Hi Claire,   Good on you for not taking “no” for an answer.    I was lucky in that my cancer was considered curable rather than palliative, but what helped me the most was reading and understanding as much as possible about my condition and planned treatment - knowledge is power. The more that I could find out, the more prepared that I could be for what was coming.    Also so try to find someone who will listen to you without giving advice all the time. You will need to unload, but write down  your questions to pose to the surgeon and/or oncologist rather than putting your faith in people who don’t really know. Keeping a diary could be therapeutic, but also fascinating to look back at once you are better.   But also be prepared to hear the doctors say over and over again “I can’t really answer that for you because everybody is different and responds differently“. That nearly drove me mad.    Good of luck with your treatment and let us know how it goes.    Best wishes, Rick ... View more

Hi Debbru,   Best to contact your surgeon to find out. It will depend on what the surgery is plus the size of the clot, but I would put a firm bet on the surgery being postponed until the clot dissolves. Not good that the surgery gets delayed, but better that than the clot moving and ending up in your lungs.    Best wishes, Rick ... View more

Hi Madass,   Oops, sorry but only saw your post just now.    If if something doesn’t seem quite right , DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.    Better to find that that you have haemorrhoids sooner than bowel cancer later.    So if you haven’t done so already, go and see your doctor ASAP.    I do hope that it is nothing serious.    Best wishes, Rick ... View more

Hi Eugene,   Thanks for the referral to help for tinnitus.    I have leant to ignore it most of the time. I don’t let it interfere with getting to sleep, but it is a nuisance when there is a lot of background noise (eg, restaurant or party setting).   At some point I will start thinking about hearing aids.    Thanks, Rick ... View more

Hi Col,   Sorry to heat that you are another to join our club.    I do drink the occasional beer beer and wine, but don’t drink stout or red wine. The trick for me is to have about 30 minute break after drinking before I start eating. Further, I tend not to drink anything for about 2 hours after eating.    Note ted that alcohol starts to have an effect within about 5 minutes from consumption given that there is no stomach to hold it before releasing it to the small intestine.    Now about that that pork belly - I love the taste, but the pork fat seems to cause me significant grief. Consequently, I tend to give it a miss these days. :sad:   Another food that causes nausea and cramping is raw onion. Cooked is fine, but raw can see me walking the streets for hours trying to vomit it up or wait for it to progress through until the discomfort settles.    Other than that, very little I’ll-effects from my total gastrectomy.    I hope that all goes well for you and that you have a rapid recovery.    Hugs to you and those supporting you.  RJG ... View more

Hi,   This probably doesn’t help, but my surgeon provides his services under both private health insurance and public systems. I asked back at the beginning to be treated under the public system and used private health insurance on a small number of occasions that necessitated the additional costs (eg, urgent gastroscopy).    Ask your surgeon and oncologist gist if they can continue under the public health system.    Regards, Rick ... View more

Hi NickL,   I too wrote about my journey in emails (I called them "Communiques", 17 in all over 9 months) and set them to my family and friends. I did this for 2 reasons. First and foremost was for self-therapy. Secondly was to avoid having to repeat myself 50+ times to each person. Three reasons, there are three good reasonsfor recording your journey through cancer diagnosis and treatment, 1. self-therapy, 2. avoid repetition 3. so that I could remember what happened, 4. to achieve something while the time passes. "Amongst our reasons..., Cardinal Biggles...?" (reference is to Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition).   I havn't made my Communiques more widly available because I didn't hold back on my criticism of medical practitioners involved in my treatment. For example the surgeon seemed to flip-flop between recommending partial and total gastrectomy - in the end I told him that he was the specialist and should do what was in my long-term best interests. And then there was the time while I was in hospital following my total gastrectomy, a trainee doctor took 2 attempts to fit me with a replacement cannula in my left arm, then took out my pain management line from my right arm before trying twice more to fit the new cannula in my right arm, before finally being successful fittning it to my left arm.   If you haven't tried it already, start writing now. Write about everything related to your emotions, treatments, physical condition. It will be fascenating for you, and even for society, in the future to look back at what we had to endure in our battles with conditions that will, eventually, be regarded as simpler to treat than the common cold.   Best wishes to all, Rick ... View more

I didn't catch the webinar, and I am in the fortunate position of being 12 months since receiving the last of the successful "curative treatment" for my stomach (actually gastro-oesophageal) cancer.   And my response below is more about "first contact" with family and friends, but I think that the idea about choosing your attitude is always good for yourself as well as other people...   In my opinion, the most important thing in discussing cancer is your attitude - be positive and informative and, where ever possible, throw in a little humour.   I try to talk about my journey in a way that encourages questions so that it becomes more of a learning experience for them. In particular, I believe that the more that we talk about the events leading up to our diagnoses, the more that other people might think about their own situations and seek assessment when something is not quite right. And hopefully it will be "nothing", but if it isn't then they can get the appropriate treatment before it gets "too late".   For me, I usually start discussions about my situation with "Apples saved my life!" or "I really can't stomach that!" followed by "No, I actually don't have a stomech!" and it just goes on from there.   Best wishes to all, Rick ... View more

Hi Eugene,   No picc line for me. Just standard cannula.    Best wishes, Rick ... View more

Hi Eugene,   I had very irregular bowel movements for quite a time following surgery. I took Coloxyl if I had gone for 3 days without a movement.   Warning, you might regret reading further...   My post-operative chemo was a slightly different mix of poisons. Instead of cisplatin (caused hair to fall out and made my tinnitus significantly worse and is unlikely to ever get better) I was put on oxaliplatin. This causes extreme sensitivity to cold (unfortunately I had this during winter - I wore gloves pretty much full time including to bed at night) and periferal neuropathy (tingling in the fingers and toes - the fingers are better now but the toes are still suffering). The other difficulty that I had with the oxaliplatin was during the actual infusion. About 3/4 of the way through the transfusion it became quite painful - I described it as being like someone dragging a wad of steel wool through the vein from the point of the cannula through to my bicep, and then soothing it by draping bluebottle tenticles over the top of the vein. Remember, "Everyone is different" so this might not be what others experience. I ended up not having the 3rd infusion (thank goodness).   I hope that you have a much smoother and less painful experience.   Best wishes, Rick ... View more