Posts by Angela Wright

Elizabeth Collins60 said:Here is another broken, grieving soul fighting this cruel disease within the family. My father has been battling cancer for a year and a half now—chemo, radiation, you name it—yet our brilliant doctors still can't even pinpoint where the primary tumor started. Everything seemed fine until they suddenly discovered four metastases in his brain. How do you deal with this? How do you accept the loss of the person who means everything to you? Help.

It’s incredibly hard, absolutely, but it is possible to survive this.😳 You have to hold onto that belief. We talk about this constantly on this board. Just scroll through the pages. There are moments when I feel completely crushed, and I find myself starting from page one, reading through this entire forum just to breathe again. Sometimes, it's actually surreal how my own old posts can end up lifting me up and giving me the strength to keep going.
Unfortunately, you are part of a massive group of people enduring the absolute worst life can throw at you, but you shouldn't—and really, you shouldn't have to—face this alone. Know that you aren't isolated; somewhere out there, someone is lying awake at night trembling under the weight of the exact same dark thoughts you're having right now.
Don't give up!😘

Ryan Fisher64 said:I just don't know how I'm supposed to get these tests done when she's in constant pain and completely immobile; I can't just drag her around every single day.

You’re going to have to pull some strings—whether it's a connection, a formal arrangement, or just a heavy-duty favor—to get her admitted to the hospital for a single day. You need to arrange for medical transport to pick her up based on a referral from her primary care doctor, and then get all those tests knocked out at once.
My mom is also completely immobile—full tetraplegia—and we handled it by working directly through her oncologist. She would coordinate with her colleagues to pick a specific day for my mom to come in, they'd tuck her into an available bed, and then they'd shuttle her around to all the various tests. In the end, we had medical transport bring her back home.

You have to face the reality that we live in a system where nobody is going to lift a finger for you unless you take matters into your own hands.

There’s also the "shortcut," which is calling 911 over the weekend when things take a turn for the worse. Given her medical history, they’ll likely admit her, keep her overnight, and run the necessary tests while she's there.

Ryan Fisher64 said:Hey everyone, I’ve been offline for a while—not by choice, but because things were actually starting to look up for my mom. Then, just four days ago, everything took a turn for the worse. After her stroke, we brought her home to continue with the medication and physical therapy, and just when I thought we were finally gaining momentum with her exercises, she started choking... dangerously so. She was screaming in pain. Now she’s constantly on a dose of Trodon, per her doctor's orders. I honestly don't know what's happening; I suspect it might be metastases, but at this point, I'm lost. It’s devastating. I keep asking myself what the point of any of this is. I lost my old man when I was only 13, and now, just when Mom was supposed to finally start enjoying her grandkids, this happens. How much more can we take? It’s not that I’m questioning the existence of good and evil, it’s just that I can't wrap my head around why bad things seem to hit the best people so relentlessly.
These doses of Trodon have left my mom in a state of complete disorientation; it's like trying to reach someone who isn't even there anymore. To put it bluntly: it's a nightmare.

Look, I hate to be the one to say it, but life doesn't play favorites. These tragedies strike the good and the bad with the exact same indifference. That's just the way the world works.😳
I am truly sorry things have taken such a dark turn, but there could be a dozen different reasons for her current condition. Don't just sit back—stay aggressive. Demand that they run every single test possible to find a concrete cause. Don't let despair win; fight for her, and fight for your kids, so they at least get that time together.

Michelle Hernandez43 said:Hey everyone, I really need some help here.

Does anyone know a good psychologist or psychiatrist who specializes in working with patients facing terminal illness (malignant disease) in the San Francisco area?
Ideally, if someone could even do home visits—I’m not sure if that’s even a thing anymore—because getting my mom out of the house is nearly impossible since she’s almost completely immobile. If that’s not an option, we’ll figure something out...
Over the last five years of her illness, she’s been through absolutely everything imaginable (I don't even want to go into detail, you all know how it goes), but these last six months have been especially brutal. It’s reached a point where, on top of everything else, she’s having severe panic attacks. An ER doctor diagnosed them and prescribed Normabel (plus a patch)...
I’m honestly at a loss for what to do... even just one session with a professional might help, because these attacks just won't stop. She keeps saying herself that she wants to talk to a psychiatrist, even though she spent her whole life being totally against the idea...
If you know anyone or have heard of someone, please send me a private message.

Thank you!

Sending you all big hugs and lots of love!

My mom’s panic attacks actually stopped once I brought a priest to her room to give her the Anointing of the Sick and hear her confession. They talked in her room for two hours. Since then, she hasn't been afraid of anything.
I don't know exactly what he said to her, but she often mentions later how our local priest is a saint.
If she’s a believer, I truly think a kind, compassionate priest having a real conversation with her would do more good than a psychologist or psychiatrist who mostly just "processes" you through an appointment. It would also be just as helpful if she could connect with people who are going through the exact same situation she is.
My mom was always quite emotional and prone to crying, which is something I mentioned once before in her profile.

brisknomad6 said:Not true

Which part exactly? Are we talking about my mother or what?😕
Come on, walk me through it and clear up this delusion of yours.🙂

Scott Allen10 said:🙂 ...you'll always get your coronary angiography shots on a CD, so you can totally take those along if you need a second opinion or more testing later on... and since all the modern diagnostic gear is built to save digital files anyway, it's really just a matter of whether the specific clinic actually feels like helping you out or not...

Look, at the Rib, they wouldn't—or maybe just couldn't—get my mom's brain MRI scans onto a CD, even though we asked them repeatedly. We wanted to send her findings over to a neurologist relative living in the USA. The only thing we actually have on a CD are the scans from the Mayo Clinic, and those specifically state they aren't intended for diagnostic use.

That’s just my firsthand experience. From what I know about graphic design, it actually makes more sense to me that film is more precise. You can zoom in on any specific part as much as you need to get a better look, whereas this digital recording is stuck within its set resolution. That kind of limits the precision, making it arguably less reliable as a diagnostic image.

wanderingcanyon3 said:A Typo that almost everyone on this thread has run into? Look, I'm sorry about the illness, I'm not being malicious. It's just... why does your ego take such a bigger hit than your actual health when it comes to you?😉

Besides, I did a good thing. Now you guys will actually know how to read and write properly so you don't look illiterate anymore. It'll be good for your souls, and I hope you all stay healthy in the long run.🙂

My ego is perfectly fine.

Besides, I did a good thing. Now you'll all know how to read and write correctly so you won't embarrass yourselves by looking illiterate ever again. Your souls will be cleansed, and I hope you all stay healthy in the long run.🙂

Yeah, keep telling yourself that until your ego and body actually start believing it, because everything you've written up to this point has been completely soul-less.👎

wanderingcanyon3 said:Seriously, people mess up basic spelling all the time. But when someone who actually knows how to use the internet writes rengen 😱

It's X-ray, you illiterate bunch.

Anyway, on topic—you can get that done at any decent photo lab.

Thankfully, illness doesn't strike people like you, because if it did, you'd probably just end it all right then and there—considering how much a little Typo can get under your skin (couldn't that have been the case here?) or since you just love being so damn smart and "right," regardless of who you're talking to or what kind of baggage and trauma they might be carrying inside.
You really depressed me.😢

I hope the issue was already sorted out by some photographer.

I don't know what kind of games people are playing here, but let’s get one thing straight: I have zero interest in dancing around the truth just to make someone feel comfortable. If you want sugar-coated nonsense, go find a lifestyle blog. If you want the facts, stay right here. I'm not going to sit around and play nice while everyone else wanders around aimlessly, pretending they don't see exactly what's happening right in front of their eyes. It’s exhausting watching the lack of backbone in this conversation. Either step up and speak your mind with some actual substance, or just stop wasting my time. Period. cosmicmoose62 says:
So, let’s say you’re heading into a public hospital for a CT or an MRI—not some fancy private clinic, but through a standard referral—and you want to ask them if they can just toss the images onto a USB drive for you. Is that actually a thing you can request, or are they going to kick you out on the street just for asking?😁

You can try asking nicely, but honestly, don't hold your breath—they're usually too swamped to bother (trust me, I've been there). Besides, nobody actually uses those burned CDs for diagnostic purposes anymore; they're basically useless. If you want anything useful, you need the actual film.

Anonymous said:Does "30 radiation sessions" mean five treatments spread out over six months, or does it mean getting hit with radiation every single day for a month?

A full month of radiation—we’re talking 30 days straight, excluding weekends.

cosmicmoose62 said:Hey everyone

Does anyone know where in Washington, D.C. I can get my X-rays converted from a CD to a digital format—basically just scanned

Please help, I need this ASAP

Thanks

I’d say you should look for someone with a high-end professional film scanner. Maybe check with a local newsroom?😕 You could even try asking a professional photographer.

electricgardener14 said:Greetings to everyone on this forum,
My husband was recently diagnosed with lung cancer while we were in San Francisco. They’re still debating the specific type, and frankly, the radiation equipment they’re using there looks like it belongs in a museum—sixty-year-old tech, at best. I have serious doubts about the diagnostic accuracy and the treatment methods available here in San Francisco... and when you're dealing with something this devastating—not to mention we have four children who desperately need their father present for as long as possible—you can't afford to gamble.
I am reaching out to anyone with a kind heart to ask for recommendations or any advice you might have; please, if you know something, speak up as soon as you can. Would it be wise to move him to a Small town, USA to seek better care, and is that even legally feasible without having some sort of high-level connection?
Is it possible to incorporate alternative medicine—something like the Brojsov therapy—after he finishes his rounds of chemo and radiation? Also, is there any way to get a hold of a phone from Bread or Ivanicapeca? Please, help me if you can. My thanks to you all.
electricgardener14

I'll send you my cell number via PM, but honestly, I don't know how else to help besides telling you to just get in the car and drive him straight to Washington, D.C., to a specialist in a Small town, USA, and pray they take him in—they will, I'm sure of it.
Don't waste your energy overthinking the tiny details right now. Leave the kids with someone—I'm sure someone will step up to help you during a time like this—and just get to Washington, D.C. This period of uncertainty and grinding through the unknown is, speaking from personal experience, the absolute worst. Once you actually start taking concrete steps, you'll feel a little better.
Here is the number for their main office; call them and ask to speak with someone who can actually discuss your specific situation:
555-012-3456

Please, try to pull yourself together, because if you break down now, you won't be able to help him at all.

coppergardener said:Well, look, I’m certainly not a medical professional, so I can't claim to know much—specifically regarding what happens when you administer drugs designed for macrocellular targets toward microcellular ones. It’s a complex field, isn't it? Instead, you often find yourself wading through a sea of contradictory advice where, frankly, less than 5% of it is actually intelligent or even feasible. And for the pieces of advice that *are* sensible? Well, they usually come with a price tag that's simply out of reach, which only adds to the mounting frustration. Perhaps his suggestion is accurate, but I am merely relaying what I have gathered from my own research—and mind you, I looked at multiple sources, not just the first two that popped up on Google. One must always question everything and never stop learning! (I have always been absolutely fascinated by medicine, though I must admit I'm currently quite annoyed with myself because I harbored such a distaste for chemistry back in school... so now I'm feeling a bit lost... but oh well, at least I'm studying linguistics, so there's no language barrier there!) Cancer is no small matter, and blindly following someone else's word can be an incredibly costly mistake. On another note... how much does that famous, legendary Plecko cost? (Could you send me a DM?)

The guy literally went on national TV during a midday talk show and mentioned that a consultation with him runs about $67, while his teas and supplements are around $150, if I remember correctly.

Personally, I don't buy it. He strikes me as incredibly strange—he pushes these theories that push the boundaries of reality and have zero scientific basis, all while loudly preaching about how much he respects science. It's a total contradiction.
I’d sooner trust some uneducated herbalist out in the hills of Canada than listen to him.

Amanda Jackson6 said:I honestly don't know what to do—I've never had a headache this bad before, and now I'm starting to feel nauseous too. I don't have any meds at home (aside from some Guaraná)... I can't even sleep because the pain is just relentless.🤮
Does anyone have a quick "grandma's remedy" they can swear by? All I have in my herbal stash are cactus, tree of life, and a few random teas... oh, and I've got some ice.
Please, I'm desperate here!
Damn this stupid Rubik's Cube...😠

Your only real option is to have someone run to a 24-hour pharmacy for some painkillers. Personally, Ibuprofen rules for me.👍
If you happen to have some Tiger Balm, rub it on your forehead and temples and wrap a cloth tightly around your head; that helps too.

James Watson84 said:In that case, my bad. I mistakenly thought I was in a "debate" with some amateur medic trying to push a specific agenda, so I got a bit carried away. I have to admit, for someone who isn't a professional, you actually know a lot about this stuff. Forgive me, I'm still pretty new here.😬

No worries😁 , though as a layman, I’d honestly prefer to know nothing at all about medicine. You can certainly imagine why that would be the case😳

Joshua Ortiz9 said:Historically, C-sections were almost always a death sentence for the mother. The first recorded instance where both the mother and child actually survived was back in Switzerland around the year 1500, and it was performed by someone who basically just did pig castration for a living. Even then, a mother surviving was a massive outlier. To give you an idea of the progress, back in 1880, about 80% of mothers died following the procedure. Today, that number has plummeted to just 0.04%.

Man, can you even fathom what that looked like in 1500🤮? With zero hygiene, it would have been a literal miracle if the woman made it through.

James Watson84 said:I’ve got one major problem with your logic: the reasons people underwent trepanation back in the day—things like migraines, epilepsy, or various mental health issues—are light-years away from the clinical medical indications we recognize in modern medicine today.

Probably, but they’ve pulled it off successfully before. As someone who isn't a medical expert—and more importantly, as someone who is usually the one lying in the hospital bed—that track record is the only thing that actually matters to me.

Second off, do you actually have any clue when people finally grasped the concept of infection or realized that infectious diseases actually have specific causes? You really ought to look into the history of when we started studying human anatomy without being terrified of divine retribution. Think about how long it took for us to truly understand what the circulatory system is for and how it actually functions. And for the record, performing a C-section isn't some trivial little procedure, even by today's medical standards.

I don't know the exact dates by heart, but look at it this way: the Jewish people managed to survive thousands of years of hardship largely because they actually followed Biblical principles. One of those laws required anyone who came into contact with someone else's blood to stay in quarantine for several weeks. Even the concept of Kosher food is deeply rooted in basic infection control. I’m not sure if they called it a streptococcus infection back then or if they viewed it as a punishment from God Elijah, but does the distinction even matter?

Let’s stop treating personal convictions like they're actual arguments. There is a massive body of medical records spanning all of human history—stretching from ancient China, Egypt, and Greece through the golden ages of Arabic medicine—that provides enough empirical evidence to actually draw meaningful conclusions.

I don't view my deepest convictions as mere arguments; they’re just the raw material used to fuel a thoughtful debate on a forum like this. To me, a truly "good argument" is nothing more than a legitimate scientific discourse backed by actual research—but let's be honest, we aren't exactly looking for peer-reviewed studies in this corner of the internet, are we?😉 I’m wide open to suggestions and any "deep-seated convictions" you all might have.🙂

electricgardener14 said:Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice from Angela Wright and anyone else who might be able to help.
My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer at the Mayo Clinic via cytological puncture.
They want to start him on radiation and chemo without even confirming the specific tumor type first. To make matters worse, the equipment they plan to use for radiation looks like it's straight out of the 1950s. On top of all that, they aren't offering any hope for a cure, and
here in San Francisco, there aren't any support groups available for patients or their families.
So, here are my questions: do you think it would be better to move him to Washington, D.C.? Do you know if lung cancer treatment is more successful abroad? Also, does anyone have experience with alternative therapies, like the Numbers method, and can that be done alongside pain medication, since he's in terrible pain?
Please get back to me quickly; we need to decide our next move immediately.
Thanks in advance for everything.
electricgardener14

Look, based purely on my own criminal track record with Johns Hopkins Hospital—which spans my entire life and includes every single family member I've ever had treated there—I’d suggest moving him to Washington, D.C., specifically to Jordan.
If they're giving such a bleak prognosis, I'm assuming it might be small cell carcinoma, though I don't see how they can base that on anything unless the cells pulled during the puncture weren't clear enough to identify the specific type. You can find an open thread on this topic right here, including a post I wrote about a woman from St. Louis.

I know things are absolutely dire right now, but try to frame it as though you don't actually know anything yet; all you know is that *something* is happening. Try not to panic—and for heaven's sake, don't panic in front of your husband—and just focus on getting him to Washington, D.C., as fast as possible.

Nathan Bailey said:Hey everyone!
I’m checking back in after being away for a while—I went through a depressive episode, but I’m doing better now. My husband and I are currently on our tenth cycle of Temozolide, and he's about to start radiation. Does anyone know how long they typically prescribe Temozolide? Is there a set number of cycles, or is it just based on the doctor's discretion? He’s been sick for a year now, and I’ve been right there with him through every single round of Temozolide.
YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST SUPPORT SYSTEM EVER!!!!!!!

That hits close to home for me too. 😕 My mother’s husband, who was treated at Vanguard, and another patient at Mayo Clinic both started with 30 sessions of radiation combined with Temozolide, followed by a six-month cycle of taking Temozolide five days a month.
It seems like oncologists just make it up as they go based on their own judgment. They kept telling us that you don't use Temozolide for a recurrence because there wouldn't be a response, but once Vanguard sent the lab results over to Houston, they actually pushed back. They were baffled as to why treatment wasn't continued, especially since the patient had responded so well the first time around.
Honestly, I'm just fed up with doctors and their constant "experiments" and stubborn beliefs.

James Watson84 said:Look, trepanation is one thing, but performing open surgery on a uterus is an entirely different beast 😬. Nobody could survive a C-section back then—for a million different reasons—which is exactly why I find it hard to swallow the idea that Caesar was born that way with his mother still breathing afterward. On the flip side, the history of trepanation (drilling holes in skulls for all sorts of beliefs and medical reasons) stretches all the way back to the Neolithic era, long before any "civilized" societies existed.

Sure, drilling into a skull might not be the most complex procedure to execute, but you have to weigh the massive risk of infection once you've opened up someone's head. If they actually had the skill to suppress infections enough for people to live long lives after the fact, and if they were smart enough to realize that head trauma can cause hydrocephalus requiring drainage, then I am firmly convinced they knew exactly which artery to pinch to stop a woman from bleeding out, and exactly which herbs to brew or poultices to apply to prevent sepsis. It’s highly likely the village healers learned the ropes on livestock—making sure a cow didn't die since that was their primary wealth—and they probably used a few slaves as practice before they ever dared to touch a lady of high standing.