h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Greetings,

The "C"-word indeed scares a lot of people; maybe for no other reason than that Cancer is indiscriminate.
From my own experience there is only one thing I would like to add to this entry: GO SEE YOUR DOCTOR, HAVE CHECK-UP'S...DO NOT WAIT until it is too late!!!

Walk in Light /|Star*

Agreed Star, I forgot to add that, I got a bit emotional behind the key-board. From my understanding, many types of cancers can be treated if caught early on. The earlier the better. I do not pretend to be a Doctor or radiologist or anything. In fact, I am just an average Joe, so to speak. Quite frankly cancerscares me. I know that I run a high risk being from a family who has cancer in it. My family runs the risk of Prostate cancer, Lung Cancer and Breast Cancer. Still stupidly enough I smoke way too much. I still remember what the radiologist told my grandmother, "If you had come in sooner we could have removed it without many complications. All we can do for you now is try chemotherapie, and radiation after surgery, and then make you as comfortable as possible." For what its worth, and I'm not sure its worth much, I beleive that if she swallowed her pride earlier much pain and suffering could have been avoided.
-Northguardian

I have recently found I have a pre-cancerius polyp in my sigmoid colon. Not good news since when they remove it they will see if there is any cancer in the large portion that they could not remove during the colonoscopy. I started complaining to my doctor at least 5 years ago about small amounts of blood (bright red blood) in my stool. The idiot I was seeing would not order the test called a symoidoscopy because as he put it, "You don't want to have that test, it is no fun." I went to a new doctor who ran a more reliable but non invasive test with negative results. I moved on to a new doctor when I found I wasn't getting good care and by that time was concerned with other physical problems. Two or three months ago I started getting more small amount of blood again. It was happening more often. Finally a few weeks ago I passed enough blood to be really upset so I called the doctor. They tried to put me off, said it was probably hemroid. I insisted it was not a hemroid so they reluctantly saw me. They reluctantly sent me on to have the colonoscopy because the new guidelines say anyone over 50 should have a colonoscopy to verify there are no potential polyps present. After age 50 polpys become potentially cancerous. Guess what they found, a whopper right away. The test was no fun but having a resection of my sigmoid colon is not going to be either and if the colonoscopy had been done 3-5 years ago maybe the polyp would have been small enough to remove during the test.

So if you are over 50 insist they do a colonoscopy to be sure. If you have a family history, or symptoms don't back down, Keep insisting.

Greetings,

I couldn't agree more Egg with your post!

Obviously the "quacks" you have been seeing as long as 5 years ago should have done the necessary tests right away. Most patients don't insist on inherently unpleasant test, and the care for the health of their patients should always be more important than the guidelines of the NHS or even the private insurances.
I am not defending the doctors who didn't recognize your problem in time i.e. didn't take the complaints you had seriously, what I am still convinced off however is that by having regular check-ups one can at least try to minimize the risk.
Cancer can, but not necessarily HAS to, kill....that is just the way it is...at least for the time being.
I saw a program on the gogglebox where a well-known professor in Oncology stated that he is sure the medical world will be able to reduce the risk of Cancer killing more and more people all over the world; he is willing to give his word that in a few years from now there will be medication available which, if taken daily, will no longer prevent people from living a normal life.
I myself am already participating in a test-program for patients suffering from Ovarian cancer and I must say that my life is more or less normal...*giggle, although not everyone would agree I am...*
As far as your surgery goes: there is very little I can do, except sending you all the healing-energy I can muster and I will keep my fingers crossed for you. I would also like to add that although the "net" is fairly anonymous, it takes courage to come forward and talk openly about being a cancer-patient. Thank you

Walk in Light,
Star*

Intel Corp., United Devices, Stanford University, Oxford University, and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute are currently involved in a peer-to-peer program based on an application known as UDAgent. This program utilizes any idle processing power on your computer to help find a cure for various types of cancer. It runs in the background, there's no spyware. More information is available at http://www.intel.com/cure; you can download the UDAgent from http://members.ud.com/download/gold/ .

Woops, I forgot to separate the semicolon from the first link. It's http://www.intel.com/cure , for those of you who insist on clickage for openage of linkage.

Thanks to all the supportive comments/relplys to my post. I am going full strength again and no cancer was found. 12" of colon was removed with the poly and I didn't have to have a temporary colostomy bag. Whew, that was definatley lucky. Recovery has been difficult some days and a breeze others. I don't heal as fast as I did in my twenties so it took closer to 10 weeks to feel okay. My diet was affected and I can not eat popcorn now without discomfort for 3-4 days after. Boohoo, my favorite snack. I now try to eat plenty of fiber like oatmeal, green beans, broccolli and wheat bread. I have always eaten like that but now I find I feel better if I make sure to lean heavy on those and go light on the meat, potatoes, white rice and the like. Patience is the big word in this process. Thanks again for the good vibes, it helps to get it out and talk about it.