<p>LTS:</p>
<p>The weather is gorgeous today, the sun is melting the snow. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas with your D.</p>
<p>LTS,</p>
<p>Sending the blessings of the holiday season your way. I hope that you and your D are having a wonderful day.</p>
<p>Corranged, I am so very sorry to learn of your auntâs diagnosis. I did just finish reading âSurviving Terminal Cancerâ by Ben Williams - he was mentioned in the WSJ article Padad posted, so, I bought the book. Itâs an interesting, useful read and offers a lot of hope, but hope rooted in empirical data, with sources listed. Ben Williams was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and was issued a very poor prognosis. He and is alive and cancer free today, many years later. I do not know anything about brain cancer or even if Williamâs cancer is the same as your auntâs, but, still recommend the book. If she will read this book she will save herself a lot of the time I spent on research, specific to some questions she will have. </p>
<p>I also recommend Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips by Kris Carr - regardless of if one has cancer or not. The book is useful in terms of how to cope in MANY stressful situations, not just serious illness. Plus itâs ridiculously entertaining.</p>
<p>The links Epistrophy sends are outstanding. I read each one thoroughly, and so strongly recommend also sending them along to your aunt. In my opinion, the biggest danger here is not so much the cancer, but how we handle it, and how we process the information we allow into our minds. 95% of the people who are diagnosed with what I have die pretty quickly. Lucky for me I am more of a 5%-er. My daughter and I were talking over the holidays about how we both (initially) assumed I would not be alive for this Christmas, based on what we were told by the internist in the hospital. While I am grateful for outstanding oncologists, I also credit mental/emotional stability and well being for the successes I have had so far. </p>
<p>Last, if possible and practicable and if her physicians approve, please encourage her to work out, exercise, get as physically fit as possible. This will help her a great deal in terms of conditioning her body for the physical and emotional impact of treatment. (I work out every day - usually weight lifting but sometimes I go running or run/walking. I weight train as if I am in competition, and my oncologists all approve. I am convinced it is helping me, and, I have gained nine pounds since diagnosis, in spite of having now received five sessions of chemotherapy - and - I never, ever have to force myself to eat; I simply eat when I am hungry. So those nine pounds are legitimate gains, and, I am convinced the result of the healthy part of my body trying to rescue the rest of it, and possibly succeeding, and as a direct result of exercise. I am not a doctor, obviously, but that is what I think.) </p>
<p>And if she needs any information, research, etc., please let me know either here or send to me a PM. I may be able to save her valuable time if there is something she needs or an area she wants to research. </p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who sent to me such nice messages, I sincerely appreciate it. We did have a lovely holiday; everything was just wonderful. I sincerely appreciate everyoneâs thoughts, prayers and good wishes. I also very much appreciate the moderatorsâ continued leniency with this thread. </p>
<p>Although this thing is a marathon and not a sprint, I seem to be winning for the moment. Just came back from seeing my Miami oncologist; he is the head of my team of doctors. Following chemotherapy # 6, which will start January 2, we will do more scans, and then he is probably going to do #7 and #8 with the intention of driving out micrometastasis (sp?). Radiation decision will come around the same time. The micros have had me worried because of the very high recurrance rate with small cell and it was a relief to know he already has a plan for it, before I even had time to ask the question. </p>
<p>I do sincerely appreciate everyoneâs thoughts and prayers. It means more than I can ever properly express and I am very thankful.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the advice, LTS.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Surviving Cancer Emotionally: Learning How to Heal: Books: Roger Granet](<a href=âhttp://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Cancer-Emotionally-Learning-Heal/dp/047138741X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U]Amazon.com:â>http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Cancer-Emotionally-Learning-Heal/dp/047138741X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U)</p>
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<p>[~</a> A Woman of Many Parts ~](<a href=âhttp://womanlyparts.blogspot.com/]~â>http://womanlyparts.blogspot.com/)</p>
<p>Two books and a blog by a doctor (and Harvard Medical School professor) who is a cancer âsurvivorâ herself:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> After Cancer Treatment: Heal Faster, Better, Stronger (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book): Books: Julie K. Silver](<a href=âhttp://www.amazon.com/After-Cancer-Treatment-Stronger-Hopkins/dp/0801884381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198889284&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:â>http://www.amazon.com/After-Cancer-Treatment-Stronger-Hopkins/dp/0801884381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198889284&sr=1-1)</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Super Healing: The Clinically Proven Plan to Maximize Recovery from Illness or Injury: Books: Julie K. Silver](<a href=âhttp://www.amazon.com/Super-Healing-Clinically-Maximize-Recovery/dp/1594866317/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198889795&sr=1-2]Amazon.com:â>http://www.amazon.com/Super-Healing-Clinically-Maximize-Recovery/dp/1594866317/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198889795&sr=1-2)</p>
<p>[Healing</a> After Cancer - Blogs - Revolution Health](<a href=âEveryday Health: Trusted Medical Information, Expert Health Advice, News, Tools, and Resourcesâ>Everyday Health: Trusted Medical Information, Expert Health Advice, News, Tools, and Resources)</p>
<p>LTS â For once, I have no words, and nothing I have to say means as much as the combined voices on this thread. So, I am adding a (((slugghugg))), fwiw. 
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<p>slugghuggz</p>
<p>Sluggbugg lol thank you for the colorful hugs. 
And, Epistrophy, everything you post here is highly valued and greatly appreciated, thank you so much. </p>
<p>All is well here - D left for Indonesia yesterday morning; somehow she ended up in Korea for 24 hours so she decided to go running around Seoul. She doesnât speak even one word of Korean and I didnât get her any guidebooks etc. because I didnât expect her to spend any time there. Thank heavens for Skype and other stuff. But she is finding it wildly entertaining. And, for some reason she decided to get worried about me, so Iâm now getting phone calls from people that she assigned to check up on me in her absence. I have a helicopter daughter lol. </p>
<p>I have been working out, running the treadmill, weightlifting. Today I swam laps for the first time since diagnosis. Interesting experience, doing that while wearing a wig. I need to get a swimming capâŠ</p>
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<p>I love this!
You did know that some swimmers go bald deliberately to shave off (what a bad pun!) nanoseconds from their times?</p>
<p>New Year in Indonesia? Sounds good. Maybe your D can say hello to momrath in person.</p>
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<p>[Cancer</a> survivorâs new challenge: 7 summits](<a href=âhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344602_cancerclimber22.html]Cancerâ>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344602_cancerclimber22.html)</p>
<p>LTS:</p>
<p>This Boston Globe article made me think about you!</p>
<p>[BU</a> studentâs cancer blog: âClearly, I am changedâ - The Boston Globe](<a href=âhttp://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/12/30/bu_students_cancer_blog_clearly_i_am_changed/]BUâ>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/12/30/bu_students_cancer_blog_clearly_i_am_changed/)</p>
<p>LTS: If you havenât read it already, I suggest Eat, Pray, Love. Particularly the Indonesia section. </p>
<p>Congrats on swimming and all your exercising. Youâre an inspiration to those of us who are cancer free. I wonât say healthy, because there are ways you are much healthier than I.</p>
<p>Thrilled to hear that you continue to do well. Youâll be with us on News Years Eve, with a thought to you adventurous D in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Iâve just read this thread.</p>
<p>I recently lost a close family member to cancer and was constantly angry with her that she was trying to be a âgood patientâ (âI donât want to bother the doctors with question-theyâre so busyâ) and not an âirritating, annoying patientâ. Latetoschool-please continue to be an irritating and annoying patient in 2008! This is a very inspiring thread and puts my anxiety over my daughterâs SATs into perspective!</p>
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<p>Given how long cancer can be present before becoming symptomatic (itâs often found in the bodies of people who died from other causes, without ever having been detected while they were alive), Iâm not even sure how many of us can say with any confidence that weâre âcancer free.â</p>
<p>Maybe, rather than being in different places, all of us - the âillâ and the âwellâ - are simply passengers in the same boat.</p>
<p>Muffy33, I am so sorry to learn that you lost a family member to cancer. Please donât be angry over it though - there are some cancers that are so aggressive and the treatment options so few that patients will lose their battles no matter how effectively they interact with their medical teams and regardless of what else they do. My prognosis is median survival of 6 - 12 months WITH treatment; 1% - 6% survival at two years, nearly 100% chance of relapse and nearly 95% chance of death at time of relapse, AND, little effort to find cures and new treatments (compared to the effort devoted to other cancers) because of the low ROI for big pharma, the social stigma and the nearly 98% association with smoking. (There isnât going to be a pink ribbon or a race for the cure or a month etc. or anything else for lung cancer.) Facing this sort of a situation, I am going to be very aggressive, and, the long term survivors of my cancer that I have spoken to at length are all just like me - rule breakers, iconoclastic, independent, decisive, and, very, very aggressive - not just with fighting our cancers but in most other areas of life. This is not a set of traits one can simply get up and put on in the morning, like clothing. I think youâre either wired that way, or youâre not, or perhaps you can develop it, but, it takes time, and with aggressive cancers there is simply no time. The long term survivor in Texas who I speak to more than anyone - we both presented in the ER with SVC syndrome - after we compared notes over many, many telephone conversations - we realized we both broke rules in the hospital, challenged our doctors, and refused to do things that made no sense, or that we just stone cold didnât want to do - in spite of being very, very sick. His condition was âcriticalâ and his wife was told more than once he would not live through the night. My condition was âguardedâ and I was in serious trouble but even being that sick I wasnât capable of developing a new, more compliant personality or approach to life and I suspect that is true of most people. We werenât being âdifficultâ but rather just simply trying to assess our situations and we were confident in our beliefs that we could judge our health situations and requirements better than anyone else. </p>
<p>Another long term survivor who I do not speak with directly (she is 70 years old, doesnât do internet, doesnât do telephone calls with strangers) belongs to an in-person support group in another state; she has my exact diagnosis, and she has been cancer free for nine years, which is simply extraordinary. When she was first diagnosed, she told the oncologist that she couldnât begin treatment right away because she had a cruise scheduled, and no way was she going to miss her cruise. Her doctor responded by telling her she was going to die in a matter of weeks, and even with treatment the best they could hope to do was buy her a few months. She ignored her doctor, went on her cruise anyway, and when she returned, picked a new oncologist with a more positive attitude, and began treatment. I have verified her story through several people and am confident itâs true. Perhaps this woman survived because she is simply too stubborn for any other outcome to have been possible. Or, perhaps she survived because of her unique biology and no matter what she did or didnât do she would have survived anyway. </p>
<p>Marite, thanks for that; my heart goes out to the young lady. How difficult that must be for her. I hope she wins her battle, and from the looks of her attitude and determination surely she will. My DEA friendâs daughter was that age when she was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma - she is cancer free today but watching for what might be a fourth recurrance. Re swimmers and bald heads - I might have to try that. My hair is starting to grow back - and itâs black. I had long, thick naturally blonde hair at diagnosis, so, because I had a business event in October and we havenât let this information out of our shop, I purchased a human hair wig that looks as close as I could get to the hair everyone who knows me expects to see. But with new hair growing in so dark, D and I picked out a brunette wig while we were out holiday shopping. D loves the brunette color. So now sometimes I leave the house blonde in the morning, but brunette in the evening. I donât really like either wig and am considering if red might make me happier. </p>
<p>Mythmom, thank you for that; my daughter read that book on one leg of her series of flights, and when she called me yesterday she said it was excellent and she thinks I should read it. And, thank you for your kind thoughts, I sincerely appreciate it. </p>
<p>I think I agree with what E posted - everything I read says we all get cancer several times a year; the healthy immune system disappears it. Do the physicians think this is true? Also, since some cancers are more indolent, I suppose itâs possible to walk around with cancer for years.</p>
<p>Hi LTS, My D went off to Thailand the day after Christmas. She changed flight in Beijing but had to stayed inside the airport. W heard from her when she arrived at Bangkok but not since, presumably she is now busy with her debate tournament and sightseeing. </p>
<p>I have a colleague from England who likes to joke that his two college-graduated daughters keep checking up on him and his wife that they finally decided to cross the Atlantic to have some peace. Lol.</p>
<p>Two more days to the New Year. I donât keep a diary anymore, but have switched to noting down on New Year Eves important events of each passsing year. You and this thread will be an entry. Wish you many more New Years to celebrate with your D.</p>
<p>LTS, I join with padad in wishing you many more New Years to celebrate!</p>
<p>How strange that your hair color changed - is that common? I have heard of texture changes - straight to curly, thick to thin, but not extreme color changes.</p>
<p>LTSâŠI love the âhelicopter daughterâ!! Ha ha! </p>
<p>Iâm glad she is having a chance to take this trip and that must make you feel good. Coincidentally, both my girls are reading that same book at the moment (one is also overseas on a trip). </p>
<p>I just want to wish you lots of positive vibes and joy in the new year and that it be a year of rising up and conquering and moving in a positive direction. Hereâs to you!</p>
<p>More positive vibes here LTS. I havenât posted much on this thread because I donât have much understanding or knowledge about cancer to share but I am very good at praying and I will pass that on.</p>
<p>To padad, my Pennsylvania daughter also spent Christmas in Thailand. She was there for just under a week but now she is back in China where she works.</p>