Posts by granitebadger21

Diana, I find myself thinking about you... all the time. You truly are my constant source of inspiration 😉

I have a question... is it possible for cervical cancer to metastasize to the adrenal gland?

My deepest condolences, quietpilot87...

I’ll be crossing my fingers for you, David... tightly, so very tightly, and I'll be standing right there with you if it comes to that 😍

I’m heading in for a CT scan this coming Monday, and honestly, I haven't the slightest clue what I should be expecting...🤷

What can I really do... I certainly can't fix the machine myself 🤷

But then again, nothing in my life ever seems to be straightforward; I went in for a thyroid ultrasound today because they said it was "slightly enlarged." The report mentions a nodule on the left and one on the right, suggesting a biopsy... but that’s not happening just yet, as I have to deal with this sciatica first. Honestly, I’m just dreading what else might show up on the CT scan 🙄

On another note, my white blood cell count is at 21.3 and my platelets are 430... and while the doctor tells me that the differential looks fine and there’s no sign of leukemia 😲... I thought to myself, hold on now, how could it possibly be leukemia? It feels like everything is trying to attack me all at once 🙂

The way I see it, my blood sugar is spiked from the stress, my white cell count has never really dipped below 16, everyone has a "slightly enlarged thyroid" these days, and as for the platelets, I suppose we'll see...
As I said, I'm otherwise as healthy as can be 😁

But I’m not actually waiting on a medication; I’m waiting for radiation therapy...

Angela Wright, thank you so much for the support, though I honestly don't think I need a second opinion anymore... he provided such a thorough explanation based on his own expertise (and since he’s an oncologist, I assume he knows his stuff), explaining that surgery offers the exact same efficacy as combining radiation and chemo. 🤷

There’s really no point in me calling around to other hospitals when everywhere else is just the same story—endless waiting lists, broken equipment, blah, blah, blah...

Besides, he mentioned this isn't an emergency, and I suppose he's right... I can wait; cancer isn't going to take me out overnight, especially since I've been happily married for nineteen years now... 😍

Thanks for the response, Maria Fox, but in my case, the parameters are only affected halfway through and specifically on the right side... And am I not supposed to fall into the younger patient category??🙂

Thanks everyone for all the kind wishes 😍

I’m not panicking at all, honestly—I’m just joking around... I don't know if that's considered a healthy way to handle things, but I find myself being amused by it all... that's just how I am. I was practically singing to myself during my biopsy... 🙈

The way I see it, at least now I know exactly what I'm dealing with... my blood work is fantastic, including triglycerides, cholesterol, and a whole host of other miracles (except for that damn blood sugar 😠), my EKG is perfect, my blood pressure is textbook normal (even though I've battled hypertension for years, look at me now 🙂), my chest X-ray came back clear, and my kidneys and liver seem to be doing just fine according to the labs... frankly, I'm as fit as a fiddle. 👏
And that little 5 cm brat can't touch me, because I simply won't let him. That's that, 🙂

Oh, and I have an update: my GP called the oncologist, and he says this isn't actually an emergency at all; it hasn't just appeared overnight and it isn't going to sprout aggressively this fast, so he'll be calling me back in about 4 to 6 weeks. Well, alright then.

I'll post the CT results once I manage to make sense of what they're actually saying. 😁

I honestly don't know which other hospital I could possibly turn to, or even who is left to ask... My gynecologist has completely run out of ideas. 🤷

But I'm not going to panic just yet; I'll save the panic for after my CT scan this Monday. 😁

But honestly, I’m just sitting here wondering whether I’ll be stuck in a hospital bed or if I’ll actually get to commute to those famous radiation sessions from home... I'm originally from a small town outside of Chicago, so this is all quite a change. He told us it would be about six to eight weeks in the hospital for combined radiation and chemo, adding that "if the tumor responds well to the radiation, he can head home as if nothing ever happened." When I pressed him on what our options would be if things didn't go according to plan, he was just stone-faced—absolutely nothing else. To make matters worse, regardless of whether we're at the clinic or home, the machine is out of commission, and they've informed us they "have to prioritize patients who have already started their treatment cycles." It feels like everything is working against us ☕

Ugh, I honestly don't even know where to begin... it’s all a bit of a blur... basically, I’ve been diagnosed with Stage IIb cervical cancer. A biopsy was performed back on October 20th at the local hospital, which confirmed everything, and now I’m officially on the "waiting list," whatever that means lately... the doctor who handled the biopsy told me surgery isn't on the table—it’ll be radiation followed by four rounds of chemo... and apparently, I’m supposed to wait about a month before anything starts. So, naturally, I began the whole gauntlet of follow-up tests (most results were fine, though they did catch a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis as well🙄)... then I called the specialist center in New York City to see if they could give me any idea when I might actually be seen... and well, the machine is broken, and they said it could be at least 60 days before they can do anything at all... I reached out to my gynecologist to ask what my next move should be, and she basically told me, "I wouldn't just sit around waiting, call the specialists in Oakland..." so I did—I called Oakland and the MD Anderson Cancer Center... and I got the exact same answers everywhere... everyone is looking at a three-month wait... honestly, people, what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and wait for the appointment at the main hospital? Does a two-month delay really make such a massive difference in the prognosis? And what does my outlook even look like right now? At first, I was absolutely terrified, but thankfully that passed pretty quickly, and I eventually settled into this mindset where it felt... well, almost like a minor inconvenience, like having to go to the dentist to fix a cavity... but now, all this waiting has shaken me a little, and I'm feeling quite lost. Everyone, including my gynecologist and my internist, is insisting that surgery is the way to go, yet the doctor in New York City was adamant that it's a NO. Why? Is it because there’s nothing more they can do for me? 🤷
Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm 42 years old.

Please, help.