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  I noticed a new brown spot on my face near my eye. It looked like an aging thing since, well, I am aging and into the years that are considered "getting on in years." Nothing -- and everything -- seemed unusual about it. It just did not seem right or feel right -- and it itched a bit. I don't know if that is because it annoyed me prompting me to scratch it perhaps too often. So, I checked with the dermatologist. "Nothing to worry about," she said but decided to take a biopsy, anyway. She did a slice and a puncture. Now, doctors do not like to work on me the first time (once they know me, no problem) because I am allergic to local painkiller so everything has to be done the grin-and-bear-it way. "Well," the doc said upon learning that, "This will be uncomfortable." She was right, but I held very still and remained very quiet -- did not want her to slip near my eye because of some noise I might make.  The doc sent the tissue off to a lab and

  I recently came across an interesting article about sneaky signs of colon cancer. Considering that colon cancer and the threat of colon cancer plagues our family, I found this article useful and summarise the list here: Sneaky symptoms of colon cancer A change in bowel habits, such as more frequent diarrhea or constipation. Rectal bleeding or blood in the stool. Ongoing discomfort in the belly area, such as cramps, gas, or pain. Bloating, gas, or changes in bowel habits. More serious symptoms like bloody stools, significant weight loss, or fatigue may occur. 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 up

  More than once, someone has said, "I thought I had a pimple and went to the dermatologist just in case. It turned out to be skin cancer." This article might help:  How to Tell the Difference Between a Pimple and Skin Cancer︱GentleCure And by the way, it was because of a pimple on top of a newly appearing brown spot that got larger, bled, itched, and would not heal that I discovered my own skin cancer -- the dermatologist thought it was nothing to worry about until the biopsy came back! 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, thi

    Never thought about...eye cancer...really! Yes, really.  Here are eleven warning signs of cancer you can see in your eyes  that you might be seeing and not realizing are important or might not even be noticing. 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 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 wit

  An interesting article was posted this week by The New York Times -- about what reactions about how behavior at dinner can indicate early stages of cancer. (Yes, we want to catch cancer in the early stage, so this article is worth reading). Here is it: " The overlooked sign of cancer you may be missing at dinner 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 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  Twit

  from treatment and recovery systems Many of the decisions that that Carl made in the last few months of his cancer-riddled life were completely irrational. In some cases, I did not know enough about the situations to know that they were irrational; they did not seem right, but the contractors went along with Carl. After all, he was paying, so it was his decision even if irrational.  Examples?  He had the sump pump behind the house removed and the area filled with concrete. During the first tremendous rains -- California's 2023 crazy storm season -- we ended up with a backyard swimming pool. The plumber reinstalled the sump pump.  He set up three generators (one probably would have done) powered by a wind turbine (we do have a lot of wind here) to maintain electricity if the power went out for a long period of time. Yes, we are on top of an earthquake fault, but we had not lost power for more than a couple of hours -- ever. And have not lost it at all since. To power the generator

Carl, so proud in his new, smaller, fully fitting Scott vest   Indeed, several months before Carl was diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer (stage 4), he lost quite a bit of weight. Nearly 50 pounds overnight. Now, he was big, very big. Any weight loss, in our thinking at the time, was to be applauded. And so, he ordered s smaller Scott vest and showed off his new slimmer self. (Not slim, mind you, but slimmer -- he was still nearly 300 pounds when he died.) What we did not realize -- and I certainly wish we had is that such a weight loss is not to be celebrated. It is a sign of dying, or at least, of advanced cancer. Instead of showing off his success ("achieved" -- more accurately, "experienced" -- though he was not on a particularly regimented diet), he should have been rushing to his doctor and asking, "What is wrong with this picture?" Perhaps, hopefully, the doctor would have figured out the cancer diagnosis early enough to do something about it,

  By the time, Carl was diagnosed, his cancer was metastized to his liver, lungs, bones, and upper stomach. After many biopsies and scans, the primary could not be found, and the cancer was officially labeled Cancer of Unknown Primary . Impaired Mobility: harder and harder to walk and climb stairs     We associated this with worsening of gout, which had been present for more than a decade     This could have been due as well to cancer-related hypercalcemia and bone cancer Frequent urination     We associated this with normal aging     This could have been related to  prostate cancer (not the case with Carl but the case with many) Pain in the side     We associated this with a gallbladder attack; it appeared similar to what our daughter, who had her gallbladder removed, had gone through.     We did not know that this same kind of pain is diagnostic of liver cancer. Frequent dozing off while working on the computer or watching television We associated this associated with  fatigue from t