Jock67B's Cancer Ward (Cancer Support and Discussion Thread)

[Smiffy2]

Best wishes from me too, Mal, and also Andrew, get well soon.

[allan downes]

I was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer about 3 months ago.

 

Anyway, I've been taking four drops of pure cannabis oil under the tongue each day but  can't really say whether it's helping or not but, in a clutches at straws situation, what is there to lose ?

 

Allan.

[PeterBB]

Allan, hoping that you will get some remission Peter

[allan downes]

 Thanks, guys.

 

The cannabis oil seems to be doing something positive as I've now stopped coughing up blood - just mucus, and I seem  to be breathing a lot easier.

 

Anyway, I'm seeing my oncologist Monday and see what he has to say although I won't mention the cannabis oil as the medical profession seems to be under orders not to mention anything other than chemo and certain tablets to patients. Too much invested I suppose and who wants a miracle cure when there's big bucks to be made by pharmaceutical companies. Cancer Research is more of a big business than they are anything else.

 

When I first went to see my Doctor about my coughing up of blood he sent me home with a bottle of cough linctus which you can pick up in Poundstrechers for a quid a bottle ! Cheap cop out or what ?

 

The Medical Profession does NOT support herbal drugs for cancer period.

 

Allan

 

PS; For pure cannabis oil google  CBDBROTHERS. UK

Edited January 14, 2018 by allan downes

[allan downes]

Here's another incident.

 

On  Christmas day I was coughing up so much blood that  my wife called for an ambulance. It then took me to hospital where I underwent several tests including an ex ray and scan. I was kept in overnight and all of boxing day, was seen by many Doctors, asked all the same questions a dozen times over then finally sent home with exactly the same problem that I went in with. No medication. No explanation just " Is there anyone who can pick you up ?"

 

Where cancer is concerned, the NHS can only do so much then you're on your own. Token visits by McMillan nurses - absolutely wonderful people - does help to ease your mind if not the problem. 

 

My late wife died 20 years ago of the same thing - lung cancer brought about by smoking - and was given nine months to live and, exactly what she had. All Chemo did just seemed to make her ill and prolong the inevitable.

 

Anyway, when I was first diagnosed I mentioned this to my Doctor who said "Good grief. Treatment has come such a long way since then that you could well live on for years and die of something else entirely "

 

Well, I've still yet to find out what this other treatment is.

 

Allan

[spikey]

Where cancer is concerned, the NHS can only do so much then you're on your own.

 

And AFAIC that's the single most important fact that anyone who's diagnosed with cancer needs to get their head round.

 

Good luck with it, Allan.

 

PS.  Immingeham eh?  Trams.  That and 40B ...

[allan downes]

And AFAIC that's the single most important fact that anyone who's diagnosed with cancer needs to get their head round.

 

Good luck with it, Allan.

 

PS.  Immingeham eh?  Trams.  That and 40B ...

 

Yes, Immingham where lung cancer treatment is about the same as everywhere else - almost non existent.

 

llan.

[spikey]

Yes, Immingham where lung cancer treatment is about the same as everywhere else - almost non existent.

 

llan.

 

I should think the trams are too by now ...

[Andrew P]

All the Mal, Sorry I'm late in replying, but I do have an excuse, see ER today, all the best.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Andrew P

[Andrew P]

Here's another incident.

 

On  Christmas day I was coughing up so much blood that  my wife called for an ambulance. It then took me to hospital where I underwent several tests including an ex ray and scan. I was kept in overnight and all of boxing day, was seen by many Doctors, asked all the same questions a dozen times over then finally sent home with exactly the same problem that I went in with. No medication. No explanation just " Is there anyone who can pick you up ?"

 

Where cancer is concerned, the NHS can only do so much then you're on your own. Token visits by McMillan nurses - absolutely wonderful people - does help to ease your mind if not the problem. 

 

My late wife died 20 years ago of the same thing - lung cancer brought about by smoking - and was given nine months to live and, exactly what she had. All Chemo did just seemed to make her ill and prolong the inevitable.

 

Anyway, when I was first diagnosed I mentioned this to my Doctor who said "Good grief. Treatment has come such a long way since then that you could well live on for years and die of something else entirely "

 

Well, I've still yet to find out what this other treatment is.

 

Allan

Sorry I'm late replying Alan, but just look at Jock / Jock 67B who's name this thread is dedicated to. he was given about  a year, and about 3 years later he was still posting on here.

 

Medicine moves very fast, so keep being positive please, you have many friends and followers on here.

[BSW01]

Allan, sorry to read about your diagnosis, but as you may well have gathered from comments on this thread, there is a lot of support on here. Coming from people who have first hand knowledge of this terrible decease. Either directly, like myself, or indirectly, via someone who has gone through living with cancer sufferer.

 

Being told you have cancer scares the bejezzus out of you, it certainly scared the sh!t out of me! So trying those, clutching at straw alternatives, is quite understandable. Although not terminal, my cancer was at an advanced enough stage where surgery was ruled out immediately. So I had to rely on the usual treatment of chemo and radiotherapy and took all the treatment that they could throw at me, signing up to drug trials etc. On a personal level, I found talking about it and not keeping to myself how I felt helped enormously. Many friends and colleagues didn’t know what to say, so the fact that I talked about it openly, I think helped them too!

 

Fast forward 6 years and I’m still here, so I think I’ve been very lucky.

 

Whatever you choose, good luck.

[Gwiwer]

Allan,

 

Firstly thank you for sharing your condition and some thoughts with us. As others have said there is any amount of support here; that is why we opened the Ward in the first place.

 

I too know something of lung cancer and of medicinal cannabis. My late partner of 30 years ago found herself breathless and unable to recover after a shower. This being most unusual and having persisted for ten minutes we called the blue-light ambulance. Which duly drove straight past the large regional hospital and on for another hour to the specialist unit at Derriford in Plymouth where she was formally diagnosed. Despite putting up a decent fight, enduring chemo then being largely managed at home by the Macmillan nurses she slipped peacefully away some six months later.

 

Dad had discussed use of cannabis with us in his final months suffering bowel cancer. He never shared how much pain he was in but always felt embarrassed that having brought up his children to refuse the stuff here he was trying to find some. In truth he could have had the resin or weed any time - they are easy enough to obtain with some degree of discretion and reliability as to content. He was after the oil on a “why not?” basis. As he said “I’m going to go anyway and I’m too sick for them to lock me up for it”. He never found any.

 

I wish you the best and will have you in my thoughts.

[Simon G]

Allan,

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I would echo what others have said about Jock, who I only knew online, but he was always positive and appeared cheerful in all his adversity. Personally I was diagnosed with non Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015, and have recently been told by my consultant that I will be starting chemo (in a week and a half actually). I am really trying to stay positive, which isn’t always easy, but when I feel less than positive, I try to think of Jock.

 

I find that it does help me to talk about it, but friends who have gone through chemo etc have shown that talking doesn’t suit everyone, and some just prefer to keep to themselves. Each to their own.

 

Like you I am taking cannabis oil. I only started with it recently, so it is early to tell if is having any effect. I mentioned it to my consultant last Wednesday, and he appeared never to have heard of it, but said that he would look it up out of interest.

[allan downes]

 Thanks for all the concern guys. Much, much appreciated.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I'm off to see my oncologist today but I won't tell him, or anyone in the medical profession, that I'm taking cannabis oil.

 

Now it's difficult to say whether or not that it's doing me any good but since I'm now coughing up hardly any blood at all  and just clear mucus  which has left me breathing better, feeling better and in no discomfort whatsoever then I'll  just keep taking it.

 

Therefore, I will certainly listen to my oncologist but if he recommends chemo I shall refuse it straight away but will consider it if the coughing up of blood and laboured breathing returns.

 

With lung cancer I'm learning that despite all the technology and specialist training, nobody knows your body better than yourself where your natural instincts will help to guide you as what to do, when to do it and what unorthodox medication to take.

 

So, and as I've said before, where lung cancer is concerned, once the diagnosis has been confirmed, the doctors, specialists and hospitals have done all that they are allowed to do, then you are out there on your own regardless of loving family support and, of course, those truly wonderful and supportive McMillan nurses - and of course, this wonderful thread - and, do you know what, I reckon there's a lot to be said about all of those old wives tales of an old sock stuffed with mud wrapped  around your head to cure the flu and something else or another wrapped around somewhere else or another and stuffed with God knows what to cure all other known ailments !

 

I should have married a Witch !

 

Allan

Edited January 15, 2018 by allan downes

[allan downes]

So, what did the oncologist have to say ?

 

An Asian guy, great guy, knew what he was talking about, explained it all in idiots terms, gave it to me straight, now't to worry about as yet, the coughing up of blood has stopped, the tumor is behaving itself, couldn't/wouldn't comment on the use of cannabis oil, breathing allowed me to walk from and to the car park, all to be topped off with fish and chips along Cleethorpes front with the wife directing the ships up the Humber ( af't a little, baf't a little , oops, break out the life boats... )

 

Life couldn't be better if not for sailors.

 

Allan

[PeterBB]

So, what did the oncologist have to say ?

 

An Asian guy, great guy, knew what he was talking about, explained it all in idiots terms, gave it to me straight, now't to worry about as yet, the coughing up of blood has stopped, the tumor is behaving itself, couldn't/wouldn't comment on the use of cannabis oil, breathing allowed me to walk from and to the car park, all to be topped off with fish and chips along Cleethorpes front with the wife directing the ships up the Humber ( af't a little, baf't a little , oops, break out the life boats... )

 

Life couldn't be better if not for sailors.

 

Allan

 

Allan,

 

Sounds a lot more promising than when you first posted - hope you can continue in this spirit.

 

Historically I discovered that my own father was truly terminal when one of my work colleagues carrying out the test turned round and said "Do you know your Dad's X is 100 x the 'normal' upper limit".

 

Cheers, Peter

[Andrew P]

So, what did the oncologist have to say ?

 

An Asian guy, great guy, knew what he was talking about, explained it all in idiots terms, gave it to me straight, now't to worry about as yet, the coughing up of blood has stopped, the tumor is behaving itself, couldn't/wouldn't comment on the use of cannabis oil, breathing allowed me to walk from and to the car park, all to be topped off with fish and chips along Cleethorpes front with the wife directing the ships up the Humber ( af't a little, baf't a little , oops, break out the life boats... )

 

Life couldn't be better if not for sailors.

 

Allan

Great news Allan, apart from maybe the possible outcome for Shipping in the Humber.

 

Remind me NEVER to go out on a Boat in the Humber, when you good Lady is eating her Fish and Chips on the Sea Front, hahha.

[darren01]

My wife of 26 years was told on the 10th of October she had Gallbladder and liver cancer that had spread from the Gallbladder.

A year and four month before she got the diagnosis she had been going back to the doctor every few weeks, with pains in her stomach, the Doctor said that she had over productive acid in her stomach and gave her some anti acid medicine.

This did nothing and things just got worse, being sick, stomach making horrendous sound, and a lot of discomfort in her stomach and side.

 

Every time she went they kept saying and treating her for the same thing, they gave her a few blood test, where going to organize a scan at the hospital, But they never followed this up  and no scan was done.

 

Other the weekend of the 7th and 8th of October she became so ill and in so much pain I told her she needed to go to the Hospital, on Sunday evening we went to the Hospital and she was admitted to the ward.

 

I had to go home as I was working that night, On Monday afternoon my wife phoned me and said they had done a catscan and had found a tumour growing on her Gallbladder that had also moved to her liver!, It only took the Hospital less then 24 hours to find out this, where her doctor had never even looked in a year and four month, Never bothered to do a Liver Function Blood Test , or a five point blood test that would have pick up the cancer notes.

 

Now my wife is having Chemo, has lost a huge amount of weight, spend most of her day sleeping on huge amounts of morphine, the chemo she is having will only ( fingers crossed) prolong her life, it's not a cure.

 

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with in my life, I love her more than she will ever know and so not want to lose her like this, we are fighting hard to beat this evil disease.

 

As  Allan downes said in his post; "The Medical Profession does NOT support herbal drugs for cancer period." I have been getting pure CBD oil for her and praying to God it works as the Chemo just seems to make her more ill and the chance of it even slowing down the cancer is around 5%.

 

They should allow more research in to CBD/THC oil, But as long at the Pharmaceutical company's make so much money with drugs for cancer and dark age laws in this country on medical marijuana, I FEAR that we will be talking about the same cancers in twenty years from now.

One thing it has changed both of our lives for ever.

Darren

Edited January 17, 2018 by darren01

[PeterBB]

Darren

 

What can we say except the it is obvious that you are doing all you can to help your wife.  Our thoughts are with you.

 

As you may know I jhave long been of the opinion that a 7 minute GP stint is not long enough to sort things out and fob off patients rather than refer them sooner rather than, as you say, not at all.  What is really needed is to spend longer and get it right first time by taking the necessary steps.  The primary consultation will take longer but by getting it right early it will save lots of effectively wasted money that properly used would benefit all patients.

 

Peter

[chrisf]

Darren, I am so sorry to learn your news.

 

Let me tell you two contrasting stories.  In March 2005 my late father was diagnosed with lung cancer, some 20 years after he gave up smoking.  He had been in pain for some months before that and knew full well that something was wrong.  Rather than accept what he perceived as fobbing-off, he was persistent way beyond the point of obstinacy until he received the diagnosis that the had expected.  By the time it finally came the only option was palliative care.  I am thankful that the prognosis of between six and nine months that he was given turned out to be but three.

 

In my own case I went to the GP on a Monday morning about something else entirely.  By pure chance my own GP was emergency doctor that day.  He sent me for a blood test.  Late the following afternoon I had a phone call telling me to report to the urology department of the local hospital the next day.  I did so and was told that I had prostate cancer.  My initial reaction was one of shock, not least because my cousin had been taken by it a month of so previously.  I have since been treated by a top oncologist who has plenty of treatment options up his sleeve if and when the current treatment ceases to be effective.

 

It is clear from these case studies that luck is so much of an element in the whole diagnostic process.  When my diagnosis came I thought that my luck had run out.  On reflection I think I have been very lucky indeed.  From presentation at the GP surgery to referral to the hospital cannot be done in a lesser time than in my case and I reckon that I am in good hands.  Would my father's condition, and mine for that matter, have been picked up sooner if there had been a routine blood test looking for whatever might be wrong?  We will never know.

 

Darren, may you and your wife be given the strength that you will both need in tackling this horrible situation.

 

Chris  

[darren01]

I think screening in the UK should be done at part of your body's MOT at the Doctors, A five point blood test cost far less then all the drugs, staff, Hospital visits you have to make. 

It must cost the NHS huge amounts dealing with cancer, where a simple blood test cost next to nothing, Also by doing this you could save far more lives and not wait till your on death door.

Darren

Edited January 19, 2018 by darren01

[russ p]

So, what did the oncologist have to say ?

 

An Asian guy, great guy, knew what he was talking about, explained it all in idiots terms, gave it to me straight, now't to worry about as yet, the coughing up of blood has stopped, the tumor is behaving itself, couldn't/wouldn't comment on the use of cannabis oil, breathing allowed me to walk from and to the car park, all to be topped off with fish and chips along Cleethorpes front with the wife directing the ships up the Humber ( af't a little, baf't a little , oops, break out the life boats... )

 

Life couldn't be better if not for sailors.

 

Allan

Keep going for it Allan

 

I took no notice of what was said to me my attitude was I didn't invite this Bas###d thing into my body so why should I take notice of it!

Keep at the food and ale, I have some ale nowadays but food is a distant memory as radiotherapy shrunk my throat in June 2015.

Yes life is a bit depressing but I'm still here and there are a lot of good things I do .

So whatever make YOU feel better carry on with it and balls to whatever anyone else says

 

Keep smiling Allan and you brighten ablot of our lives up by trying to tell our other half's that your pictures are actually models!

Cheers

Russ

[Mike Bellamy]

.

 

BBC News reporting trials in USA where a Blood Test has been 70% effective in diagnosing eight types of Cancer.

 

Let us hope that they can increase this to 100% for all Cancers . . . . . . . . .

 

.

[spikey]

 A five point blood test cost far less then all the drugs, staff, Hospital visits you have to make ....

Indeed.  But (a) it couldn't possibly pick up all cancers and (b) it would throw up a lot of false positives.  The first would leave you with a false sense of security and the second would cause you needless anxiety.

[PeterBB]

Indeed.  But (a) it couldn't possibly pick up all cancers and (b) it would throw up a lot of false positives.  The first would leave you with a false sense of security and the second would cause you needless anxiety.

 

 

I think screening in the UK should be done at part of your body's MOT at the Doctors, A five point blood test cost far less then all the drugs, staff, Hospital visits you have to make. 

It must cost the NHS huge amounts dealing with cancer, where a simple blood test cost next to nothing, Also by doing this you could save far more lives and not wait till your on death door.

Darren

 

 

 

Two problems here. The first is the way the media picks the research up ... yes it is an advance but will need a lot more research especially because of the potential for false positives  and the need to up the level to more than 70%.  The second question in terms of the research is 'where do we go from here?' as it might pick up a cancer but where is it? and how do we try to locate it?

 

The second problem, and as a retired FIBMS, I agree that much NHS money could be ultimately saved - see previous comments - but blood tests do not cost 'next to nothing' and one of the complexity that this research is indicating would most definitely not be cheap which would still mean potentially targeted screening say of those with family history of cancers where the prime origin could be of use in locating a potentially 'new developing cancer'.

 

Potentially it is great news.  Peter