Hey,

I'm a stage IV GI tract cancer patient. I have been on treatments for about two years and a half. So far I have been hanging in there.

Ever since my diagnosis, I was told my disease was incurable and terminal. My 5 year survival rate is less than 10%.

I worked for about a year after diagnosis, but recently went on disability. I just couldn't handle the treatments and work life anymore.

Now that I am on long term disability, I can't help but feel like I am taking advantage of the system or something. Or feel bad for getting paid while not going to work. But at the same time I feel like my work is just surviving now.. Managing symptoms, treatments, endless doctor and scan appointments, etc

Another issue I have with this disability transition is having to change my mindset around finances. I probably won't get to retirement age. I'm 39 now. But I can't help to think whether I should be putting money on investment accounts, IRAs or what have you.

I don't know what I am trying to get out of this post. Maybe just to vent. Or see if anybody is or has been in my shoes.

Well my peeps, I'm heading to MD Anderson for 3 month scans as we speak. Wish me luck!

As someone currently going through sarcoma treatment, I really found this totally insulting.

Mastercard is saying they’ve helped with over 80 million dollars in donations over 15 years, when Mastercard made 15 BILLION DOLLARS in profit last year. It’s literally just a tax write off program. They could be one of the top cancer care donors in the world but choose to keep it all.

They also do business with some of the worst carcinogen producing corporations and governments on the planet.

It just feels gross to be used as a prop for corporate whitewashing, but I live in the USA so that’s pretty standard unfortunately.

Thank you for reading. That is all. Better days are coming!

So, I find out today if all this surgery and radiation was worth it or not.

Stay tuned kids for our exciting conclusion!

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!

Drunken 🦙 Out!

I’m currently going through a lot of anxiety about relapse, and honestly, it’s been making it really hard for me to focus on anything else.

I’ve seen quite a few videos/stories of people relapsing 2–5 years after finishing treatment, and unfortunately those stories have been stuck in my head. I know everyone’s journey is different, but I think hearing some positive experiences might help me put things into perspective.

So, for those of you who have had lymphoma/cancer and are in remission — how long have you been in remission? And if you know someone who has been in remission for many years, I’d love to hear their story too.I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who are 5, 10, 15+ years out and doing well, because I think I really need to hear some of those stories right now.

Thank you. 🫶

Hi my Mama ji is diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer but we are not financial really strong we have tried from PGI but they gave us appointed after 1 month . So i wanna know if you have any recommendation for a good hospital which accepts ayushman card. If possible share your personal exprience and expenditure in that hospital
Plss help!!!!!!!

I'd like to hear from everyone who need to stay in the hospital for like 11h because he or she is alergic to the chemo. Specially those with a chemo like mine (docetaxel and gemcitabine). Infusion day is terrible, I can't do anything in the hospital because im sleepy from the anti histamines, can't eat because i have absolute zero hungry there no matter what, the infusion kills my appetite and gives nausea... So I sleep and sleep... And get out of there feeling weak and terrible and dead. But then I get better for the night, usually, and go get some dinner some place nice, since I don't live in the big city where I treat my freaking cardiac Angiosarcoma at 21.

I just turned 72, so I feel a little guilty talking about my situation when there are so many young people here. I hope you'll find it helpful.

I won't go into granular detail about all the CTs and MRIs leading to the first diagnosis, but what started out as "well, could be but it's probably not" turned out to be a tumor in my left lung and I had an upper-left lobectomy in the summer of 2018. After only a couple of weeks of recuperation from surgery, my chemo began. (Put off getting a port until I was a month or so into chemo to get a few more weeks beyond surgery. The port makes a big difference for the good!) My oncologist chose one strong and one VERY strong drug for my chemo.

It nearly killed me. But it did NOT. On my last day of chemo I lost consciousness at the cancer center and was taken to a hospital ER. My kidneys were shutting down, I was later told, but after four nights in the hospital I went home.

Switching gears, I had been on a watch-and-wait regime with prostate issues for more than 20 (heck, maybe 30) years when a biopsy showed cancer requiring treatment. And wouldn't you know it, it was about the same time that a CT found nodule in my RIGHT lung (later found to be cancer).

I did the five-day (intensive dose) radiation for the the lung nodule before moving forward with prostate treatment, which, several months later, involved 28 treatments targeting the prostate.

Today, we're watching the lung nodule and I'm about five months into double ADT (androgen deprivation therapy) for the prostate. The effects are rocking my world. No fun whatsoever and I'll come back and talk about that later.

This is my first time posting and what I really want to say is that I am eternally grateful for these eight years. There has been some pain, some heartache, but also a whole lot of joy. Please keep fighting. To hell with cancer.

Is there anybody else getting insane dreams from chemo? They're so vivid, so detailed & sadly so exhausting. Whenever I get these turbo dreams I wake up even more tired & unsettled.

They're so intense, like all the scenery changes every 2 seconds, there's a lot of "visual" stimuli and a lot of noise. The worst part is, I can't stop them, I can't escape/wake up. I've been getting chemo since June & realize while dreaming immediately if its going to be a turbo dream. I scream, I cry, I flail but I get dragged along.

They're so hard to describe, like you're on a loud carousel with insects flying everywhere & lights flashing, seconds later you physically get dragged into a swamp & can't breathe, only for the scene to change again and you're at a train station while the floor keeps folding over yourself, creating an endless loop you run across - all while multiple people are talking at once, getting angry you're not holding the conversation.

There's never rest, everything moves all the time. I am legit scared of these dreams by now, I hate them so much. It feels like they're overloading my brain.

Is there anything I can try to wake myself up? Or calm myself inside the dream? Does anybody else have any experience with this?

It’s been 6 yrs since I had a total hysterectomy and lost my chance at ever having children if my own.

Is it wrong that after all that time i still cry over it, feel angry or depressed?

I lost my mom to cancer in 2014 as well. I don’t feel like a woman, I’m scared everyday that I’ll get a different kind of cancer as well since 2 Drs looked me in the eye and told me I didn’t have cancer. It was only when I kept going to the ER (3-4 times) for massive bleeding that someone decided to look deeper & same with my mom.

I understand I need to be grateful i survived but what good is surviving if you are scared every day?

i start my first infusion cycle next week and the sheer volume of logistics is hitting me all at once. between gathering pathology discs, organizing baseline scans, handling work leave, and trying to plan out nutrition and port recovery, i feel like i need a project manager just to get through intake. has anyone used an oncology navigation or care concierge service to help streamline records and prep before treatment kicks off?

My oncologist has set me up for an early appointment which was today

She said to me that there is a high chance of an early relapse waiting now to do my ct scan and some blood work

I am a cancer patient with met to the liver. Question, has anyone out there had Histotripsy done? They are looking into that for me and it is fairly new. Thank you in advance for answers.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hello, was wondering, as the end approaches I find myself being extremely jealous of religious people, of the belief of paradise I suppose? Is it normal? How do you find peace with death ? Any tips?

Everything I try to eat tastes like shit dipped in burnt transmission fluid. Textures trigger my gag reflex. My mouth and throat dry out when I sleep.
Does anyone have a clue how long I can expect this to go on?
I’ve lost 30 lb.s over the last month because I can’t stand to eat.
I asked the docs and I get estimates from a couple of months, to a year or more!

Hi,

So in summer I hard a tumour in my leg that grew over a week and started pressing on my nerves causing pain and numbness. I had it removed and a month later, when histopathology results came, they said they suspected a very rare cancer but because the tumour was fragmented, they couldn’t tell exactly what type (difference was non malignant vs very malignant so not a small difference).

Because it was uncertain, my family decided it’s not cancer and kept telling me to think about it as not cancer and that the way I approach it will determine the result, which tbh felt like gaslighting as I felt I not only had to face the potential very dangerous diagnosis but also defend it from my family.

I moved countries for job (which I lost as soon as my boss learned I’ll need another surgery and that I have a cancer).

Got the surgery three weeks ago, and today when I went to have the stitches removed, they said the second histopathology showed clean margins and no cancerous cells left. So that means I’m cancer free!

But somehow I don’t feel happy. Maybe I’m too exhausted from everything I had to go through mostly on my own. But maybe I cannot feel joy because I was hoping I’ll have answers at last. And now since I don’t have it “on paper”, my family went back to this narrative that therefore it wasn’t cancer and I should assume this position too since it’s “all about attitude”.

I feel like there’s no room for actual reality of this massive uncertainty that I now have to live with. I still will have to do CT scan every 6 months and local check every 3 months for the next 6 years. And do I have to do it while defending all the time that what I experienced was legitimate? I’m just so tired… relieved, but so so tired.

Can anyone relate?