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Welcome to CancerSherpa.life !
Finding out you have cancer is quite a shock. Along with all the emotional work you and yours have to do, there is a metric ton of pure information that gets dumped into your lap at the same time. Folks who have been on this journey before can help provide information and insights that you…
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So You Were Just Diagnosed? Start Here.
There is something particularly memorable (horrible) about the moment that someone mentions the word “cancer” and you in the same sentence. Mine was the morning of August 23rd, 2018, the day after a routine screening colonoscopy. I received the call from a friend who happened to run the local pathology group. It still sucked. My…
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Type & Stage: What Does This Mean?
Determining your stage occurs after your docs determine if/where the cancer has spread, many times after surgery. Pardon my shorthand…but…is the mass localized? Stage 1 or 2. Some lymph nodes? Stage 3. Mets all over the place? Stage 4. After the big surgery, I was informed that I was stage 3a (low risk stage 3)…
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Chemotherapy, aka Medical Oncology
OK, take this a section at a time. There is a bunch of information here, you do not need to attempt to digest in all at once. If having Chemo, there are common waypoints people experience – Being Unapologetically Immunocompromised For some, surgical placement of a port to infuse chemo The “informed consent” conversation. Your…
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Gary’s Most Excellent Nausea Control Grid, 2022
For prevention / mitigation of nausea and vomiting: think “AND” not “OR” throw the kitchen sink at it ahead of time and keep it up. ask for multiple CLASSES of agents, they act on different pathways each “class” of anti-nausea agents hits a different chemical signaling system in your brain and body, and they have…
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After care – Monitoring and Testing
OK, surgery is done. Chemo or Radiation is done. Now what? A member of your care team will want to monitor your health for a long time to come. This will involve blood tests and probably imaging of some sort (CT, MRI, PET, etc.). Some tests will occur quarterly, some annually. Timing extends the longer…
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Read Last: A Cautionary Tale from WAPO
Please consider reading this article from the Washington Post (you will have to enter an email to read the article). The point of the article is that you MUST advocate for yourself. If something doesn’t seem right ASK. If you have horrible symptoms, INSIST. If you have problems, insist on speaking personally to your MD…
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Cancer Sherpa 