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Home › Relationships

Poll | 06/01/2009 11:00 pm

Have you ever had cancer?

Read more about: Cancer, Health, Wellness

84 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Hazel Lewis
2004 was my year to top all years.  I had a skin cancer on my butt (no, it never saw the sun) that had to be removed along with half my butt.  In getting ready for that they found a spot in my lung.  That began the first of many tests of my whole body.  I had the butt thing taken care of the last of December 2003, then the upper left lobe of my lung removed in March 2004, then my thyroid was removed in July, finally finishing up in September 2004 with a skin cancer that had popped up on my nose.  He removed so much of my nose that even tho a plastic surgeon completed the surgery it is still misshapen.  All 4 cancers completely unrelated!  On June 22nd I have the last of my 6 month visits and am going into annual visits with my oncologist!  What a ride!  Life is so precious - you really learn what matters and what doesn’t!  (I’m glad to be back at home on the WOW - I got tangled up in Facebook and am remembering I enjoy WOW so much more and all the "friends" comments I used to always read.
By Hazel Lewis on 06/02/2009 12:35 pm
Lin Cercone

Dear Hazel:  I am so sorry.  After reading your story I’m a little ashamed of complaining.  However, if I hadn’t written the truth about how much it sucks, we wouldn’t be having this continuing correspondence.  Reading some of the comments today has been very helpful to me.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of support through my cancer experience.  I actually had a friend say to me "I know you’re just trying to make me feel sorry for you, but I won’t."  This is a friend I stood by even when she did something very wrong.  I guess sometimes it takes strangers or fellow cancer patients to understand.  I’m thinking Blanche Dubois, "I always did depend on the kindness of strangers".  Thank you for your comments on your experience, hope to hear from you again.

Fondly,

By Lin Cercone on 06/02/2009 2:09 pm
Hazel Lewis

Hi Lin!  I enjoyed your comments to "all of the above."  I think having cancer puts you in a group that no one but us can ever truly relate to.  It changes your life and your outlook about a lot of things.  It was a year of enduring, constantly enduring.  Losing all modesty.  I too had radiation for, I think, 6 weeks - on my lung (didn’t have to have chemo thank goodness).  The ladies where I went were very nice and compassionate, making a very difficult experience almost pleasant as I looked forward to seeing especially one of them, and discussing the books we were reading.  I had always been so healthy, the only thing I went to doctors for were babies, took good care of my body, etc., so it was a major shock that this happened.  I will never get over my hating to go to the doctor or yet, another test.  Its too much, all the little things that people don’t even think about who haven’t lived it.  I love life and want to live to be 105.  I’m 66 now.  Lots of books to read, etc., I don’t plan on giving it up for a long long time!  Take care Lin!

By Hazel Lewis on 06/02/2009 3:10 pm
Nancy Pea

when i first developed asthma at age 23 and had never smoked a day in my life, my friends all thought i was a hypocondriac, until i had a full blown asthma attack in their presense and it scared the living shit out of them. all because they wouldn’t stop smoking in my presence when i was newly diagnosed and still having problems. "with friends like that, who needs enemies!" so the old saying goes. it turns out the HUD building we were in, in san francisco was full of asbestos. from the ceilings to the tiles on the floor AND all of it was crumbling around us. my kids got asthma. but for some reason not as bad as i did. just to show it’s not genetic my grandson has none whatsoever. i think the asthma was harder on me than everything else that has come after because my friends weren’t supportive and i was going thru a stupid divorce at the time.

now those same friends are there for me with all we have gone thru the last 10yrs and my family is totally supportive. so i do understand how you would be bitter. 

By Nancy Pea on 06/02/2009 4:13 pm
Judy K.
Lin I thoroughly understand how you feel about strangers.  I look big and healthy but have several problems that are not visible and, my immune system is shot so I have to watch infections.  Am also on disability and that disturbs some people because I am not at death’s door.  I have no stamina because of cancer and shingles and a common cold caused me to lose my voice last Christmas for 20 days.  That so scared me I thought the throat cancer had come back (it was irritation of scar tissue that caused that problem).  There is a good saying that the American Indians have "Don’t judge until you have walked a mile in my moccasins."  And, anyone thinking it is easy to get disability don’t kid yourself.  It was on-going, had to verify conditions every three months and the doctors’ had to fill out forms all the time.  Right now I am surviving but have another ulcer on my leg and an acoustic neuroma which is slow growing but a tumor nonetheless in my head that I might have to get gamma knife treatment for someday.  So nothing is easy and please know we do understand what you are going through.  We’ve been there.
By Judy K. on 06/02/2009 5:14 pm
Judy K.
Lin I thoroughly understand how you feel about strangers.  I look big and healthy but have several problems that are not visible and, my immune system is shot so I have to watch infections.  Am also on disability and that disturbs some people because I am not at death’s door.  I have no stamina because of cancer and shingles and a common cold caused me to lose my voice last Christmas for 20 days.  That so scared me I thought the throat cancer had come back (it was irritation of scar tissue that caused that problem).  There is a good saying that the American Indians have "Don’t judge until you have walked a mile in my moccasins."  And, anyone thinking it is easy to get disability don’t kid yourself.  It was on-going, had to verify conditions every three months and the doctors’ had to fill out forms all the time.  Right now I am surviving but have another ulcer on my leg and an acoustic neuroma which is slow growing but a tumor nonetheless in my head that I might have to get gamma knife treatment for someday.  So nothing is easy and please know we do understand what you are going through.  We’ve been there.
By Judy K. on 06/02/2009 5:14 pm
Chris Glass`

Just before I was married I had my first pap smear. It turned out to be cervical cancer. My husband to be was very supportive. We discussed options then continued with our wedding plans scheduling surgery the week we came back from our honeymoon.

The doctor I saw used two proceedures to save my cervix and hopefully my fertility. He used cryosurgery to freeze the top layer twice then surgery to try to get any lingering cells. It worked because we had a son two years later. It was a rough way to start a marriage but I knew that if my husband would stand behind me during this he was good for a lifetime.

By Chris Glass` on 06/02/2009 12:42 pm
dick davis
Good for you.
By dick davis on 06/02/2009 5:45 pm
Nancy Pea

i said ‘scare’ but now i’m not sure. i had been going to drs for years, had horribly bad periods (2weeks a month and 10days at a time), excruciating pain (felt like labor, YES i have been thru labor and it felt almost as bad), loss of work, loss of friends, being practically bedridden several days out of the month, but they always put me off. mostly because i didn’t have medical insurance or when i did it was only medicaid and they wouldn’t get paid enough.

that was when i was 25 - 35yrs old. then i had a growth on my labia that i thought was a skin eruption. i waited until it was pretty painful because i was sick of drs and their shit. so i went to the ER and they referred me to a dr just outside the building. he didn’t even have to take a pap (but he did anyway and a biopsy of my cervix) to know something was immediately wrong. 

i was scheduled for surgery within a month (and omg was that the longest month of my life) and had a radical hysterectomy. that was april 17, 1997. 12yrs ago this year. even with all my body has put me thru in the past few years i’m still glad to be alive.

what was really weird was when i didn’t have insurance and went to a county free clinic in richmond, california (just across the bay from san fran) and a phillipino dr was giving me a pap (yes, some drs still give them, some don’t just depends). she kept asking me WHY they needed to do it. what was the problem? i told her several times i was dying and had pre-cancer. she started writing notes down furiously and kept at me about it. i finally asked her "why do you ask? you gonna try to find it and put it back in?" she just looked at me and walked out. i made sure i NEVER got her again. geeza louisa or holy hannah banana, why do some ppl get all worked up over it.

the only side affect i had from the surgery and i think it was emotional and psychological was i lost my sex drive. but before i had a horrible hormonal imbalance and was a sex maniac. i prefer this way thanx!!! (especially since i’m nothing anybody would want to date right now looking older than the hills, lol!!!) 

By Nancy Pea on 06/02/2009 4:24 pm
starry Nite

I know it is not logical but every year it takes every bit of courage I can muster to get a memogram.   I guess I am afraid of hearing those words again that your mamogram was suspicious.  It has been 12 years since my bout with cancer but every year - I grapple with fear at mamogram time.

I live and think a little differently now.  I value life more- not to say always exercise but I do follow a healthy diet. 

 

By starry Nite on 06/02/2009 4:35 pm
dick davis
I am just starting that. I had prostate cancer, and had a radical prostectomy. My three month check up showed no detectable PSA. I want to start eating better and exercising. I can only hope a non-detectable PSA test becomes the standard for me. You’ll be just fine, just keep the stress down.
By dick davis on 06/02/2009 5:50 pm
Andy C
Yay! No pie chart …. it’s the little things.  We can handle the big things, but that pie chart goes right up there with nails on a chalkboard.
By Andy C on 06/02/2009 7:48 pm
C A Rose
Over the past 20 yrs I have had 7 different Primary Site cancers…uterine, ovarian, bladder, rt ureter&kidney, colon, and both basal and squamous cell skin cancers. I’ve had and been treated for numerous reocurrances of my bladder ca and skin ca’s. I have an angel on my shoulder, and thankful for her. CA
By C A Rose on 06/03/2009 4:11 am
C A Rose
After reading all the previous posts, I should add that my treatment for each different and separate cancer has varied. I’ve had over 20 surgeries, radiation, Bio-therapy (Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin treatment), and intravesical chemotherapy (Mytomycin-C). I am considered to have ‘cancer as a chronic illness.’ CA
By C A Rose on 06/03/2009 4:30 am
Carole Del Monte
I had uterine cancer in 1992.  It runs in our family on my mother’s side.  Our daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.  It is prevalent in my husband’s side of the family.  We both had treatments (radiation only for me, chemo & radiation for our daughter).  We are cancer survivors.
By Carole Del Monte on 06/03/2009 6:20 am
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