MSI Press Blog

As with Carl, many people have "signs" of cancer that can be interpreted either as something else quite mild or dismissed entirely as just a bad day or maybe I ate something bad yesterday. Otherwise quite healthy people simply ignore them as an annoyance. (Before cancer, Carl was sick just one day in his life -- 50 years earlier he threw up, once, on the lawn, from unsuspectingly drinking stagnant water the day while carrying out his Forest Service employee duties, Seriously. Never again did he ever throw up even after three rounds of chemotherapy, but he died, healthy, from cancer!)  This is the insidious nature of cancer. Often, you just do not know you have it because the signs are so innocuous until it has taken over your body and is in the winner's circle -- and you have an incredibly difficult battle to get your body back -- and many people lose that battle every single day. This is especially true of "toilet information." Change in bowel movement is prett

  Looking back on Carl's cancer, our cats' cancers, and cancers among friends and family, we should have seen the signs, which would have led to better decisions and, likely, better outcomes. But they were small changes, slow changes that we got used to gradually without thinking back to what things used to be like.  One day, Carl forgot where the brake on the car was and pushed the gas pedal instead. Scary! Could happen to anyone, right? That was a few months before his late stage 4 metastatic cancer diagnosis, with hypercalcemia (which really messes up the brain). A small sign, but we missed it. His growing tendence to leave dishes to do until the next morning of plants to water the next day. Lazy, right? That started maybe a year out before the cancer diagnosis, likely about the time his organs were being attacked and overwhelming his immune system -- and likely his energy. A small sign, but we missed it. There were more. If we even noticed them, we dismissed them all as  ag

  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

  Recently, a Cancer Diary post addressed what all too often happens when cancer is diagnosed at a late stage, especially at advanced Stage 4. But how do you get that far without a diagnosis? In Carl's case, we missed the early signs, ignored the warning signs, and excused his bad behavior. Early signs The early signs were mostly associated with our expectations of aging. He was getting into his seventh decade. So, we were not surprised when he was no longer up for hiking mountains or spending eight hours a day on the job. In fact, I was always coaxing him to put just a little more time into working since working from the same office, I was quite aware of how much effort I was putting in on a daily and even hourly basis than he was. I chalked it up to his being lazier than usual as he aged. (Work was never where he wanted to concentrate his efforts, anyway. He was an ESTP on the MBTI, someone who loved to play, put things off, and spend time in the outdoors.) But even some of that

  Colorectal cancer has a life expectancy of 4-6 months if discovered in stage 4. If discovered in stage 1-2, life expectancy is 5 years. (Note: Carl's Cancer Compendium provides longevity statistics for a wide range of cancers.) So many people die from colon cancer and colorectal cancer after brief periods of chemotherapy, if that, a imperative exists for watching for early signs of cancer is not heeded (or in some cases, they are simply missed or misinterpreted). I speak from personal experience because although Carl died from cancer of unknown primary ( CUP ), his oncologist was convinced that the original cancer was gastro-intestinal in nature although the colon was clear of the cancer by the time the cancer had reached stage 4 (which can happen in cases of CUP). So, assuming the oncologist was right about the original cancer, did Carl actually survive the 5 years without knowing it? Discovery at late stage does not mean the cancer arrived late stage -- it may have taken mon

  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 informative, ca

  A somber topic today indeed, but an important one. One that was so completely new to us when Carl was dying from cancer that not only did we not know what to expect, leaving us feeling lost and helpless, but also we had no idea even what questions to ask and where to search for answers, leaving us feeling depressed and fearful. I think that may not be completely uncommon. Here is a clinical description of dying from cancer: Dying from cancer is a process that involves  changes in body function and loss of control over bodily functions .  Some of the common signs that your body is preparing to die are  disorientation, incontinence, rattling breaths, extreme weakness, less interest in food, trouble swallowing, and muscle jerking . These signs are caused by the cancer spreading to different organs and systems, and the body shutting down. Frankly, these signs are pretty scary and disconcerting when you do not expect them and do not know how to interpret them -- let alone how to respond t