He developed cancer because of his own risky lifestyle choices... khm... and I haven't seen any news about him getting some off-label treatment covered by Medicare just because his oncologist thinks he needs it. Let’s be real: there are review boards, hospital budget constraints, and pure pragmatism at play—if we're being honest with ourselves, isn't that how it works? They weigh whether it's actually worth spending the money on him versus hospice, mental health support, or getting a second opinion. Or you get those excuses like, "We don't have it right now, but maybe tomorrow; the nurse went home and took the pharmacy keys with her." Meanwhile, every single addict gets their methadone delivered right on schedule, accompanied by all the coddling, hand-holding, and sympathy you can imagine. Fine then, let's just give everyone everything and stop being so bitter when they kick us to the curb because they're too busy mourning the fact that the last resuscitation attempt failed... honestly, people are unbelievable. 🤷
Amanda Miller69 said:Things are looking grim here. Yesterday, my father-in-law ended up in the ER because food got stuck again—likely his esophagus is closing up. They exhausted him and sent him home, but by evening, he was struggling to breathe. He saw a surgeon today, and my husband tells me he started feeling pain on his left side while in the ambulance; he ended up at the emergency room in Jordanovac. They did some imaging on his lungs, and now I’m just waiting to hear from my husband, who is there with him, to see what the next steps are.
I honestly don't know if we should even expect anything more, or if we're just counting down the days....
Oh, honey...😢 Look, as long as he's still breathing, the fight is still on. They'll find a way to patch him up somehow.😢 I am so incredibly sorry; you really didn't deserve to go through this.😢
I’d personally vote to stop using Medicare to fund treatment for addicts. They made their own choices and took those risks; if they want to get clean, they can figure out how to pay for it themselves.
What if someone overindulges on greasy burgers, gets a gallbladder attack, suffers intense pain, the stone moves into the bile duct, ruptures, and leaks bile everywhere? I’m exaggerating here, obviously... look, life isn't black and white. People just aren't equipped for this. Yesterday, I was scrolling through a Facebook group and found myself staring in disbelief at this woman who had already gone through a premature birth, contracted beta-hemolytic infections, and was now dealing with heavy bleeding—like, twelve or thirteen pads a day. She’s sitting there asking if it’s an emergency or not, while meticulously analyzing her pads, checking the volume, the color, the texture... hello? Seriously? In the end, she left because we all basically kicked her out of the group, claiming she wasn't "fertile ground" for advice... but what else were we supposed to do?! There's a triage nurse for a reason; if it’s not an emergency, you get a polite suggestion to head straight to the ER. You shouldn't play doctor, and that rule applies to everyone.
People just don't have the capacity to gauge how urgent their situation actually is, and honestly, if they think they need to go, let them go. At any ER, there’s a triage nurse whose entire job is to listen to those symptoms and decide whether someone needs immediate life-saving intervention or if they can wait. That’s how things work at places like Mayo Clinic.
Amanda Miller69 said:My father-in-law has developed a pressure sore on his buttocks. Without me diving into endless threads of advice, can anyone tell me what kind of ointment to use or where we might actually find an air mattress to prevent this? My mother-in-law told me his primary care doctor said things are going to get incredibly difficult from here on out, and suggested it would be best to move him into hospice when the time comes. I’m not entirely sure if a hospital will just take him in without much notice, but we'll see when it comes down to it. I remember when my own mom was incontinent, semi-conscious, and immobile—she was sent home to live with me. Eventually, I had to place her in a facility in Dug Resa, where she passed away after just a week. My mother-in-law lives alone with my father-in-law, and her sister-in-law is currently in Sweden and due to give birth in three weeks, so she can't help out anytime soon. Meanwhile, my husband and I are 93 miles far away and can't just drop everything to rush over there at a moment's notice.
Pick up some Granuloflex extra thin bandages at the pharmacy, Decumyl ointment, or Dermazine ointment. You should rinse the area with boric acid or Rivanol, let it air dry, apply the ointment, and then cover it with a bandage. An anti-decubitus mattress is a absolute necessity—get the kind that uses an air compressor. You can find them at medical supply stores for about $1000. If you check Craigslist, you might find a better deal. You can also look into renting a hospital bed and mattress from local nursing homes or clinics for roughly $100 a month. You’ll have to reach out and ask. Additionally, organizations like the Hospice group or Caritas might rent them out on a loan basis if you just approach them with a formal request and his medical history. Also, given his condition, my grandfather has a right to daily home health nursing visits for up to 45 minutes a day. The local clinic needs to get off its butt and come by for a home visit to inspect the wounds and submit a proposal for visiting nurse services. A registered nurse will know exactly how to manage that pressure sore. Having someone wash him, shave him, and change his clothes every single day will mean the world to your mother-in-law; God knows what it meant to me. Hang in there, dear.
Hey, Fiza, 😢 Let's just take it one day at a time; we'll see what Dr. and Cepulic have to say once the dust settles. If you ask me, his chances were significantly compromised right out of the gate because they didn't jump straight into chemotherapy immediately following the procedure. 😢
Amanda Miller69 said:We finally got the results back, and it’s bad news. The cancer has returned in the same spot, all the previous metastases are progressing, a tiny 3mm spot showed up on a lung lobe, and there's some fluid buildup in the left chest... I honestly don't know if there's any help left to give or if we're just waiting for the end.😢
My mother-in-law says he's taking pain pills every single night now and he's getting weaker by the day.
How else can we help him?
What did the oncologist say? If I were you, I'd go see Cepulic for a second opinion on what the next move should be.
Alma, that’s just what happens when circulation goes south. You need to massage her legs using circular motions—start at the feet and work your way up toward the calves and knees. Grab some baby oil, or better yet, whip up a homemade lavender and rosemary oil for the massage. I used that myself and it made a world of difference. Just remember to focus more on soothing strokes rather than heavy pressure. These issues are typical side effects of Cushing syndrome caused by the steroids. Regarding everything else, I already posted about it in the glioblastoma thread so I don't keep repeating myself.
Kevin Barnes6 said:Hey everyone, My father was diagnosed with a malignant supraglottic tumor in mid-May, and he underwent surgery to have it removed in early June. The surgeon didn't fully grasp the extent of the issue at first, so they ended up performing a partial laryngectomy—let's just hope it was a success. He’s scheduled for follow-up consultations with the oncologist in mid-July, starting with a CT scan of the neck, followed by chemoradiotherapy.
Before the surgery, he went through all the standard testing, and everything else looked fine aside from his larynx. He's 63. The real issue is that even a month after the operation, he can barely swallow anything. He can manage a few bites of food, but liquids are impossible. They removed his feeding tube this past Friday, so he likely got dehydrated, and then he ran a fever yesterday. If anyone here has dealt with something similar or knows how to help someone relearn how to swallow, please reach out. Thanks!
There is an association for people who have had laryngectomies; they are incredibly active and provide great support. Definitely get in touch with them—they'll give you firsthand advice and info.http://www.larynx-hr.org/
Once you finish your period, get yourself to a gynecologist immediately. And please, stop trying to play amateur mathematician with your cycle if you actually want to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. Everything you just listed makes it incredibly obvious that you don't have the slightest clue how human reproduction actually works. Honestly, it would be much better if she took charge of her own health and body instead of you trying to manage it for her. That’s just not responsible on her part. Having irregular cycles for over a year and still not seeing a doctor? Hmmm...
velvetranger12 said:I appreciate the thoughtful response, Angela Wright, but I honestly have my doubts about her being pregnant last month. If she were, she would have definitely noticed some symptoms by now. Plus, we’ve always tracked her fertile window based on cervical mucus, and it’s consistently been about 14 to 16 days before her period starts. It’s the delay that’s actually worrying me—is it just because her last period was heavier? I find it hard to believe fertilization could have happened that late.
You guys aren't seeing the big picture here. 1. If there was a pregnancy, she likely miscarried during that heavy bleeding, which she's mistaking for a normal period. Plenty of women experience miscarriages without ever realizing they were even pregnant because it all happens within a single cycle. 2. You can't rely on cervical mucus to pinpoint ovulation with any real certainty. If it were that easy, gynecologists wouldn't bother with ultrasounds; they'd just use a calendar app. The girl needs to see a doctor regardless, and you all need to consider more appropriate forms of protection. What you're doing here has absolutely no basis in actual reproductive science. Good luck.
It’s entirely possible she experienced a biochemical pregnancy during her last cycle—essentially an early miscarriage. Most women don't even realize it happened because it typically occurs right around the time they're expecting their period, or just a day or two after. Look, relying on cervical mucus patterns to track fertile windows is pretty shaky at best, and using the withdrawal method as birth control is just as unreliable. It’s a gamble. If you have intercourse again shortly after ejaculation, there's still enough sperm lingering in the urethra to fertilize an egg. It's simple biology. Let’s be real: ovulation is easily the most unpredictable thing happening inside a woman's body, regardless of how "regular" her cycle claims to be. You can track your period all you want, but trying to pin down the exact moment of ovulation is basically guesswork unless you're staring at an ultrasound monitor or obsessively testing your urine for hormone surges. It’s a moving target. It would be a total game-changer if nature had actually designed things so that sperm could just hang out in the system for up to five days, waiting patiently for that egg to drop. But since we don't have that luxury, the timing has to be nearly perfect. Interestingly enough, most of the swimmers in that race tend to be X-carrying sperm—the female ones—which adds another layer to the whole biological lottery. If your period is more than a week late, you need to get to the OB-GYN, but don't bother making that appointment until you've taken a pregnancy test first. It's common sense.
Kimberly Nguyen70 said:that choosing the pancreas was the absolute worst move
Now I’m just stuck in this loop, wondering if I should jump on some alternative treatment right away or just sit tight until the final pathology report comes back.
Forget alternatives—just focus on boosting the immune system!!
The pathology report is going to provide the actual roadmap, telling us whether we're dealing with cancer at all, or maybe a sarcoma, or even a melanoma hiding somewhere on the skin without you even realizing it. In certain cases, the primary tumor doesn't have to be massive before the metastases start running wild. That adrenal gland looks highly suspicious to me; it's entirely possible everything started there, and we can pin that down easily by checking hormone levels. Besides, adrenal endocrine tumors are incredibly rare. http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditio...adrenal-cancer Even if it isn't pancreatic cancer, having a disease this widespread is a heavy situation. I'm crossing my fingers that they identify the primary site quickly so targeted therapy can actually begin.
Amanda Miller69 said:The oncologist sent him for a CT scan and blood work. I didn't see the specific results she wrote down because he wouldn't let me read them. Yesterday, my father-in-law told me he went to pick up his referrals from the clinic, and they told him that the tumor is a metastasis. Apparently, the chemo didn't work, and now we have to wait for the CT scan to see how far it's spread and what kind of options we actually have left. He did get some pain patches, though, because that mass is causing him a lot of pain. Would radiation help at this stage just to provide some relief, assuming chemo isn't an option anymore? I'm terrified he might be too weak for surgery and that we'll be looking at nothing but palliative care. How else can we make him more comfortable?
If he hasn't had radiation yet, I think palliative radiation could definitely help, though ideally, you'd follow that up with surgical removal if possible. Damn it all... I am so incredibly sorry.😢
Hmm, what if there's fluid buildup in the abdomen and it's starting to hit the pleura? That should show up pretty clearly on an Ultrasound. Did they end up doing one at the end?