Kimberly Taylor92 said:I’m so sorry things turned out this way; I can pretty much picture what you guys have been fighting through.
It’s the exact same story with my mom—everyone’s just waiting for her to get strong enough, but it’s definitely not that easy. Just a few days ago, we heard about this specialist in a Small town, USA, and we already reached out. We’re really hoping he might be willing to step in for surgery.
The weakness is just what happens after chemo and dealing with the disease in general. She’s always been super healthy and tough, though. Right now, she’s on probiotics, taking beta-glucan C, Pradaxa to prevent clots, homemade aronia juice, iron, and we’ve even been doing short bursts of Iscador injections that we order from Germany.
We actually found out about something new a couple of days ago—immunotherapy with Merck—but you need a doctor's okay for that, so we’re definitely going to try to get that approved at the clinic in our Small town, USA.
Wishing you the best of luck!
Okay, tiny rant incoming. As someone who has lost way too many close people to cancer, primary care doctors drive me absolutely insane. In my experience, they’re always the last ones to even suspect cancer, brushing off all kinds of symptoms as something else entirely. By the time they finally land on a diagnosis, it’s usually way too late. Look, I get it—you can’t just send everyone for a CT scan, but shouldn't there be some level of awareness? Seriously. It is infuriating to see a non-smoker with lung issues for years being told it’s just lingering effects from some old bout of TB they never even had. And don't even get me started on how the national screening programs are basically nonexistent except for three specific types of cancer. What happened to those announcements about the lung cancer early detection program? People were talking about it! If there isn't a national program, it’s like it doesn't exist. It feels like our primary care docs have become terrible diagnosticians, and by the time you actually see a specialist, it’s often too late. And don't even get me started on the communication between specialists and patients—honestly, most of them seem to have zero social intelligence. Anyone who has ever tried to dig for actual info on a patient's condition knows exactly what I mean. Thank God for Google, otherwise, we wouldn't understand a single thing on these lab reports.
One more thing regarding those routine checkups my late parents used to go to—where everything always came back perfect. Honestly, it feels like just another way to squeeze money out of people. Shoutout to the exceptions who actually do their jobs and examine you properly, though. And what am I supposed to say about the internist who, when I asked if my lungs should be checked given my mom's diagnosis and my own risk, just replied, "Oh, well, you breathed what you breathed, what can you do?"
Rant over.
