Saturday, June 29, 2019

What Is Remission?

My doctor explained to me I was in what is called “partial remission.” I am well aware that this is temporary, but as I wrote in another article – so is life! While there is no cure for my disease, I choose to appreciate each and every day that I feel good.

BY Jane Biehl, Ph.D.

PUBLISHED June 29, 2019

Jane has earned three advanced degrees and had several fulfilling careers as a librarian, rehabilitation counselor and college teacher. Presently she does freelance writing. Her articles include the subjects of hearing loss and deafness, service dogs and struggling with cancer. She has been a cancer survivor since 2010.

She has myelodysplastic syndrome, which is rare, and would love to communicate with others who have MDS.
My doctor explained to me I was in what is called “partial remission.” What does this mean? Web MD explains this means “The cancer is still there, but your tumor has gotten smaller – or in cancers like leukemia, you have less cancer throughout your body.” Complete remission means all your cancer cells are gone and there is no evidence of disease (abbreviated NED). However, doctors are cautious about using the term “cured” with any type of cancer before five years has passed, because it can come back.
  
With a blood cancer like mine, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), there is no cure and I will never be NED. All my bone marrow biopsies show abnormal cells no matter what. The number of cells on the deletion 5q has gradually increased over the past nine years from 30% to 60% to 90-100%. This means there is a tiny little wrong hook on each red blood cell. But the oncologists have told me not to worry unless the blast cells increase and start to go into leukemia, which it did once. I was put on a powerful Vidaza (azacitidine) shots for two years, which kept the blast cells down and the MDS from worsening into a full-blown leukemia. I know I was one of the lucky ones.
  
I had no idea how important blood work is until I was diagnosed with cancer. Now I have learned that MDS causes the red blood cells not to carry blood correctly to the body. Results can be inability to walk long distances or climb steps, extreme fatigue and shortness of breath along with other bothersome symptoms. Thankfully the two chemotherapies I was on, Revlimid (lenalidomide) and Vidaza, kept me going! But I never truly felt that I was in remission because of the terrible side effects we all know too well.

Read More:

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, June 28, 2019

Finding My Way

How I Learned to Thrive in the Face of Metastatic Cancer





by Fabianna Marie


Thirteen years ago, I sat in a waiting room for my consultation with the board of doctors who would decide how my cancer journey would proceed. As I sat there shaking, palms sweating, with tears in my eyes and a knot in my stomach, a woman next to me leaned over and whispered softly in my ear, “Ninety-nine percent of this fight will be your mental fight.”







Posted by at No comments:

Get Out of Your Head

It’s easy for a person with breast cancer to feel overwhelmed by the many thoughts that enter the mind each day but there are techniques that can prove helpful. One survivor shares some of her own helpful tips.

BY Bonnie Annis

PUBLISHED June 26, 2019

Bonnie Annis is a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed in 2014 with stage 2b invasive ductal carcinoma with metastasis to the lymph nodes. She is an avid photographer, freelance writer/blogger, wife, mother and grandmother.
“Get out of your head.”

Those were the words a fellow cancer survivor and friend chided in a recent conversation. I was surprised at her bluntness. We’d been discussing the future, sharing concerns about our health and making tit-for-tat comparisons. When I asked what she’d meant when she told me to get out of my head, I received the response, “You’re thinking too much about things, things that don’t really matter.” I wondered how she could say that. Didn’t she understand that with cancer, everything mattered?

I’d shared with her that I was struggling. My mind was being assaulted daily with endless thoughts all related to cancer. When I wasn’t thinking about the stack of medical bills in our bill basket, I was wondering if that stabbing pain over my left eye meant cancer had returned and was now in my brain. Random thoughts would pop into my mind throughout the day and no matter what I did, I couldn’t help but feel consumed with worry. I realized, after talking with my friend, I was definitely stuck in my head and I needed a way to get out.

Read More:

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, June 27, 2019

This Week at the New Orleans Museum of Art


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)