MSI Press Blog

  Jimmy Buffet died this year from Merkel Cell Skin Cancer. He may have experienced symptoms and not noticed them. They are easy to miss, until it is too late. Here are some of the symptoms:  5 Merkel Cell Skin Cancer Symptoms Jimmy Buffett May Have Experienced, Say Experts (msn.com) I am fortunate that I responded immediately and assertively to my one sign of sin cancer: change in an age spot. It was not right. Intuition said so. Observation said so. The skin care center wanted to put off my appointment for four months because "it was not likely to be cancer." I insisted I be put on a waiting list in case any openings came up earlier, and one came up almost immediately. The doc took a look and shook her head, "Does not look like anything to worry about to me, but we will take a biopsy just in case." Now, I understand the reluctance to biopsy someone who has to do it without painkiller because of an allergy to local anesthetics, but I am a pretty calm patient with a...

  I found this article particularly clear and comprehensive:  Stomach cancer: 13 signs and symptoms you shouldn’t ignore (msn.com) For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The CCC is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be open to guest posts:  Cancer Diary .   Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow  MSI Press  on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with  MSI Press LLC ? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Pl...

   54-year old Jason Maman put off checking out the reasons for his stomach pain for a year. It turned out to be stage 3 colon cancer. Read the article here .  This is a bit different from the delayed diagnosis described in last week's (May 13) Cancer Diary blog post. In that case, the patient knew something was wrong; it took too long for doctors to take her seriously and to get an accurate diagnosis. Carl , too, put off getting a diagnosis for something he thought was just stomach pain . He consulted "wisely" (right?) with our daughter who had had her gall bladder removed years earlier when he thought it might be his gall bladder. He decided to just monitor it for a while and see if it got worse. He adapted his food intake for gall bladder management. It did not work. To his defense, this occurred as covid was winding down, and doctors in our area were not seeing patients in their offices, just telehealth -- and his long-term doctor had left when the pandemic started to...

   " Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40  than any other cancer but it gets just 1 per cent of the national spend on cancer research. That has to change – so I’m going to keep making a noise about it while I can." Thus writes Theo Burrell, who is struggling with glioblastoma, which she knows will indeed kill her, likely before she reaches her 38th birthday. Her story is, alas, not unique. You can read it here:  Antiques Roadshow’s Theo Burrell: ‘I’m 37 with terminal cancer – I’m grieving the future I’ll never have’ . In this case, an earlier diagnosis would not have prevented fatality, given the nature of the glioblastoma, but it would have allowed more time to say goodbye, to prepare, and to live without the pain that preceded the diagnosis for a very long time. For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Co...

  This is another one of those posts (by others) who have some very good advice on what to watch for in order to catch potential cancer at the very moment it first pokes up its head -- and ultimately give your doctor the time to do something about it and you the time to survive it. In this case, we are talking about stomach cancer, which you can read about here:  Mum with stomach cancer warns of hidden symptoms (msn.com) For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The CCC is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be ope...

  I came across a sad story recently, one that likely happens far more than anyone suspects. Cancer is so very elusive that many people -- and I do mean many people whom I know -- have no idea that they had cancer until they were diagnosed at stage 4 (and the end of life, in most cases). Two symptoms, not pass off as innocuous, might well have saved some of them. You can read this particular story here -- and it is worth investing a few minutes to do so:  Cancer took my dad in just 12 weeks. Now I warn everyone about two symptoms (msn.com) For other posts about signs of cancer, click HERE . For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from...

  Carl died of Cancer of Unknown Primary -- never could find the original cancer; CUP is frustrating that way. Of the cancers that were known, stomach cancer was one of the five cancers that wracked his body. We did not know anything until it was too late. Carl lived only five months after his initial diagnosis. Had we known what to look for -- and even though to check out little aches and pains and oddities -- he might have fared much better.  For those still living with what may seem like little aches and pains and oddities, here are some  Stomach cancer: causes, warning signs, and treatment (msn.com) . For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on th...

  It seems that the most commonly shared experience by most cancer patients is that they miss the signs of cancer until often it is too late (stage 4 or 4) when discovered. That is because the signs do not leap out, generally. The following article does a good job of sharing the signs as well as providing a list of risk factors (if you have those, best to keep an eye out for signs) for one of the most deadly cancers: pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer (msn.com) For other Cancer Diary posts, click  HERE . Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI Press is now hosting a web page,  Carl's Cancer Compendium , as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The CCC is expanded and updated weekly. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informati...