I'm sorry I missed your post back in February, and I'm glad to hear that things are improving.

That's a lot for all of you to deal with. Best wishes and fingers crossed for continued improvement.

What FF and others have already said. I'm a latecomer to the thread and have only just read through most of the 4 pages. I count my blessings, I tell you.

Had a moment with TEV's post too, fuck.

Hope all continues well for you S.a

All of the above, S. a - all strength to you and your family.

Good news. All the best. I also had a moment there.

So far this year, two friends of mine lost their mothers to cancer. Well one of them was in late December of 2011, but close enough.

Odd how different families handle it. My one friend's family insisted on bringing everyone they knew around the house as mom lay peacefully in the living room all morphined-up. They have a lot of relatives nearby but also lots of friends like me just turned up and ate a lot of food and watched the NFL playoffs. It was surreal. It was like a Thanksgiving, except mom was dying and there was no turkey. I left their house around 11;30 pm. She died a few hours later. The memorial wasn't for a few weeks later so that it could be as well attended and music-filled as possible. It was a classy event at Market Square Presbyterian in Harrisburg.

My other friend's mom seemed to be doing relatively well last time I saw her in May. Some kind of intestinal cancer. She decided to forgo chemo, etc, but had done pretty well for almost two years just on palliative treatment. When I last saw her, she was a bit frail but otherwise relatively ok (she was about 75). Then I heard nothing from my friend about it either way for a while until one morning I get an email saying she'd passed. He and his dad were super private about all of it. She wanted her ashes to be interned(?) near her brother in Massachusetts, but most of her family is still in Germany, and my friend just couldn't manage traveling with two small kids, so he went with his dad and just the few realtives in the States. It was a very small event.

Odd how different families operate.

Another good friend of mine just told us that his dad has some kind of rare non-hodgkins deal and is going through all the chemo shit. His long term prognosis isn't good, but the short term prognosis isn't bad. So even if all of this effort ultimately fails, he's probably got five years. I can't quite get my brain around it but I guess I'm now at the age where my parents' generation are at that age. Holy fuck.

My wife's last scan showed that the cancer was growing again, which, while not really being unexpected (she's been off chemo for a year, and the radioactive beads were done in March), was still quite a blow.
The lesions are still pretty small, which is good, but there's some evidence that it might also be present in some lymph nodes and her lungs, though this is not certain (but is certainly scary to us, though the doctors didn't seem terribly put out). Either way that wouldn't change the next treatment, which is to go back on chemo.
This time round the dose (and number of drugs) will be lower than last year, since the goal is now to keep growth in check rather than to aggressively try to shrink the tumors. So hopefully the side effects will be much better than last year, which was pretty horrible.

As if we didn't already have enough stress from this, we found out Saturday that the hospital where her consultant works and where she's had all her scans (and surgeries etc) is now not in our insurance company's network, which will cost us an additional $16K a year if we continue to see this consultant and get scans done there. Helpfully our insurance company let us know a couple of weeks after they and the hospital parted ways. We our currently evaluating our options, we really don't want to change physicians. At least the clinic where she gets her chemo is still part of the network. I'm not sure if words can adequately express my feelings about the American health care system right now.

So sorry, S. aureus. It's a shame you're stuck with our health care system.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Our healthcare system is appalling.

That's terrible S. aureus, hope you both find the funds and the strength to get through.

What a bugger S. a - really can't add anything to what's been said.

Nothing that really cab be said, hope that some things work out for you and that you are able to get the best medical care for your wife.

Fingers crossed. For the pair of you.

Found out today that my girlfriend's mother has lung cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes; She has been a smoker for 35 years but is only 52.

We are currently thinking of moving the wedding forward from September next year

Cancer can fuck right off

That's awful news. So sorry to hear.
But very generous idea, moving the wedding.
Best of luck.

My boyfriend's parents are coming to stay in our spare room tonight ahead of his father's second operation relating to bladder cancer tomorrow. As far as I understand it, this is a check-up to see whether the first operation was fully successful or whether anything has grown back. If it has, then I think the next step is chemo. I am cautiously hopeful as bladder cancer is one of the more treatable variants (my sister's boyfriend was the youngest man in the UK to be diagnosed with it about 13 years ago and, touch wood, has never had any further problems after the first round of treatment).

Condolences to everyone on this thread who has lost anyone. Cancer really does suck.

Good to see you back, Balders, pity about the circumstance.

And hope things work out for you too, wr.

My sister's partner's currently in the third cycle of his chemo for lung cancer. Sadly it's purely palliative as the cancer's too far gone.

Best wishes for all those posting on here as I really don't know what else to say.

Much to his surprise and (obviously) delight, my sister's partner's cancer has shrunk thanks to the chemo. Not sure how much longer it gives him, mind.

My friend with terminal cancer died yesterday. Even though I knew the news would come, it still hits you like a ton of bricks. He came to my leaving party in December, I guessed it would be the last time I saw him, but I still hoped he'd hang on until the summer, he'd already lived two and a half years longer than the original prognosis.

He was a miserable bugger, nicknamed the incredible sulk at 5 a side. But always great company, true friends don't have to impress you by being something they're not and he was always himself, a true character loved by everyone who knew him and I'll miss him greatly.

That's sad news Steveeeeeeee.