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Cancer

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by VooDooPope, May 13, 2005.

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  1. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Just when you think life can't throw you another curve ball it always does.

    2 weeks ago my coworker's struggle against cancer finally came to an end. She was so strong in the face of death that I only hope I can one day be as brave as she was.

    Today my wife's father was taken from the hospital in clearlake to methodist in the med center. What started sunday as back pain had him face down unable to move this morning. An hour after arriving at methodist they were prepping him for surgery to remove a tumor from his spine between T2 and T5. He'll be in intensive care for at least a few days. Durring that time the Oncologist will determine how to treat the rest of the cancer they found if they can treat it at all. We were told he has it in pockets all down his spine, it came from his lungs and is more than likely in his bones, brain and everywhere.

    Doctor said best case is he will have a few more months. Best case doesn't sound very good to me.

    My wife's grandmother (dads mom) lives in orange and can't travel She doesn't know about any of this. How can I tell her tomorrow that she will probably never see her oldest son again? How do I tell my daughter how serious her Grand Pa's sickness is?

    I pray this is over quick for him and his suffering is short.

    Sorry for the downer thread but there is no one to talk to at 2am.
     
  2. slickvik69

    slickvik69 Contributing Member

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    My brother (who was 15 at the time) had testicular cancer two years ago. Actually around this very date 2 years ago he was diagnosed. It was diagnosed in stage 4, our original stupid family doctor diagnosed it as pneumonia :mad: :mad: :mad:

    I had my suspicions, because my brother missed 3 weeks of school, he laid in bed for 3 weeks straight with intense back pain, and all he had was a back warmer. I begged my parents to get an MRI or a CT-Scan, because I had read the wrestler the British Bulldog ignored something similar and ended up with serious staph infection.

    Finally, my parents got a 2nd opinion, and the new doctor saw an unusally high calcium count in the CT-Scan. Thus, based on this, it was diagnosed as testicular cancer after oncologists at Texas Children's looked at the CT-Scans. That is the absolute WORST news I've ever heard in my life. I completely lost my appetite at that moment even though I was hungry just seconds before, I can't explain how terrible it is to hear that.

    He was in the hospital for months, in and out for chemotherapy and surgeries, and had 1 testicle removed.

    Not to mention, afterwards malignant lymph nodes broke apart and those had to be removed as well in a later surgery in Indiana, which was done by Lance Armstrong's surgeon. He had 1 last surgery to clean his abdomen of malignant lymph nodes again, this time one of his kidneys stopped working, so he only has 1 now that works fully.

    But he's pretty much recovered now, Thank God. I'll pray for you and your family and your wife's family. Trust me, I truly sympathize with you. Prayers help so much, a truly powerful thing.
     
    #2 slickvik69, May 13, 2005
    Last edited: May 13, 2005
  3. Aceshigh7

    Aceshigh7 Contributing Member

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    So he started experiencing the back pain on Sunday and now a few day's later he's given just a few months to live? Very scary how quickly something like that can happen and change your life.

    I lost my grandfather and my father to cancer. Was very traumatizing. My father died at a very young age from testicular cancer. By the time he was diagnosed it was too late. If they had caught it early I'm told testicular cancer is like 99 percent curable.

    Not trying to upset you in any way, and obviously I don't know the particulars of the situation, but wouldn't it be better for your wife to be the one to tell her grandmother about this? Just a thought.

    My thoughts and wishes are with you and your wife. Miracles do happen though. I would never give up hope.

    Here is what happened to the famous poker player Doyle Brunson. There are alot of other cases of spontaneous remission also.


    "About four months after we were married, I woke up one morning with a sore throat and thought I was coming down with a bad cold. There was a little knot on the side of my neck about the size of a pea. Louise insisted I go to a doctor and so for about three weeks I was taking heavy doses of antibiotics every day. That didn't help… and the knot grew to the size of a hen's egg. By that time, I was plenty worried. My brother Lloyd had died of cancer a short while before and I couldn't keep that off my mind. We consulted a cancer specialist in Fort Worth. He took one look at me and scheduled me for surgery the following Monday. He didn't think the tumor was malignant, but said it would have to come out.

    I went into the operating room at 6:30 a.m. When I woke up in the recovery room it was dark. Even though I was very groggy, I could tell things weren't going too well for me. Not only was my head and back in bandages, but my entire chest was wrapped in gauze and completely covered with tape. I remember thinking, "Doyle, there's something awfully wrong". Louise was there at my side telling me everything was going to be all right, but I knew she was trying to hide something. I was in a lot of pain. . .and with the drugs they kept feeding me I was fairly stupified for the next few days.

    I remained in the hospital for quite a while. My relatives and friends were always coming by to see how I was doing. That was a comfort. Still. . .nobody had the courage to tell me what the real situation was. The only thing I knew was that I was going to be taken to Houston to the Cancer Center at M. D. Anderson Hospital for further study of my condition.

    What I had not been told was that when the doctors opened me up they found massive cancer spread throughout my body. It had reached close to the base of my brain and my chest and stomach area were riddled with it. Four surgeons had been called in and they all agreed that it was useless to proceed further. The cancer had attacked so much of my body that it was only a matter of a short period of time before I died. I was a big "dog" to live longer than four months.

    While I suspected the worst, it wasn't until I was taken home for one day (prior to flying to Houston) that I really knew I was going to die. Over two hundred people came to our house that day from all over the country. I was really surprised. I didn't think I had that many close friends. From the way everybody was acting it was obvious they came to say goodbye. My friend Dwayne Hamilton just broke down and cried.

    Louise was pregnant at the time and I thought to myself how sad it was that I'd probably never get to see my baby. By all rights I'd be dead and gone before it arrived.

    Louise was thinking the same thing and had made the arrangements for further surgery at M. D. Anderson. Though the doctors had told her there was no hope of my living, there might be a slight chance of prolonging my life a few more months by radical neck surgery. With that operation, there'd be the possibility I'd be able to live long enough to see my baby before the cancer reached my brain.

    We flew to Houston the next day. For the next two and a half weeks, I rested in the hospital to build myself up for the surgery to come. I went into the operating room at 10:30 a.m. I spent eight hours under the knife. At 6:30 p.m., they gave Louise the news. I was going to make it. But. . .it had been touch and go.

    The impossible had happened
    At one point during the operation, my blood pressure dropped to zero.. .but they pulled me through. What was truly incredible was that there was no longer any trace of cancer in my system. The doctors couldn't believe it. The impossible had happened.

    The odds against my merely surviving the operation itself were very high. That the cancer, melanoma (whose black corruption had been visible to the naked eye a month before) had disappeared was incomprehensible to the staff at the hospital. Five doctors had unanimously agreed that it was a medical impossibility for me to live longer than a few more months - with or without the operation."
     
  4. Isabel

    Isabel Member

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    so sorry... prayers for your father-in-law and for the family.
    :(
     
  5. giddyup

    giddyup Contributing Member

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    I just found out that the wife of my best friend from college has a 25% chance of living five years-- aggressive breast cancer.
     
  6. Uprising

    Uprising Contributing Member

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    Sorry to hear that guys, I hope for the best.
     
  7. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Thanks for the positive thoughts. Sorry to hear about your own experiences with cancer and the losses of loved ones. Cancer is a MF'er.

    Ken's (my father in law) surgery went alright and they removed the tumor that was causing the compression on the spine but there is an 80% chance he will be paralysed from the chest down. The doctors also noted other "pockets of tumors" down the spine that they couldn't remove right now. They said there is a 90% chance that the cancer has spread from his lungs to his spine, bones and brain. The know it is in the lungs, spine and bones and they have reasons to believe it is just about everywhere.

    They are saying it is a matter of time, a few weeks or couple months, and that we should be prepared.

    After surgery he was breathing on his own, talking and alert. Knowing him and what he is faced with there is a good chance he may choose to do nothing more than necessary.



    Yes. Sunday he had a back ache that he thought was from moving an appliance out in the garage. 4 days later he's having emergency surgery to remove a tumor and has been give just a few months at best.

    I've been part of this family for almost 15 years now. My wife is going to stay here and help my mother in law. We (my brother in law and I) are going to go tell his mother. I dread this since Ken has been her main care giver for the past 20 years since her husband died. He takes her to doctors appointments and cares for her property. She lives at home alone at 88 but the arthritis is really slowing her down. This is going to be devastating for her.

    I know this is going to get worse before it's over. I just hope he doesn't suffer much in the coming months.
     
  8. Harrisment

    Harrisment Member

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    Sucks man. I've lost many family members to cancer, it's a scary thing how quickly it can strike. Try to stay strong for the rest of your family. :(
     
  9. rubytuesday

    rubytuesday Contributing Member

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    my thoughts are with all of you. :(

    my only scare was when we were 18 and my twin sister found tumors in her breast. they ended up being benign and she goes every yr now to MD Andersen for scans but it was a scary scary couple of months.

    freshman yr at UT, late october, she found it. thanksgiving she went in to the doc. surgery was during x-mas break surgery and then another surgery a wk later to remove the surrounding tissue.

    sophomore yr at UT, she had to have another surgery during x-mas for more tumors. so far everything has been benign.

    keep us posted but hang in there. stay hopeful!!
     
  10. Cohen

    Cohen Contributing Member

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    VooDooPope,

    Sorry to hear about all that. Our prayers are with you and your family.
     
  11. JPM0016

    JPM0016 Contributing Member

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    Sorry to hear that VooDooPope. I know exactly what your going through. In October of 2004 my grandma had a tumor removed from her lung. All the cancer was removed but she encountered some complications. She ended up on a respirator, and overall spent 4 months or so in a hospital. When she finally got out she came to live with us while going to rehab everyday. Within 2 months she went from using a walker to walking just as she had previously. She was able to get up and down, do a little cleaning, etc... Then in July she started having intense backpain. At first the doctors believed it was her arthritis. The medicine they gave her wasn't working so she went in for an MRI. We got the news that her cancer had not only come back but spread everywhere, her back and brain, there was nothing they could do. They said best case scenario was a couple of months. Ten days later she passed away.

    What helped though was her attitude. When she was first told about it rather than worrying about herself she told my Uncle, who had leukemia 2 years ago, not to worry about it coming back just because her's did. Just enjoy the time you have left to spend with him.

    My thoughts are with you.
     
  12. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    VDP,

    You and your's will be my family's thoughts. This is a horrible thing to happen to anyone, especially a great guy like you. From what I've read from this board, your family is especially lucky to have you to help them through this terrible time.

    +

    :(
     
  13. swilkins

    swilkins Contributing Member

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    I wish you the best.

    I had a melanoma removed from my back 4 years ago. My wife noticed it while scratching my back and had me check it out. Back scratchings are rare and the doctor said that if I had waited 6 months it would have spread to my lymph nodes and then I'd be in trouble. I have since had 3 questionable moles removed to be safe.

    My wife saved my life.
     
  14. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    It is hard indeed. What you can do is be with him, and your wife, and try and make things go as easily as possible for everyone.

    I lost my own mother to cancer. She had beaten it twice, and gone into remission both times. It came back and spread to her bones, and then her liver, and from there that was it.

    She kept believing through most of it that she could find a way to beat it, and worked hard at it. She was in the hospital for several weeks when the disease finally took her.

    Several weeks ago, my wife's father died, after several weeks in a hospital. It wasn't due to cancer, but it was hard on the family all the same.

    All I can say is that it is a time for the family to pull together, and make sure her father knows that you will all stay close, and be alright no matter what happens. The people I knew that were in serious conditions like you described always seemed comforted to know that whatever the future held, the family would stick together, and remain close.

    Best of luck with everything. You are in my prayers.
     
  15. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Thanks everyone. Cancer is tough.

    Friday evening and today were much better than thursday.

    Thursday was just a whirl wind.

    The surgery went well and Ken made it back to a private room in a day, not 3 like the doctors had projected.

    I don't think the over all prognosis is any different but he is alert, and been able to move his legs, sit up. Considering how he was thursday, its like night and day.

    Now that the offending tumor is gone he's not using much for pain and seems almost normal considering the circumstances.

    My mother in law is doing well considering.

    My wife on the other hand is really taking this hard. Add the fact that we are in the process of selling our house and buying another and she's about to lose it.

    We are leaving a grand ole victorian built in 1918 in the Heights and headed to the burbs where the schools are better for our kids. We will never have another home like this one. We bought this house before we got married and it has seen us through our 5.5 years of marriage and we broght our kids home to this house.

    I'm going to miss living in the city but by this time next month I hope to be posting from outside my McMansion sitting next to my pool.

    So much stuff to do and deal with and only so much time in the day and capain in the bottle. I think I need another drink and some good music.
     
  16. AggieRocket

    AggieRocket Contributing Member

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    VDP,

    You and your family will definitely be in my prayers. Just to give you a sense of optimism, doctors are often wrong wth respect to their predictions on survival. About a month back, a family friend of ours had a massive heart attack and he was in the hospital. The doctors basically said that he had <10% chance to live. The vast majority of his heart muscle was supposedly damaged from the heart attack. The doctors said that operating would be worthless and they wanted the family to take him home so they could take some final pictures and make some home movies. Well, he has progresively been improving and he was the point where the doctors found new hope in operating. They operated and the operation was successful. He is well on his way to making it through.

    In situations like this, you have to be realistic. But at the same time, you have to be optimistic. I wish you and your family the best through this.
     

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