@springbok
Forum Replies Created
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- January 2, 2011 at 4:30 am
Mike,
You raise a good point. The longer we stay alive , the better our chances of staying even longer alive. Medical research is lurching ahead, not very quickly and not very directly, but progress is being made.
My quibble with the reaearch is that it seems to be wholly centred on the chemical warfare appoach. Perhaps not surprising since Big Pharma is bankrolling most of this work.
I would have like to have seen more research on the causes of the disease and the effects of nutrition, stress, heredity, hormone levels etc.
Regards
springbok
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- January 2, 2011 at 4:30 am
Mike,
You raise a good point. The longer we stay alive , the better our chances of staying even longer alive. Medical research is lurching ahead, not very quickly and not very directly, but progress is being made.
My quibble with the reaearch is that it seems to be wholly centred on the chemical warfare appoach. Perhaps not surprising since Big Pharma is bankrolling most of this work.
I would have like to have seen more research on the causes of the disease and the effects of nutrition, stress, heredity, hormone levels etc.
Regards
springbok
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- November 13, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Chuchweldana,
I don't want to sound like a broken record.(I have given this response to another poster), but please grill your onc on the need for a general lymph node disection. There is increasing speculation that it may not improve the progosis of stage 3 patients, and the chance of lymphodema is about 50%, I believe.
best of luck
Springbok
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- November 13, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Chuchweldana,
I don't want to sound like a broken record.(I have given this response to another poster), but please grill your onc on the need for a general lymph node disection. There is increasing speculation that it may not improve the progosis of stage 3 patients, and the chance of lymphodema is about 50%, I believe.
best of luck
Springbok
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- November 12, 2010 at 3:00 pm
May I propose a more fundamental question for your oncologist: What evidence is there that the removal of the lymph nodes will stop the spread of cancer?
It seems to me, from what I have been able to understand as a layman, that this question is currently being discussed in the medical community.
Regards
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- December 30, 2010 at 1:33 am
Mark… To follow up on a few points you raised:
If I understand the " plan" correctly, they want you to be examined by a Dermatologist every 6 months and by a surgeon/oncologist every 6 months. So that if you stagger the appointment dates by 3 months, you effectively get an examination every quarter, but see each of them only twice a year.
On the subject of whether I was awake for the SNB. … No I was under general anaesthetic. What they do at the Tom Baker – and I do not know if this is standard practice or not – they have an anesthetist inject you with the radioactive marker at the primary site the day before the operation. After a few hours, he then x-rays the sentinel area and tries to identify and locate the sentinel nodes. He will mark their position on your skin (which the surgeon told me they find difficult to interpret from 2D on the X-rays to 3D). The next day, the surgeon verifies the anesthetist's results with a Geiger counter
regards
Springbok
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- December 30, 2010 at 1:33 am
Mark… To follow up on a few points you raised:
If I understand the " plan" correctly, they want you to be examined by a Dermatologist every 6 months and by a surgeon/oncologist every 6 months. So that if you stagger the appointment dates by 3 months, you effectively get an examination every quarter, but see each of them only twice a year.
On the subject of whether I was awake for the SNB. … No I was under general anaesthetic. What they do at the Tom Baker – and I do not know if this is standard practice or not – they have an anesthetist inject you with the radioactive marker at the primary site the day before the operation. After a few hours, he then x-rays the sentinel area and tries to identify and locate the sentinel nodes. He will mark their position on your skin (which the surgeon told me they find difficult to interpret from 2D on the X-rays to 3D). The next day, the surgeon verifies the anesthetist's results with a Geiger counter
regards
Springbok
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- December 28, 2010 at 3:14 am
It's interesting you mention the issue of scans. I was very dubious about the value of doing an SNB and went back to talk the cancer surgeon a number of times with more questions. Not once did she bring up the subject of scans. I suspect, as others have mentioned, that the health region is putting pressure on the oncs to be very sparing with this scarce resource
Eventually, after learning more about the PET scan, I asked her if we could do one of those in place of an SNB. Her (correct) response was that the PETcould not pick up micro-mets.
For the record, I am being treated at the Tom Baker clinic
Regards
S
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- December 28, 2010 at 3:14 am
It's interesting you mention the issue of scans. I was very dubious about the value of doing an SNB and went back to talk the cancer surgeon a number of times with more questions. Not once did she bring up the subject of scans. I suspect, as others have mentioned, that the health region is putting pressure on the oncs to be very sparing with this scarce resource
Eventually, after learning more about the PET scan, I asked her if we could do one of those in place of an SNB. Her (correct) response was that the PETcould not pick up micro-mets.
For the record, I am being treated at the Tom Baker clinic
Regards
S
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- December 28, 2010 at 12:11 am
Mark,
Thanks for your response.
I am embarressed to say that I did not ask the surgeon for my Stage, and she did not offer up the information either , but from what I have read, it sounds like Stage 2.
Also, they only took out one node. I will grant the Radioligist his due. He kept searching (and X-raying) for further nodes but could not find any more, nor could the surgeon with her geiger counter.
When you mention 3 monthly examinations at your cancer center, I take it, these are skin examinations and manual checks on the lymph nodes?
regards
S
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- December 28, 2010 at 12:11 am
Mark,
Thanks for your response.
I am embarressed to say that I did not ask the surgeon for my Stage, and she did not offer up the information either , but from what I have read, it sounds like Stage 2.
Also, they only took out one node. I will grant the Radioligist his due. He kept searching (and X-raying) for further nodes but could not find any more, nor could the surgeon with her geiger counter.
When you mention 3 monthly examinations at your cancer center, I take it, these are skin examinations and manual checks on the lymph nodes?
regards
S
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