Postby Dana » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:55 am
Hi Northern Lights,
First of all good luck for chemo. Stay strong.
In my mother's case her illness was detected too late, last october.
As we know in the majority of cases colon cancer has already spread when detected but more attentive doctors could help.
In May my mother had carried out blood tests: sugar levels were high, iron low and the VES was 80 (don't know english name of this but it says if infections are in body).
Her doctor said that she probably had diabetes; her iron was always low so he gave her supplements and put the VES down to a tooth infection.
I have been told by other doctors that the tests said it all.
But her doctor didn't see.
It was too late anyway.
She never suffered pain in her abdomen but after breaking a leg in October 2004 she never seemed the same again (no tests were carried out while she was in hospital).
My mum was a very discreet lady and hated going to doctors in Italy because of the lack of “respect” towards patients. No curtains around beds and if in a ward all the other patients get to see a full view of your intimate parts without even knowing your name.
She hated this and avoided any standard check up. This didn't help.
This is important because many people don’t feel comfortable talking about their toilet habits or dread having to get naked in front of strangers and this delays the detection of cancer
Besides this had her doctor asked her if she had a family history of polyps maybe she would have been detected earlier. My grandmother suffered throughout her life and had polyps removed several times in Ireland.
Out of fear of diabetes she gave up sweets and lost so much weight so when hospitalised at beginning of September she was extremely weak. The doctors had suspects but let mum go to New York as planned (I’m glad she went, now). In the meantime the doctors informed us of the suspects they had and we booked her into a specialised hospital.
So end of September we found out mum had colon cancer stage IV. I began searching the web and found this colonclub website. I read stories of many stage IV survivors so didn’t really worry too much… at first. WE met so many people who had got through and my aunt in London had just been declared cancer free of stage 2 colon rectum cancer.
But my mother’s liver was totally covered with mets. Cancer cells were everywhere and the liver veins were blocked. It was late. The surgeon removed the entire colon and this gave her relief as she wasn’t in much pain till a few days before dying.
She was supposed to start chemo in November (Xeloda and then Oxaliplatin) but blood values weren’t right till December so she had one cycle of Xeloda. She seemed stronger but values weren’t good and had to stop.
Xeloda didn’t even get close to her liver as the veins were blocked.
Oncologist told us to stop but then after our insistence decided to start her on Cetuximab. She had one bottle, tests were better and doctor said she could have had another shot after 21 days.
We now know that there was only vitamins in the bottle and the doctor knew she had only a week or two left but didn't want to take hope away .
Anyway she’s gone.
What I know now is that prevention is the weapon in our hands. It’s not true that it appears only after 60. There are so many young people. A lady in my town died at 44 two weeks ago.
We mustn’t be shy or coy. It’s not nice to have a tube up your…. But there isn’t much choice. We must learn to talk to doctors if they don’t ask info we must give it to them. Mine knew my mum had just died and never mentioned I needed screening, I had to tell him…..
I’m having my colonoscopy end on May and am really scared , I think I will have blood tests first and maybe a scan in order to be more relaxed when I go. I am a IBS sufferer since very young and never even imagined that it could turn into something else. Hope all is well.
I’m telling everyone about the illness and I hope I’ve scared a few people.
So to honour and not waste my mother’s death I seriously intend to do something to help people know more about this silent killer.
That’s all. Time and prevention.
Lots of love to everyone
Dana