well since my summer is screwed and all plans have been put on hold and i cant post pics of catfish , i figure i would enlighten some of you or any one who is bored enough to read this thread the life , times and trials a cancer patient goes through on the road to recovery
march 14th 2012 i was diagnosed with A M L or acute myloid lukemia , a very aggressive lukemia . I was sent to west penn hospital cancer floor for chemotherapy treatments while they looked for a bone marrow match to do a bone marrow transplant. now lukemia is a blood cancer and in my case my blood was 88% blasts which is a immature white blood cell , the mature white blood cells is what fights of infections and such so basiclly i had no immune system to fight off anything.
day one they do Apheresis which basicly means they hooked me up to a machine pulled blood out of my body ran it through a centrifuge machine to sepperate the diferent parts of the blood and pulled out alot of the bad white blood cells then returned the blood back into my body, later that evening i start my week long chemo therapy session , i have one drug going through my iv 24 hours a day and every evening i have another part of the chemo added for up to 6 hours a night , i took the chemo pretty well didnt get sick till after a week later then the hair started to fall out , the nausea kicked in and the weight loss started , not a very pleasent experience but not a bad one to go through , definately a life changing experience indeed
day 2 through 7 is just the same as day one except for its just chemotherapy and no Apheresis , your tired alot and wanna do nothing but sleep and now that im in here for my second round of chemo i can do a day by day for you guys instead of just a quick overview into a couple of sentences , my goal with all of this is if anything to change one persons life weather it may be how we look at life or maybe a battle they are fighting with themselves
day one they do Apheresis which basicly means they hooked me up to a machine pulled blood out of my body ran it through a centrifuge machine to sepperate the diferent parts of the blood and pulled out alot of the bad white blood cells then returned the blood back into my body, later that evening i start my week long chemo therapy session , i have one drug going through my iv 24 hours a day and every evening i have another part of the chemo added for up to 6 hours a night , i took the chemo pretty well didnt get sick till after a week later then the hair started to fall out , the nausea kicked in and the weight loss started , not a very pleasent experience but not a bad one to go through , definately a life changing experience indeed
day 2 through 7 is just the same as day one except for its just chemotherapy and no Apheresis , your tired alot and wanna do nothing but sleep and now that im in here for my second round of chemo i can do a day by day for you guys instead of just a quick overview into a couple of sentences , my goal with all of this is if anything to change one persons life weather it may be how we look at life or maybe a battle they are fighting with themselves
A quick side note . I have smoked since i was twelve years old , my parents never kept track of thier Cigarettes so it was pretty easy for me to sneak Cigarettes out and smoke em . Well what i thaught was cool turned into one of the most worst habits i could have started . Fast forward almost 20 years and im sitting in the hospital with cancer no it may not have been lung cancer which most people think they would get from smoking but a very aggressive form of lukemia that is basicly killing my body one piece at a time. I always thaught you know what all the mumbo jumbo crap i hear about smoking is bad for me and it will be the death of me I didnt think it would happen to me , even after the told me i had it i didnt wanna believe it was happening to me , maybe it was all just a bad dream and i would wake up with a nice tastey cancer stick and be watching the smoke rise and dissapear above my head ,now i am the first one in my family to have lukemia which sent up a red flag that this wasnt a herditary illness , so what caused it . you guessed it chemicals in Cigarettes but one chemical in particuler BENZENE which is a chemical in ciggerette smoke being around smokers all my life then starting the habit at a young age i was destined to get sick , yes i know stopping smoking is one of the hardest things in life to do but as of today i am currently 6 weeks smoke and tabbaco free it wasnt easy but i feel so much better and healthier , so please if you smoke or use tobbaco products think of what it does to your body , i dont wanna see any one go through what cancer patients go through
Bowhunter57
Senior Member
uglykat26,
Most cancers can be beat, if you're willing to fight through it.
My wife is a 2x breast cancer survivor of 8 years and cancer free for 5 years.
I am a skin cancer survivor of 12 yeas and cancer free for 12 years.
A person is considered a survivor from the time the cancer is discovered. They are considered cancer free from the time the cancer is removed or treated and tested to be not found. In other words, my skin cancer was found and removed at the same time and that's how I'm a survivor and cancer free of the same amount of 12 years.
My wife's cancer was found in '04, a lump removed and radiation treatment was applied. Afterwards, test discovered no cancer. However, 3 years later in '07, it resurfaced. Surgery was performed, tests are done annually and she's been cancer free since '07. Breast cancer is the #1 killer of women, which took over #2 heart disease, in '09.
A guy I work with and has since retired, had prostate cancer. He is alive and well to this day. :smiley_bril:
The point is, that it can be beat. Hang in there and focus on one issue at a time! Don't let the broad spectrum of "things" get you down. My thoughts and prayers go out to you, brother. :smiley_ahh:
Bowhunter57
Most cancers can be beat, if you're willing to fight through it.
My wife is a 2x breast cancer survivor of 8 years and cancer free for 5 years.
I am a skin cancer survivor of 12 yeas and cancer free for 12 years.
A person is considered a survivor from the time the cancer is discovered. They are considered cancer free from the time the cancer is removed or treated and tested to be not found. In other words, my skin cancer was found and removed at the same time and that's how I'm a survivor and cancer free of the same amount of 12 years.
My wife's cancer was found in '04, a lump removed and radiation treatment was applied. Afterwards, test discovered no cancer. However, 3 years later in '07, it resurfaced. Surgery was performed, tests are done annually and she's been cancer free since '07. Breast cancer is the #1 killer of women, which took over #2 heart disease, in '09.
A guy I work with and has since retired, had prostate cancer. He is alive and well to this day. :smiley_bril:
The point is, that it can be beat. Hang in there and focus on one issue at a time! Don't let the broad spectrum of "things" get you down. My thoughts and prayers go out to you, brother. :smiley_ahh:
Bowhunter57
Hang in there...
Cancer doesn't always come from genetics or tobacco products like you mentioned. My mom has beat it twice and she never touched a cigarette in her life nor did it run in the family. Sometimes we are just dealt a challenging hand.
Cancer doesn't always come from genetics or tobacco products like you mentioned. My mom has beat it twice and she never touched a cigarette in her life nor did it run in the family. Sometimes we are just dealt a challenging hand.
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Archertl
Senior Member
last two days werent so bad , my anti nausea medicine keep me asleep most fo the time the first round of chemo took my blasts or immature white blood cells down from 88 percent to 11 percent
i dealt with the nasuea pretty good the first time but its kicking my butt this time , ill write more tommorrow , thanks for the kind words and prayers guys , this site always cheers me up
i dealt with the nasuea pretty good the first time but its kicking my butt this time , ill write more tommorrow , thanks for the kind words and prayers guys , this site always cheers me up
finished up round two of chemo yesterday thankfully it was only a five day chemo , now its just a waiting game for my numbers to come back up the chemo basicly kills all the cells in my blood along with skin cells and the cells that control hair growth
after this stay i got one more chemo treatment and then my transplant
after this stay i got one more chemo treatment and then my transplant
Buckmaster
Senior Member
Is that held in Pittsburgh?
My cousin had to go to Memphis to get that done. I think he has the same thing as you Mark.
i got some good news today , i get to go home tommorrow , just got to take it easy which means no fishing which sucks