Hi, this is my first post here, but I have been reading for a while. I've been stage IV all along, but we were chasing cure. In March we moved to confirmed incurable. I have a four-year-old son and the sadness and despair about leaving him motherless is nearly all-consuming. I haven't been able to ...

My birthday was yesterday. Six years ago I met with my oncologist for the first time on my birthday. I’ve been NED for 5 years, and it will be six in October. I stopped posting, too, but it’s not from survivors guilt. It’s just that life gets busier and busier and busier the more you get back into i...

Tell yourself it is nothing and enjoy your Sunday! If you are right, you avoided worrying and ruining your day. If you are wrong, worrying all day won't make any difference. Save all your worrying until that very long drive to your appointment on Monday. I hope it's nothing. My onc told me not to wo...

In this boat too. Just had my resection. It's a large tumor but it seemed to be localized. Now worrying about the lymphs. This is a great support group- a lot of helpful people with tons of success stories. We have to keep positive! That is the key....Stay Positive!!! I told you that you would feel...

Thank you all for your kind words. I agree on the not fair refrain, for sure. When I was diagnosed as a IIIc, I thought that if anything happened to me, they would still have their dad. Men in his family live to 100. So, when he was diagnosed as a terminal stage IV, I just felt like there was no saf...

My ex husband has stage IV medullary thyroid cancer. They moved him into hospice last night. So surreal to read about it here so many times and then see it first hand with the father of my children. I went to go see him with my son. We were both shocked to hear that they said his organs were shuttin...

The key here is "if the surgery shows." This is going to be much more precise than an ultrasound. They will actually check the wall for trace cancer cells as well as nearby lymph nodes. If all is clear, there is pretty much no chance of spread. Especially if the tumor/polyp itself only had...

I want to keep my port for as long as I can. I am a difficult blood draw and the IV contrast for the CT scans is even more difficult due to the larger needle. For me it's well worth the hassle of the port flushes. My oncologist gave me the same speech about scans and radiation but I'd rather be pro...

My ex was told last summer that he had three to six months to live by three different doctors. He told our kids, and they were devastated. But the doctors were wrong. His chemo started working unexpectedly and he has been stable (I guess chemo for his kind of cancer is usually ineffective). This is ...

If it were me, I would do Xeloda, but that's mainly because I had almost no side effects so it was almost like not doing chemo. If there is even one more met still too small to be seen on a scan, I think it would be worth doing Xeloda. If chemo doesn't do much to circulating tumor cells, why does po...

Yes, yes on the protein. I couldn't stand the taste of the protein shakes, so I just ate a lot of foods high in protein. Greek yogurt is very high in protein. Same with Stouffer's Mac and Cheese. I also kept peanut butter by the bedside and dipped chocolate in it. I could only eat a couple of bites ...

Yahoo!!! Good news! After meeting with one more doctor today, my colonoscopy was finally approved!! Again, the second dr. was a little concerned on why I wanted it so bad because of my age and my mom's diagnosis but after arguing and trying to prove my point he made a call to the GI and they said i...

I started my first of 8 rounds of Xelox chemo treatments on the 13th and the Oxaliplatin IV was a bit of a nightmare. Within a few minutes of the line being flushed after the IV was finished, my lips went numb, I couldn't swallow and felt like I was choking, my vision went blurry, I got an instant ...

Wow, thank you so much for all the confidence and replys! I actually had to google what PCR meant? lol. Pathololgical Complete Response is what we are praying for ! Thank you , Stacy I was too before surgery. I thought it was a golden ticket from the dismal stats for a stage IIIc since it boosts pr...

Ok, I am terrible. I admit it. But here's my rationalization: I am so tired of those few, but all to real individuals who have never had cancer, have never been a caregiver, and yet somehow know everything there is to know about cancer. Most people are kind and supportive, but to those others, I ju...