple man in very good terms. Would do anything for anyone. Never asked for much in life and really didn't expect much. He love his family and worked hard to raise us and give us a good home. I miss him..

 

found skin cancer on my back last summer and it had to be removed, after 3 years of waiting(not smart) to have it looked at it was finally over and done with and im glad it is finally over.

 

Glad your OK....Most my guys here never knew that 6 months ago I had a lump removed from my left chest right under the nipple ,The doctors thought I might have had breast cancer ,YES guys can get breast cancer I dodged the bullet this time however it can and does happen to men so if someting seems strange get it checked out damn it!this scared the crap outa me like nothing Ive ever gone thru........

 

Half of my nose. Piece of my ear. Lots of friends and relatives. Cancer sucks.

 

know the feeling bud it was quiet possibly the worst feeling i have ever experienced, it was stupid on my part to let it go on for that long but i guess i always figured it would magically go away, or i was scared they would only tell me i had x amount of days left. thankfully my mother works for a doctors office and she knew but not how long it had been there, so after i lifted my shirt the doctor said yeah that needs to be removed(it was on a friday) and i said well how bout monday because i had a busy weekend, WRONG ANSWER! within 15 minutes they were cutting on me and within a hour it was gone.

So a note to everyone on here if u have something on your back that is almost like a pimple but stays there for a while get it looked at (mine was constantly scabbed over) and always make sure you and your kids wear sunscreen because that is what caused mine is being over exposed to the sun at a young age.........

 

LowKat, great advice and I wish both you and your wife well. We have very similar outlooks, and our partners similar treatments.

 

My wife's father this year. lymphatic cancer. My best to everyone that is currently dealing with it.

 

green supreme is somewhat a cure for it , i have seen it work to. look it up their should b a website for it

 

Omg!! It's hard to read this thread and not get tears in your eyes.
I've had a few friends die of some form of cancer and my great aunt died of breast (that turned into) bone cancer. It was so sad to see her in the hospital.
God speed to all who are going through this. Cancer is a Killer and this killer MUST be brought down!

 

My father smoked his whole life. When he was about 50 or so, they found lung cancer in one of his lungs. He had a lung removed and lived. That was about 10 years ago.

Now they have found melanoma in his other lung. He started chemo last week. I hope he beats it. I know melanoma is a bad one.

 

My grandfather to brain cancer (54 years old IIRC), my very good friend Renee to bone cancer (40 years old), and my best friend got skin cancer than went to a lymph node last year (31 years old). Luckily my friend has survived and is currently cancer free.

 

It is amazing to read this thread and see the strength of people diagnosed with cancer and I have the up most respect for those that have lost. It is hard to read this and not shed a tear. Hearing these stories is what drives me to work day in and day out.

I work for a company called Naviscan, please look at our site, www.naviscan.com. We have developed a new technology for scanning cancer. I won't bore anyone with all the details but the basics of it is we took PET (positron emission tomography) technology and we were able to make it a 100 times more sensitive then we get it closer to the body part for scanning purposes (mainly breast at this time), we inject our patients with a radio isotope known as FDG. FDG is basically a radioactive sugar, and cancerous cells consume sugar at ten times the rate of a normal cell, so when the cells begin to consume this sugar that start omitting gamma rays 180 degrees out from each other, when this begins we are scanning and are able to reconstruct a 3d image of the internal section of the breast. Because of the great engineers and physicist I work with we are able to see cancer when it is only 1mm in size and have been able to zero in on positions as far in as the milk duct. This is amazing for catching things in the very beginning stages. Unfourtunately because of all the regulations involved with being in the nuclear medicine field we are only cleared for "high risk" patients. But with enough Dr's using our technology hopefully one day we will be the next mammogram. And eventually get cleared to run all other parts of the body.

 

My nephew has fought it for 3 years, M. D. Anderson, the works. Now there's nothing they can do but make him comfortable, and that's getting difficult.

I was diagnosed about 2 years ago with prostate cancer. I had no symptoms, just a little spike in my psa test. My g.p. insisted that I check it out. He saved me a lot of grief. They caught it early, I underwent robotic surgery and have been cancer free up to now.

What really opens your eyes is just how many men go throught this. I am on the list to discuss my results with others that have to make a treatment decision. There's a lot of us! Get the physical, get the colonoscopy and the psa test. It ain't fun, but it could save your loved ones a lot of grief.

 

Various older family members, my grandfather on 01, my other grandfather and my Father-in-law have it now and my wife just had a melanoma removed a few weeks ago. The hardest was a beautiful 17 year old young lady that was a student athlete of mine and friend of the family. She passed in 02 a few weeks after her 17th birthday. She was like one of my own kids and being a pal bearer at her funeral was the hardest thing I've ever had to do and I don't think I'll ever be past it. Live life to it's fullest and don't assume there's always tomorrow.