Hi all, a side-effect I've had from my pancreatic cancer is the development of Arrhythmia, where my heart rate soars out of the blue up to around 150 bpm and doesn't come down again. I got some heart tabs from the doc to take as needed, but yesterday's attack was the worst yet. I felt it hit me and I had to sit on the floor for fear of falling over. I'm getting used to them now, and because I know that I have something to take, I don't panic. But they are damn annoying. Extreme dizziness, basically, whilst my heart tries to get back into a normal rhythm.    Just curious. Has anyone else developed these? Or am I going through some kind of a unique double whammy?   As I've always said, though, from the very beginning. It'll take a lot more than a deadly cancer and some heart problems to bring down this little black duck. That's a Daffy Duck reference by the way 🙂   Oh, and tomorrow morning I'm scheduled for me first post-chemo CT scan to see if this thing is shrinking, growing, or staying the same. I'll let you know the outcome.   JD   ... View more

Hi everyone, I'm about to go for my fifth and second last round of chemo on Monday, and have dealt with many chemo side-effects up until this point, including loss of taste, lethargy, nausea and so on. But one new symptom is really bugging me and any advice would be appreciated.   My tongue feels like I've been chewing razor blades and is constantly painful. It seems to have cracks all across the top of it. Eating or drinking anything causes painful nipping sensations, and whilst I can handle pain generally, it is really annoying.   Any tips, please?   JD ... View more

Hi there, and thanks for clicking this little post. Welcome to my ramblings, as I sit here and reflect on life and the life that I've led. And by ramblings, I do mean that. But I hope that a lot of it makes sense to you, also. And I must warn you (disclaimer), it may get a bit deep at times. And feel free to join in should you respond.   Brief info - JD - 59 - inoperable advanced pancreatic cancer - happy outlook on life - positive - enjoys rambling.   Now, as for the title of this thread, 'just curious about something', this leads me to something that I am curious about. In a word - escape. Or more specifically, 'escape from reality'.   For many years now, I've thought about the aging process, and how some of us ultimately end up in nursing home facilities sometimes into our late eighties or nineties, being cared for, having movies to watch on TV, eating three meals a day, and finally going to bed early, with a pill to help us sleep, of course.   Now, in some ways, having been placed in such a position of dependency upon others, as I see it, provides a form of escape from reality. And by form of, I mean, either surrendering oneself willingly to such a life and then becoming physiologically and or physically dependent on it, or having no choice, such as in the case of Alzheimer patients.   I used to help a friend of mine every once in a while with his carpet and floor cleaning business. My friend held a contract for several similar places. One night, we were cleaning the polished floors of of an aged person's facility. It was a huge facility, looking after hundreds of both the aged, as well as those suffering with Alzheimer's. The dining area was large, and as we started to move the tables and chairs to one side of the room, we heard a shout from behind us. It was one of the staff, and he had an important message for us.   Out of breath, he told us that it was imperative that every single table and chair, especially those with anything on them, like a small bowl of flowers, for example, be replaced exactly where we'd gotten it from.   We got the point, but naturally we asked why, and then the guy told us that only a few months earlier, two elderly female patients sitting at the same table, noticed mid-meal that their chairs were different to one they'd each been sitting on daily for the past three years. As soon as they determined each of them to have the other's chair, they'd gotten into a fight over it, each accusing the other of having stolen the other's chair on purpose. The fight went down to the ground, apparently, onto the floor. Fists flying (well, you know what I mean). Peas, flying. Yes, I did say peas. And corn. And some other stuff, mashed potato, steak pie, all sorts of food types. The staff had to break them up. And that probably wouldn't have been easy.   Okay, and in all seriousness, now.  Couldn't it have been possible, that the switch in chairs simply activated a trigger in each of the old ladies, that then caused an eruption of trapped thoughts from each of them? And that this ultimately led to the realization by both of them that their lives were being lived by someone else, and that they were trapped in a world of being fully dependent on others for their very existence. And then frustration and anger, both came pouring out. I'm interested in your thoughts on this.    JD                             ... View more