I bloody hate you, you bastarding disease

[McPhee]

Fuck off, do you hear me? Now just fuck the fuck off

Yesterday, we said goodbye to my Uncle after a long fight with Cancer. My wonderful, brave Uncle

Our family friend is also terminally ill with bowel cancer. He had a rupture, and had to have his bowel removed via emergency surgery a few days ago. This is the one thing he never wanted to happen. All he wants is his dignity

Today, I find out that my Best friends MIL has also now been diagnosed as terminal. All she had was a sore hip. Her body is riddled. She's got two grandchildren she cares for due to family reasons. I feel sick to the stomach about what could happen to those wonderful boys

How many more? I'm so angry tonight!

It makes me sad that the side effects of the treatment for Cancer can be worse than the effects of the disease itself too.

That's so true Sparkling. Our family friend isn't having any more treatment now because he's been so ill with it. He said that he would rather have quality time with his loved ones, even if that shortened the time he has left. That was such a hard decision, but for him, the right one. Now he's just receiving palative care

Chemotherapy just seems so harsh and makes people so poorly.

Hugs to you all
My wonderful brave uncle died a year this month to cancer of the oesophagus 7 months after diagnosis boy did he fight he really didn't want to go..
Two aunts also died very quickly after diagnosis,one with ovarian cancer died 3 weeks after finding out,the other aunt had a very rare skin cancer inside the body and died within 2 months
An 8 year old schoolgirl at my daughters school died from a brain tumour within 8 months on xmas eve..heartbreaking
cancer is the fucking devil we are all in fear of it

My DMIL got over lung cancer after extensive treatment over the Millennium period. She had radiotherapy which basically fried her whole chest area.

Ten years later, and unrelated, she got breast cancer. The previous treatment meant that radiotherapy was not an option this time, as she was told you couldn't have radiotherapy in the same place twice.

We went to a family open day at Clatterbridge, because she didn't want her GCs scared of that hospital. They showed us new radiotherapy machines that could accurately pinpoint the cancer and treat only that area, protecting the area around it. Such accuracy, if it was available when she had her first treatment, may have given her more options with the breast cancer, IYSWIM.

She had a mastectomy, but it came back after a year and she died 8 months after that.

What I'm saying is that, in those 10 years, the fight against cancer had advanced that much. This made her hugely optimistic, and if she could be, given her history, we should be too.

Please try to give what you can to support the scientists fighting it in the labs. Let's keep these advances coming, for the sake of those we've lost.

cancer research

Anthony Nolan

Its not fair at all. My mum my aunt and two cousins all died of cancers but yesterday
I was told that I was still clear six years after my dx with an aggressive form of breast cancer. There are new developments in treatment all the time and one day we should be able to kick cancer into touch.

I'm not sending Christmas cards this year so will be looking to make a donation to one of the Cancer charities instead.

My mummy aged 54 - lung cancer :(

Left 5 children and 2 grandchildren

Life just isn't the same anymore

Exactly sparkling Chemo is a poison and even though it kills cancer cells it causes problems in itself

Soul destroying, all these children, friends & family dying from the bastard they call cancer. I hope one day they can find a cure for all cancer and rid us all of this bastard.

Until then i shall be giving to clic sargent, tct & cancer research this Christmas.

Hugs to you all who are going through this with yourself, someone close or have already lost someone dear to you xxxx

Chemotherapy is harsh. The drugs are cytotoxic - i.e. damaging to cells to the extent that the cells die. The drugs are most effective against cells that grow and divide rapidly which is why they target cancer cells. But they are also effective against all rapidly growing cells such as bone marrow and hair follicles. This is why chemo patients have compromised immune systems and lose their hair.

For me, it was the side effects of the anti-emetic drugs that were the most debilitating. They were 100% effective at preventing nausea and vomiting but they also shut down my digestive system for several days after each treatment. Then there is the fatigue. That is cumulative - it just gets worse and worse. Radiotherapy also contributed to that. As does the Herceptin I'm currently receiving.

I saw my GP yesterday as my bowel habits haven't returned to "normal" even though I completed the chemo 5 months ago. I thought it might be related to the Herceptin but my chemo nurse, clinical trial nurse and oncologist don't think it is. My GP and I discussed it at length. We both feel it may just be that my system hasn't yet completely settled down following the chemo. But, it may be something more sinister. So, I now have another referral under the 2 week rule for further investigation.

I lost my nan to bowel cancer when I was 10. She brought me up from 2 years old. Luckily my dad met someone lovely when I was 8 so I was already living with them when we lost her. He is gone now too, not from cancer from another nasty disease that ruined his life.

My dad's dying of cancer as we speak.

We are trying to get him into a hospice but there are no beds.

So he's stuck in a side room on the elderly medicine ward where his needs aren't being met and that is completely unsuitable for his needs.

He is on about 15 separate drugs. The majority seem to be to counter each other's side effects!

We lost my wonderful uncle 4 months ago to a brain tumour (most of it removed around 20 years ago - it came back with a vengeance last year). Chemo and radiotherapy didn't even touch it and he didn't want any more treatment after that, like some friends and relatives of posters upthread.
My lovely aunt who nursed him through his last weeks went through treatment for breast cancer only a few years ago. It seems so unfair for their family.

Hugs to everyone on this thread who is dealing with cancer themselves or who has lost ones dear to them.

My mum is having her 5th round of chemo today. She was told from the start that it is only palliative but on Tuesday we discovered it isn't working even for that. I can tell that is true. A few weeks left I guess. It's a rare lymphoma. Oh, fuck.

My dear mum and best friend died 6 weeks ago from womb cancer that spread to the bowel and liver.
Im missing her so much right now and she never got to see my DD start school who she adored.
My friends DM died last week just 3 weeks after diagnosis,she had it in the liver,bone and lungs.
I hate it

CLIC Sargent

My mum. Never smoked, healthy lifestyle, terminal lung cancer.

Can't describe how numb I feel.

Vlad - yep, my mum never smoked in her life and she had lung cancer!

Chemo finished my FIL off sadly. We knew the type of cancer he had (bile duct) didn't really respond to chemo but he was so desperate to live and to have a chance..the oncologist was very honest and told him she was worried it would kill him but it was a chance he took. He was only able to have one session of it, too ill for anymore after that.

My DS (10) says to me that he thinks he will die young of cancer, poor little soul :(

Awful, isn't it Betty? Awful whether or not smoking was involved, obviously, but the fact that originally all the medical professionals she saw said to her "well, we know it isn't lung cancer because you've never smoked.." .

Wish she wasn't suffering so. Finding it very hard to hold it together, she and DD are so close too and DD can't understand what's going on.

The more I read of this thread, the more heartbroken I feel.

Bastard cancer is so indiscriminate. It has no respect for who it attacks, be they rich or poor, young or old, black or white. If it's going to get you, then it will.

I witnessed my beautiful, handsome, strong 6'2" husband go from someone with an incredibly strong, athletic body to a skeleton, having to be winched to be moved, unable to eat and having to endure unimaginable pain. Medicines were thrown at him left right and centre, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to what was being prescribed; just blind panic as the cancer continued to spread. The bastard cancer may have destroyed his body, but it never destroyed his mind. He was clear and lucid until the end. Well, apart from when he tried to convince me that Gok Wan played for Manchester United!!

Val, who would have believed it is 18 months. I can't. Sometimes the loss hits me with such force, as if it was yesterday.

Zombie, lovely lady, I wish you well. I really hope the problems you are having now are a side effect of your treatment rather than anything more sinister.

oopsydaisy much love to you. I wish you and your DH peace and strength during the time you have left together.

McPhee, I know you started this thread in chat. It seems such a shame that this almost roll call of amazing people lost to this bastard disease will go poof in 90 days. Do you think it would be a good idea to have it moved to somewhere more permanent? No worries if you'd prefer it not to.

Fucking bastard cancer. We can and we will beat this. No-one deserves this much pain.

Rinders - wishing you lots of love too.

Vlad - yes it's heartbreaking. Like you say, cruel whether you smoke or not but just a bit of a shock. Before mum was ill I thought lung cancer was just for smokers......I now know it is one of the biggest cancer killer in women both smokers and non smokers. Wishing you and your mum strength and peace....my poor mum was so brave bless her heart :(

I think I preferred it when I was in my own ignorant happy little bubble!

I'm happy for it to be moved

If you can help make that happen, it would be good.

Dd a little time consuming today

Thank you. I will ask MNHQ to move it. Does anyone have any preference where it goes?

What topic should it be moved to do you think? Not sure whether it fits in General Health for instance. Somebody looking for advice re Cancer may not want to be reading some of the experiences . I hope that doesn't sound awful.