Some nice news to add to the excitement of the new season.
Scans just showed me cancer free!! This after an operation and 6 months of chemotherapy. Quite a relief despite ongoing but hopefully diminishing side effects.
So we go again. Play on.
Much to learn from this experience and I will list some that immediately come to mind;
next time a friend has cancer check on the partner as well. They go on the ride.
Chemo is quite challenging. In fact a shit show. Fatigue, nausea etc took me from being very fit to hardly being able to walk down the street at certain times of the 2 week cycle.
Nurses are amazing people
stay mentally strong. So critical but not easy.
keep busy if possible to get into good headspace
I was lucky
Life can take a sudden turn so whatever it is you dream of, get cracking and make it happen.
Great news Rooster !!!
I sign every line you have written - its harder for the loved ones than for oneself.
I lost my battle with cancer, in the Hospiz now and won’t make it much longer, matter of days.
I thought about writing here a lot these days. I never posted much but I visited TIA ( anyone remember Showmethemoney, MyPost and RaoulDuke?) and then TAN almost every day and want to say that being/reading here made me really feel being part of a big, worldwide red family. Thanks for that, everyone.
I somehow missed this thread and do might as well tell my story.
I have kidney disease, stage 4. Stage 5 is dialysis and transplant territory. I was diagnosed in 2014 after visting the doctors with headaches. Ankle swelling also in the evening. The doctor took my blood pressure and it was through the roof.
A spell in hospital with some tests and a kidney biopsy showed I have IGA Nephropathy which is an autoimmune condition where proteins related to your immune system build up and damage your kidneys. I do not know what triggered it.
The frustrating part was having had a simple work health check a few years earlier. It showed elevated cholesterol and BP. I had a follow up and my doctor fobbed me off and told me to change my diet. Properly pissed at that.
There is no real recovery, although diet can help and there is some tentative evidence that kidneys can regenerate. It’s all about managing your existing fuction to prevent degradation. I have been stable for 11.5 years now. I’m also lucky. With my only struggles being blood pressure and blood potassium levels. Everything else bar EGfR (kidney function) and urea nitrogen (waste products from normal body processes) are high. Potassium on occasions if I eat the wrong things.
Moral of the story is get checked. Blood tests and protein spillage in your urine. Do it every year. Do not be a Noo Noo and think, that because you’re fit and can happily bike 120 miles a week that everything is fine. I was without any outward symptoms until shit got really serious. When diagnosed I was at end stage renal failure. I’m sure they considered plugging me into a machine.
