Sat, Jan-31-09, 01:15
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What a good girl!!!
Posts: 2,852
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Plan: my own
Stats: 195.8/165.0/138
BF:Getting Rid of IT!
Progress: 53%
Location: Chicago suburbs
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by LarryAJ
In the prostate cancer support group I attend, one of the things we emphatically tell the "new guys" is, "you MUST be your own advocate!" For the best outcome, you need to be fully involved in the decisions about YOUR treatment. DO NOT let yourself become "just another" piece of "meat" for the surgeon to work on. I hope that you have access to some sort of support group of people that also have or had cancer. Find them and use them for the support they have to offer. I am just a little too far away AND I did not have bowel cancer. I can comment on cancer in general but you also need to learn from others specifically about your cancer.
Use the internet to learn as much as you can. Word of caution, put the most faith in sites that have .edu .org .gov as the ending of the URL, avoid the .com's as too many are just trying to make money. It will be confusing at first but starting at pubmed.gov will give you access to most of the leading journal abstracts (summary of the paper) and allows you to search for specific topics, authors, etc. Here is a web page I suggest you read. You should also read the other things there on cancer. |
I couldn't agree more with Larry that being your own advocate. I have been my mom's advocate at times even when she didn't want me to with infections in her blood and heart and 2 stokes at 61. I am also the person that makes all decisions for my father in case he is not able to and he is married. You have to study, study, study, and nothing is for sure but you two will make the right decisions for your family. I am so sorry this happened to your family. With young children you are going to be tired and ask friends for help taking care of them so you can study. Larry was correct about getting info online the right way. My family all gets colon cancer. So I got a colonoscopy at 39. Early but got insurance to cover that one. Now they say come back when I am 50, no thanks. i will pay for it myself regularly. You just have to be your own advocate and you have to learn like you are back in school. I like to remember that doctors are "practicing" medicine. So you can too. You husband will be in my thoughts through this hard time. It will be hard for you to be strong but you have it in you. i wish you good luck.
Lisa |