Never too young for colon cancer.. Where I've been

Hang in there, buddy!! While no one in my family has had cancer (that I'm aware of), I do live in the cancer capital of the country, the last I checked. I do have a family history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, glaucoma, and obesity, though. The first two I am taking meds for at the ripe old age of 29 (at least for 1 more month).

I'm confident you'll pull through this, no matter what the results are. That said, I hope they are clean and you're good to go!

 

Positive energy coming your way. Stay strong, stay positive.

 

I'll be thinking of you, Justin.

 

Any news yet? What time's your appointment?

 

I haven't seen any of those. So, not knowing any better, I'd still run.

I don't suppose you could get anaesthetic with the chemo? Wouldn't it be nicer just to sleep through it, and then get pain meds when you wake up?

 

I just stumbled on this thread. Here I'm worried about what tires to buy, and who would want Continentals when Michelin's are so cool... Funny how we fill our lives up with trivialities and ignore what's important. I hope your tests come out with flying colors. I'll say a prayer for you tomorrow (Friday) night. You sound like you have a really positive attitude and I haven't read all 49 pages of this thread but I hope you get this thing beat soon!

My very best wishes and happy thoughts to you.

 

Best wishes to you, Justin. I hope to hear the great news tonight.

 

What, you mean it's not like the doctor shows on TV where they do the scans & blood tests, get a diagnosis, start treatment/do surgery and can let the patient leave, all in one day? I'm shocked :faint2:

 

Justin might want to correct me, but my understanding is that the side-effect from chemo is horrible nausea, and that it typically lasts two or three days. That would be a long time to be kept unconscious, and there might be medical reasons why you could not safely be kept asleep during that time.

 

Hang in there, we're all hoping for great news!

 

I hope you get the good news F8L, you are my hero!

 

i just happened to watch documentary about "Burzynski" last night he is a dr in Texas who had developed revolutionary cancer treatment YEARS ago and was stonedwalled by drug companies, the FDA, etc. several supporters felt that major advances in Cancer treatment were delayed for decades because the Cancer drug and chemo therapy is a trillion dollar business to the point that they were preventing progress to protect their bankroll. kinda like Big Oil in the Pharma business

the documentary named for him is on netflix instant view. very interesting. like any controlled study, it can have "targeted" results when the patients were handpicked but either this guy knows how to pick "curable" patients or his treatment is working much better than anything else

 

Well, and there's always the documentary "Forks over Knives"...

just in case Justin wants to round out his viewing schedule while passing the time waiting for his good news

... it will be good news... I'm sure of it! :thumb:

 

The side effectS from chemo are significantly as a result of targeting rapidly dividing cells. That particularly means blood cells and cells along the digestive tract.

As a result, there's nausea, fatigue, dry mouth (plus mouth sores) and nose, little to no sense of taste, diarrhea and constipation. Due to the white blood cell count being smacked you're also vulnerable to illnesses. Then all the side effects make you not want to eat or get any exercise, which makes you even more vulnerable. Also, just being touched by other people can be painful so you may not want any physical contact for the duration of the treatment, which can make you feel even more isolated.

The strength of the side effects depends on the chemo drugs and, obviously, the individual. In the closest case to me the sufferer had 3 chemo drugs and got all side effects severely (even the oncologist and other staff were shocked at the severity). However, despite the cancer being a near triple negative, the cancer cells suffered too: there were rapid visible changes after just one chemo session and the post-surgery tests found no live cells.

I suspect the immunosuppressive effects of chemo would mean that keeping patients unconscious is the last thing they would want to do. Which is ironic, because the patient would probably like nothing more than to sleep all day.

 

Chemo has improved from what it used to be...and these days it is more targeted. We can not generalize how one person's treatment is or would be like. As far as cancer treatments, I think most treatments are getting better in being less invasive and more effective. Be it chemo, a targeted rediation treatment, targeted therapy, and/or surgery. Chemo still can have quite a few symptoms, but they're not as drastic as chemo used to entail (though it depends on how general it is). Radiation treatments have also gotten more focused...so the symptoms of nausea or weakness are getting to be dependant on each actual case.

Cancer is never a light issue, though, so all the best as far as remission!

 

Prayers sent!

Good Luck!

 

There are reasons why it's tough to get new drugs approved. A few folks here will be old enough to remember Thalidomide. It was given to pregnant women in the 1950's for morning sickness, and caused horrible birth defects. In Europe it was withdrawn quickly, but in the U.S. it was (is?) very difficult to ban a drug once it's been approved. So it took much longer to get it off the market here. Now regulators require very extensive proof of safety before drugs are approved.

As far as drug companies blocking miracle cures to protect profits, a cancer miracle cure would be worth so much money that drug companies would scramble over each other to be the first to market with such a drug. The world is full of people claiming miracle cures, and they all have loads of anecdotal "evidence" and testimonials.