I am continuing to appreciate the posts, just haven’t felt any need to comment. My file has been foreworded to the doctor recruiting for the trial. Biggest problem now is the uncertainty the trial adds preventing me from moving on with whatever time I have left now I have rejected the mutilation of the conventional treatment.
Edit, why couldn’t it have been thryoid cancer? Tell me about life without a thyroid - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
I am not sure I understand. You said that you’ve had scans and that you don’t have any cancer in your lymph nodes or organs, but you said earlier that there are “still cancer cells around”. Are you actually cancer free right now and removing organs is a precautionary step? I can see how you would balk at that regardless of how high recurrence rates may be. Wouldn’t some sort of monthly exam be an alternative if that’s the case?
My mother, who is about your age, has an intestinal cancer that is being held at bay by an experimental drug. She’ll probably be on it for the rest of her life. Mostly she lives her life just fine nowadays.
It is confirmed I have cancer cells in the organ where the tumors were. So chop out the whole thing.
Which organ IS it?
You are even assuming the treatments are effective. My MIL was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1966. She underwent a full radical mastectomy (the only treatment they used then), followed by a couple months of radiation therapy. She died just 3 years later, having spent the whole time in misery. Now they know that radical mastectomy is no better than lumpectomy (since the aggressive forms of breast cancer have always metastasized through the body by the time they are diagnosed and the non-aggressive kinds are generally not a problem) and women who undergo radiation treatment do worse than if they hadn’t. She might have had 3 years of decent life and then gotten sick and died.
Nearly 7 years ago, my PSA suddenly shot up over 8, which is very high (it had been just over 2). My doctor said to wait a month and then repeated it. Still over 5. So he sent me to a urologist. He said he “had to” advise me to get a biopsy. It was clear he would have preferred to advise me to forget it (I was just 68 at the time), but, since I saw him, he felt an obligation to advise me thus. So I did the biopsy. It felt like taking 8 bullets in the nuts. No cancer. Great. After that experience, I told my GP, “No more PSA tests” and he was happy with that. In fact, his standard practice to advise against it for men over 70 and I was close. If I die of prostate cancer, so be it, but knowing how my quality of life would likely decline after prostate surgery, that is my decision and I will live or die with it.
This book: http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/tt-downloads.html available for free download (also available in several other languages) covers a couple of the things I have discussed here, including breast and prostate cancer. The preface is written by Ben Goldacre, MD, one of the most prominent anti-quack writers around, especially on medical subjects.
Maybe I will check out that book. I think she was trying to encourage me, but yesterday a lady was telling me about how well her first husband did for 4 years after his surgery. 4 Years! That’s all? I might get that without the surgery.