The truth is the best chance with any cancer is with early detection. Last fall I scheduled another colonoscopy. Other than the prep the nite before they were nothing to it and my previous one's were always All Clear. This time I went thru the prep, ran clean at home, only to become awake on the table and told they couldn't do, I wasn't clear. Now this was not my first time at bat so I thought the doctor was loco. We rescheduled and he proscribed a different prep. It was even more miserable. Nothing happened so I called in to cancel the procedure. This was followed by a week of loosey goosey and then another week of nausea & vomiting. At the end I was so weak and exhausted I got my wife to drive me to the emergency room. Luckily it wasn't busy and they rolled me back for blood work immediately. Then a CT Scan. Next morning I learned my problems were due to low sodium. This seemed impossible since I enjoy both salt and edema at times. Turns out I had a type of lung cancer that emits a hormone that impedes my body's retention of sodium. Additional tests showed I was at Stage IV Extensive. What a Christmas present.
By January I'd started chemo and by May was pronounced I'd lucked into a full response with the chemo. No sign anywhere and a nuclear bone scan indicated my bones were also mending well. I felt great; especially with my new do...bald as an egg, no eye brows, no eye lashes. Even lucked into no ear hair and no nose hair. No hair. It was great in the morning;hop out of bed, brush teeth, get dressed, and go.
First week of July had another CT Scan which showed I'd already relapsed.
There's so much more to it I won't bore you with but I can assure you that no matter what form of cancer a person gets; its all bad in some way. And your life focuses on the battle. You can waste time crying or wailing about how its not fair or you don't deserve it if you wish but after seeing some truly brave souls wheeled by me I know I still have it better than a bunch of them and mines incurable with current treatments. There are many other dramas and tradegies at every turn and on every floor of just about any hospital. We met out deductible and max out of pocket before the end of January. I still haven't had a colonoscopy and don't know if I can but probably should. Need a skin cancer screening too. With such a short horizon it seems pointless yet the newer immunotherapys seem so promising. If the current study I'm in plays out there's a good chance I'll get immunotherapy. Its almost November. They tell me that had I not chosen to get treatment I would have been gone before the end of February. You never know how things will shape up. Since learning of my cancer I've seen my youngest daughter engaged and then wed. Met and held my 5th grandchild, and I was baptised along with my grandson thanks to the kindness of a wonderful minister at my daughter's church. Its been a remarkable year to date and I'm still shooting for doing more next year.
Keep up the fight. Get tested, screened, examined...and get baptised too.