[HN Gopher] Notes on My Chemotherapy
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       Notes on My Chemotherapy
        
       Author : whatrocks
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2021-02-05 20:49 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.charlieharrington.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.charlieharrington.com)
        
       | lostapathy wrote:
       | Good luck, and thanks for sharing.
       | 
       | I just went through this (with a different cancer). I didn't blog
       | about it like this, but I shared some on Facebook and that seemed
       | to help me and the people around me a lot.
        
       | fab1an wrote:
       | The absurdity of the American health care and insurance system
       | will never not amaze me. It's just sad and weird, and even
       | weirder that you will always find a bunch of intelligent folks to
       | defend it. Wishing the author, who btw is a better writer than
       | most writers, a speedy and complete recovery.
        
         | NortySpock wrote:
         | We're not done yet, we can still improve it, we just need to
         | keep leaning on our congress-people to fix it.
        
       | sievzig wrote:
       | Thanks for the update Charlie. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | _My infusion center is the adult center. I 'm not sure I could
       | stomach seeing children and babies getting chemo. I'm crying
       | right now even thinking about it (which hurts, if you remember my
       | side effects)._
       | 
       | Powerful ending to the article... indeed, fuck cancer.
       | 
       | Get well soon, stay well!
        
         | mmaunder wrote:
         | I beat the crap out of stage 4 blood cancer a few years ago and
         | am now officially cured. I realized my battle was nothing when
         | I was getting my second round of chemo, and a happy bald 5 year
         | old with a lollipop got on the elevator with me at Seattle
         | Cancer Care Alliance (Fred Hutch) where I was being treated,
         | and I glanced at mom and she looked so very tired.
        
       | NKosmatos wrote:
       | Good luck and thanks for sharing. Keep up the positive attitude,
       | you've got a long road ahead of you (wait for
       | quarterly/semiannual/annual exams...) but if you confront it as
       | you do, you'll be fine. To all, do frequent check ups (if you can
       | afford it) and don't dismiss the signs of your body. Oh and one
       | last thing, US medical and insurance systems sucks.
        
       | u8mybrownies wrote:
       | Good luck sir!!!
        
       | fokinsean wrote:
       | Good luck!
        
       | Ennea wrote:
       | I really enjoy the way you write. Good luck with the cancer!
        
       | Nihilartikel wrote:
       | Just taking the opportunity to chime in on this thread: Do not
       | hesitate to press for a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy if you are
       | worried about your colon health. Something is going on now where
       | demographically much younger patients are getting polyps and
       | colon cancer: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-
       | blog/2020...
       | 
       | Doctors are still mostly operating under the old wisdom that it
       | is not a problem for those under 60 or so.
       | 
       | I had blood in my stool at 36, and after convincing my doctor
       | that I wanted it checked even if it was 'probably a hemorrhoid',
       | a sigmoidoscopy found 3 polyps. I was lucky that the big one was
       | right at the 'front door' so to speak, otherwise the
       | sigmoidoscopy would have not been deep enough to find them, and I
       | might not be writing this comment today.
        
         | CyanBird wrote:
         | Absolutely, when TotalBiscuits (John Bain) was still fighting
         | cancer he couple times unabashedly said while doing his live
         | starcraft 2 esports casting to everyone listening to be mindful
         | of colon cancer, to not play dumb with it if you consistently
         | find blood in your stool and go get yourself checked, insist on
         | it if the doctors seem not particularly concerned
         | 
         | He was saying that to save lives
         | 
         | Might he rest in peace
        
         | greesil wrote:
         | It still seems pretty rare, even if it's more common. I have
         | had some similar symptoms, and similar interactions with
         | doctors in the past. No, I don't think I have cancer. But, what
         | I want to know is what is the probability of having this
         | condition given the symptoms. In other words, use Bayes' rule.
         | Most doctors seem incapable of thinking this way! If it's a 1%
         | chance that I have a life-threatening condition because there's
         | blood in my stool, then in my mind it makes sense to get
         | diagnostic that would test for that. I know these datasets
         | exist, but why can't my doctor make use of this, or me for that
         | matter?
        
           | greedo wrote:
           | Rare doesn't really help when there are almost 8B people on
           | the planet.
           | 
           | I was 41 when I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. I had
           | blood in my stool and my GP misdiagnosed me due to my age. If
           | I hadn't pushed the issue, I wouldn't be here now.
           | 
           | If you ever have blood in your stool, get an exam. Preferably
           | by a gastroenterologist.
        
             | Geezus_42 wrote:
             | I had a friend who died of colon cancer in his late teens.
             | We weren't super close so I don't know the details like
             | what variety it was.
        
             | mpfundstein wrote:
             | Hi,
             | 
             | mind sharing how the blood in your stool looked like? What
             | was the color etc? Was it there always? Was it
             | occassionally? Was it ON the stool or mixed through it?
             | 
             | And when you finally got diagnosed. What stage were you in?
             | Are you healed now?
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-05 23:00 UTC)