if you get cancer....
- From: JoeC <joec_49@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:42:33 -0400
Tips for battling Cancer
1)-Get smart on your specific cancer. Some 2.4 million Americans are
newly diagnosed with Cancer each year and Cancer is the #1 reason
people die in the USA (some 500,000 people cancer deaths each year).
Also, breast cancer is not pancreatic cancer and is not brain cancer;
you can in fact have prostate cancer in your brain and bladder cancer
in your lung i.e. the name of the cancer denotes its source (and its
type). Each cancer is different and there are even subtypes of
cancers. Ask the doctor what type of cancer you have. Ask him how its
progression is measured, i.e. for Prostate cancer, a biopsy will have
a Gleason Score of 2 through 10 and the cancers progress is often
measured via its t-score (T1, T2, T3, T4). Your cancer may use
different scoring (the Scarff-Bloom-Richardson system is one such
system) so ask your doctor some questions (1) is this cancer confined
to where she or he found it or has it spread elsewhere (2) is this
cancer slow growing or aggressive (3) how does it score on a scale
like the Scarff-Bloom-Richardson scale and so on. Now start searching
the web and I suggest you start with these web sites:
National Cancer Institute: www.cancer.gov
American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org
National Institute for Health: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cancer.html
The web page www.goggle.com will have some 246,000,000 hits for cancer
and after you visit the above three, try some of the others. Also -
it is okay to tell the doctor you will get a second opinion. I did
that myself and he agreed on the spot.
2)-Tell everyone you know RIGHT AWAY. They or someone they know may
have already done lots of research and thus may know great doctors
and/or hospitals. Don't be shy, tell everyone! I did this and found a
VERY GOOD UROLOGIST at a VERY GOOD HOSPITAL, just because I spoke up &
told many (hundreds of) people.
3)-You may have to decide your approach between the three major
approaches to cancer, i.e. surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Chemo
hits your whole body and may kill 99.9999% of your cancer. Radiation
can get the rest of the cancer if it is localized to one area. Each
doctor will have his preferred approach just so you know, thus a
surgeon will prefer surgery as one example. One caveat, once you have
radiation, surgery is not so easy to do (due to scar tissue from the
radiation). Radiation can mean many things just so you know, i.e.
internal radiation, external radiation etc. Chemotherapy usually means
strong toxic drugs to kill cancer but could also mean inserting some
genetically-modified cells into the cancer to kill it.
Anyway, try to decide which approach works for you. In my case, I
opted for surgery 1st as my cancer was fast moving (I had a high
Gleason score and high T-score) and I wanted as much out as possible
right away and then I needed chemo when it came back and then
radiation to finish it off.
4)-Pick your doctor and hospital carefully. The nearby hospital may
not be the best hospital for you. Do they perform surgery, radiation
and chemotherapy every day or just 4x per year?? Get a doctor/hospital
where they routinely do this treatment perhaps even weekly and
preferably a teaching hospital. Each year, US News & World Report
magazine surveys doctors to find the best hospitals in the USA and if
you click on the below links, you will find the best overall and the
best for Cancer in the USA.
TOP RANKED HOSPITALS OVERALL:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/honorroll.htm
TOP RANKED HOSPITALS FOR CANCER:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/rankings/specihqcanc.htm
COMPARE HOSPITALS: http://hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
CHECK LICENSING AND DISCIPLINARY DATABASES:
http://www.fsmb.org/directory_smb.html
My sister is a former radiation therapist and she adds that the
hospital you select should be a multidisciplinary facility. Thus the
oncologist will meet with the surgeon and the radiation oncologist to
decide the next steps for you, the patient. This is what you want,
i.e. they work together for your benefit. I would add you also may
want a teaching hospital and also one that conducts clinical trials
for new drugs.
5)-Keep a diary of everything that happens as it WILL be a real blur
after a period of time. I kept a diary and then moved it to the web. I
urge you to write EVERYTHING down (how you feel, what test you had,
sleeping problems, etc). Date each entry as well (obviously). My diary
has been a lifesaver for me on many levels. I kept it with me at every
meeting with the doctor, by my bedside at night and when I was in the
hospital, I kept it nearby so I could write down what was going on. I
have a paper diary and my blog
(http://prostate-cancer-log.blogspot.com) is derived from my paper
diary.
6)-Ask your doctor AND the hospital for copies of all medical tests,
i.e. your biopsies, tests, blood tests, cat-scans, bone scan,
pet-scans, mris etc. Ask for it within 3-4 weeks of having the test.
They will not offer it to you - you have to ask. If you wait too long,
it may have been archived. These copies will be invaluable later on. I
also copy the CDROMS they may give me to my computer and I scan any
papers to my computer. It is normal for a hospital to charge for
making some copies, especially of images of x-rays, bone-scans,
cat-scans, MRIs pet-scans and so on. Radiologist reports from those
images are generally free for the asking. Generally speaking, you want
both the images and the associated radiologist reports.
7)-Whenever you meet with a doctor, have another person come with you
and this person's role is to bring a notebook and write down what the
doctor says. You will be the person having a conversation with the
doctor and thus cannot write down what your doctor is saying (stopping
to write notes is too distracting to the doctor and to you).
8)-Prepare a one-page summary of your health. I went to the emergency
room 7 times between 9/06 and 1/07 and quickly realized having a
one-page summary is very handy to have for them. (The head of one ER
said he wished all patients had a summary such as mine). Do NOT put
your name or date of birth or social security number on it but do put
your blood type and a summary of what you have gone through thus far,
including recent blood tests (and dates) as well as dates of chemo,
cat scans, radiation, surgeries and so on. I also track when I was in
the hospital, emergency room, date of last chemo, last radiation etc.
It has been very helpful to me. I keep my cell# on mine in case I lose
it or a doctor wishes to call me.
9)-Keep a positive outlook. Say every day that you will beat cancer
and believe it. Look at where your cancer is and say "DIE CANCER!!!"
Your attitude is perhaps 50% of the reason people beat cancer. With
the way science is making breakthroughs, very soon your cancer will be
under better control and finally beaten. I know many people who beat
cancer and all had a very positive attitude.
10)-Review your eating habits. One doctor told me it was something in
our diets that gives us cancer or at least makes it easier for cancer
to start. In the book DR. PETER SCARDINO'S PROSTATE BOOK, the author
(Dr. Scardino) says (page 96) "The evidence for a nutritional link is
compelling". Also - 3% of Americans had cancer in 1900 and now it is
25%! Having heard all this, I researched it and found these two books
that may help me-I have started reading them and both look quite good.
The first is called "BEATING CANCER WITH NUTRITION" by Patrick
Quillin. Get it from your local library or buy it online or at your
local book store. The current edition came out in 2005 and its ISBN#
is 978-0-9638372-9-5 (your library may need this number). The second
book is called "HOW TO PREVENT AND TREAT CANCER WITH NATURAL MEDICINE"
by Dr. Michael Murray. This book came out in 2002 and its ISBN# is
1-57322-343-3. I strongly recommend you read them both, whether you
have cancer or not.
This is my opinion only (I am NOT a medical professional) and you are
welcome to contact me via email at: joec_49@xxxxxxxxxxx
.
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