A reply to Dee
Posted March 3rd, 2009 by Jane

I have been dithering for ages Dee about whether to approve or delete your comment. Most people who leave comments on my site are either cyber freinds from cancerworld or real friends…both groups generally seem to agree with me…so its a surprise when someone disagrees!
So I’d just like to reply to the points you make and [...]

 

Dennis Potter and Jade Goody
Posted March 5th, 2009 by Jane

I have been dithering for ages Dee about whether to approve or delete your comment. Most people who leave comments on my site are either cyber freinds from cancerworld or real friends…both groups generally seem to agree with me…so its a surprise when someone disagrees!
So I’d just like to reply to the points you make and [...]

 

Steroid high
Posted March 5th, 2009 by Jane

Dexamethosone (or friendly old ‘dex’ in cancerworld) is a steroid used with many chemotherapies. Its used as an anti-emetic and maybe to help some chemotherapies ‘work’ better..though this is disputed..there is a least one peer reviewed paper which says the opposite.
Dosage differs on different chemotherapies. Sometimes its given intravenously and as tablets before or after [...]

 

Decision time
Posted March 5th, 2009 by Jane

Since I started on vinorelbine in late December I have been telling people that some of my tumours feel a bit softer. Certainly my heavily swollen and discoloured arm, a barometer of tumour spread has been so much better (as objectively measured in wearing a size 6 beige sleeve rather than struggling into a size 7.) And [...]

 

A reply to Sassie: on hope
Posted March 6th, 2009 by Jane

I’m not sure I agree that family members should know a prognosis (inexact as it always is) when patients do not…though agree some patients ‘don’t want to know’. Maybe the young woman you mention ‘needed permission’ to die???
When I write about reframing hope I mean that ‘hope’ isn’t just about hoping to live for x [...]

 

A reply to KatherineM
Posted March 7th, 2009 by Jane

Dear Cathy
I don’t think until real end stage when organs are packing up and closing down that any oncologist can tell any us ‘how long’ we have. (though I’m sure privately they have their own guesses…often broadly right and sometimes wrong) I don’t like the competitiveness that it seems to me can arise between parients and [...]

 

Do not stare at this beam
Posted March 20th, 2009 by Jane

CT scan last week and once again lying underneath the giant doughnut my eyes are irresistibly drawn to a red light which says ‘laser aperture’ and underneath a warning: ‘Do not stare at this beam’. I’d never have noticed but it’s another cartoon in Miraim Engelberg’s ‘Cancer made me a Shallower Person.’

 

Decision just about made
Posted March 20th, 2009 by Jane

My CT scan results got a bit lost between the radiologist (on holiday) and the oncologist so I waited much longer than usual but oncologist tracked down scan report and rang last night. I haven’t seen a written copy of the report yet so just got the verbal summary. There is still no spread to major organs..lungs [...]

 

Not dead yet or how long have I got?
Posted March 25th, 2009 by Jane

I begin to realise that there are people who think I’m about to drop dead in the next few weeks. Well no guarantees but please… be sensible.. from the place I’m at now..this is not likely.
I have never asked my oncologist ‘how long’ though I did ask my first oncologist at our very first meeting [...]