Hi Paul, For me, Mike (MM) summed it up with Brownbagger's words and that was massive for me to overcome. Yes we all have faced a stage IV diagnosis, and to be honest, have no real control over the outcome but the only thing we have control over is what we do with the time that we are facing it. I'm...

Keep on keeping on Dave, you gave me hope when I first joined too.

Hi Mark Another Aussie here. I am based in Sydney in the Eastern Suburbs so had a fair amount of choices in terms of hospital care. I was diagnosed with 2 rectal tumours and one lung tumour so fell into that exclusive Stage IV club that I bet you don't want to be in! I went via the public system and...

I am now in my 8th year since diagnosis (or very close to it) and I was put on 3 year colonoscopies. Last one I had 3, 2 benign and one pre cancerous so I'm back on yearly.
Definitely got to keep getting them done!

Hi Ho All, Hope that you are well in this COVID world. Interesting that we have all had the thin veneer of "certainty and stability" ripped from us when we all had the luck of being diagnosed with cancer, and now the rest of the planet is finding it hard that the certainty that they all ha...

I think you make your decisions based on your mental state and your personality. I love to be in control of my life (hard in the COVID-19 world) and with cancer that, for me was not possible. I found that I could control my diet and my exercise. I felt at the very least I could give myself a better ...

Hey Burnt Out Zen Sounds like you have a pretty good attitude to it all. I kind of looked at chemo a necessary evil I had to go through and for me, it made the down times a little easier. I got smashed about round 6 / 7 and ended up vomitting for 2 days, and had to have fluids, but I found that afte...

I also had an autoimmune condition going into my cancer diagnosis. As I was trying to understand how this cancer could have possibly happened since I don't have the typical risk factors (I'm under 50 years old, active/not overweight or anything and in general, have good habits as it relates to nutr...

Hi Mike I think we all agree that Colon Talk provides a safe haven for a great variety of different folk. What we all want from this environment is different for us all, and it differs as we pass through different stages. I too have a great recollection of Eric and his passing really shocked me. I k...

Hi Claudia, Running has taken a bit of a back seat over the last 12 months. It was 6 years since diagnosis so about time for my personal life to be a bit more of a focus. I had trips planned to Japan in May and Italy in June, which I have cancelled though. I still run about 4 x a week about 40-50 km...

Lee, death toll in Italy from the Coronavirus was 427 yesterday (18MAR) so this is not some little virus. Granted it seems to prey more on the immune compromised or those with other health issues but we tend to love in societies that value and try to look after those people. In Italy funerals are ba...

Loved the news, and loved the photos. Are you starting to think of cancer less now?
Do you run around those fields when it is not snowing? You live in a very beautiful place.

Hi Dionca, Sorry to hear of the recurrence. What you have is a metachronous lung recurrence, meaning it has happened some time after the initial diagnosis, as compared to what I had being a synchronous lung tumour. That is good for you as the outcomes of metachronous are much better :D Ok, I'm tryin...

Hi Michelle, When I was diagnosed I already had a lung lesion but I read as much as I could and came to the conclusion that there was no evidence to suggest that chemo improved the outcomes post VATS. After my LAR I got some more scans and was a suitable candidate for VATS and talked to my oncologis...

Congrats Amy