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| Punching Bag Bitch, cry and whine your way into oblivion. |
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Apr 11, 05
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medical plans
can kiss my little white ass. then they can fucking be ripped to shreds and burned and fucking stomped on and chewed on and destroyed.
when someone doesnt need chemo treatment to pro-long life anymore shouldnt be something thats written on paper and the same for every fucking case. thye do not have the fucking right to take me dad away. im fucking fighting this shit. its bullshit. 
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Apr 11, 05
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active.
for this year of chemo (he was diagnosed early, went through chemo 2 years ago, but some cancer squeezed on through and he was pulled outta remission) he started on one type and for the first 4 treatments it shrunk the tumors. on the 6th treatmen he went in for another scan, came back that it wasnt doing any good anymore, he was feeling sicker, so he decided to stop treatment and move on to the next type after christmas. he's on a fierce on this time, starts with a c but the name slips my mind at the moment. his tumors have grown slightly (between 1-2 centimeters) so it means this type of chemo is only post-poning the growth if anything. so he is on active right now, he has i belive 3 more treatments left (hes week on week off chemo. has a pic line, takes the box home and recieves an extra injection when the pump goes on and when its taken off) after this type is over, his medical no longer covers any other chemo out there. so hes on to just recieving comfort drugs. the oncologist suggests reseaching trial treatments. which we have been doing this whole time, but he tried out for one, and didnt qualify due to other complications in one of his surgeries, so he felt a little discouraged. he has small cell cancer, so its supposed to spread fast. started in his colon, but is now only in his lungs. honestly any help would be amazing. im at a loss. its like being told the news all over again. and i cant just sit here and let it happen yet.
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Apr 11, 05
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Quote:
What other chemo did his doctor recommend? Who does qualify to receive the remaining types of chemo? Or is the doctor saying that the only thing for him to do is to see if he can get accepted into trial research? Most of the time candidates for research trials are supposed to be fairly healthy (well for having cancer anyways) because the researchers want the best possible outcomes to the treatment can get approved by the government. There's so much theoretical stuff about cancer treatment, that unfortunately, the government doesn't approve because it would open up a huge can of worms for patients. People who have cancer will try anything, and spend any amount of money if they think a treatment will work, that's why the different kinds of treatment are so regulated. ^ Is this why he can't receive further treatment? Also, because people want to try so much stuff out, it's hard to finally come to terms with the fact that if you keep going on with the chemo, it could be giving you six months-a year of so-so quality of life vs. three awesome months to spend with your family. Sometimes stuff like this isn't explained that well to families, or even if it is, it's hard for everything to sink in if you're highly emotional and in the process of dealing with an illness. I'm not saying that you don't know the whole story here. At school, we're taught that the patient and their family are the experts in their illness and that health care professionals are only there to give them to appropriate info and help plan appropriate care. I remember you posting something about your family not being one that shares their feeling readily..is it possible that your parents haven't discussed everything pertaining to this issue with you? Is the cancer in both lungs then? I had a patient who got his lung removed because of cancer, so i'm assuming that your dad doesn't have that option. And i'm sure you know that it's really hard to aggressively treat lung cancer because of what the lungs are responsible for. With chemo, you're supposed to try and achieve a balance of killing the cancer cells, without harming the regular ones. That's really hard to do in the lungs. Can you try and remember what types of chemo he's had? I happen to have a final exam in the class that deals with cancer tomorrow and have my notes right in front of me.
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Apr 12, 05
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i know the first kind he had was the same type women with breast cancer receive.
but thats about it. he gets a shot of fox-something with the last two types of treatment - its the stuff that makes him sick. we've been through the whole 6 months of shitty life, 3 months of good life talk as a family. and we've all decided that its my dads decision because we cant truely relate to what hes feeling, physically and emotionally. my mom can to an extent, shes been through radiation treatment that made her life uncomfertable for only 6 months. th only reason i just found out about this was that they didnt want to stress me until i graduated college. but being the sneaky\smart daughter i am, i noticed how much different my dads days of being depressed were - so i asked until i got an answer. the cancer is in both lungs, but the tumors are no larger then 2 centimeters each. they vary in sizes. getting the lung removed was my moms first questions to one of the specailists and she laughed in her face. needless to say we didnt return to her. the doctor my dad has now (dr.noble) kicks supreme ass. hes not the most positive of guys i find, (the regular gp for my dad always seems to be a bit more reassuring about things like blood count being low and so on) but he always states the truth. youre right, according to the gov't hes tried all they can offer for his type, and now has to move on. he is extremely healthy for his condition - before he started there was nothing at all seemingly wrong with him. the chemo has made him ill - feelings in his hands comes and goes and he gets hives if he doesnt take an antihistamene becasue the chemo reacts to his blood pressure pills which apparently is uncommon but has happened to patients in the past. it just seemed like they gave us this big list of chemo's he could do, but now we're shti outta luck. the one he's on right now starts with a "c" (i should fucking remember but i cant - i have two exams coming up today and tomrorw - my mind is full with other facts) and it can make him extremely dehidrated from diareah so we are constantly on watch for that and making sure he's got a nice diet of rice and bananas, water, fresh veggies, and gatoraide. in the summer\fall of last year, the type of chemo had made it so he couldnt touch or be around anything cold. his muscles would seize and hurt - couldnt even stand the fridge. couldnt drink cold stuff - though he tried almost every day - and couldnt hold anything that was less then room temperature. they had the balance in the summer - his tumors shrunk, then all growth either way stopped. during his chemo vacation they grew less then a centimeter. during this treatment, they've grown slightly more. it really seems as though my dad wants to stop treatment, and that would detour me from fighting this issue. it all depends on his thoughts, hes going down to a hospice today if he feels well enough to talk. right now hes looking into a treatment they have in the states where they open you up from nipple to bellybutton which hes had done twice, put the chemo into your body and massage your organs softly, suck it all out and sew you back up. i dont think its so grand - they cant massage his lungs so whats the point? other facts that may help - his blood count is always low - sometimes to a point of being regular both when hes on and off chemo. he hasnt lost substantial weight - feels shitty all the time, vomits maybe once or twice a treatment and that is usually only for the first day of his three day treatment. im sorry i dont know the names at the moment - ill grab them for you after tonight's exam is over. thank you again.
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