Hi Wegotthis, I think it's fair to say that everyone feels that their country is the best 🙂 There are a few Americans who are regulars on this forum. You are always welcome here. Just watch out for the dropbears ok? Best of luck with your treatment. -s   ... View more

Yes I swam with the dolphin and one kept pushing on my left side with its beak. I later found out I had cancer in my left kidney. ... View more

Hey Hey   In my opinion, this is one for the scientists, and whoever offers a point of view on it does not definitively KNOW.   Immunology is a major research area in cancer treatment, and is providing improved (and less damaging) treatment options for some types of cancer.  Great.   But that doesn't necessarily translate to immunity/metabolism preventing you from getting cancer in the first place.   From what I read, there's some kind of programmed death gene in all of us, some kind of marker that tells the body to start shutting down.  It's like that old saw about every cell in our body replacing itself over a 7 year period .. we're designed to rebuild and heal, but also eventually shut down.   Cancer is a mutation of healthy cells, that (just from a bit of reading) apparently is triggered by this programmed death process - and a lot of the immunology drugs geared toward treating cancer are designed toward over-riding this process (so that your healthy immune system can identify and fight the cancer).   Look, this is all just me as a layman interpreting science that is over my head .... BUT ....   That leads to the logical extrapolation that a healthy immune system doesn't necessarily specifically fight cancer.  The immunology meds are about MAKING THE CANCER VISIBLE to your immune system (and yeah I think also super charging the immune system).   So basically, this programmed death process, this mutation into cancer cells, is triggered (in my case apparently by HPV+), and it's a signal from the head honcho that it's time to pull the switches and go on vacation.   In my thinking, it leads that an otherwise healthy person with a supercharged immune system is just at risk of cancer as someone not (an oncologist said this to me, actually, when I was diagnosed).   BUT - eating all that healthy stuff and being healthy still FEELS great.   I just think anybody who asserts that they KNOW it will help you prevent cancer should be looked at suspiciously - likewise if they even assert it will help you FIGHT cancer (beyond how being and feeling healthier will help you).   I think it's all about that programmed death process, that trigger point where a cell starts thinking "ohh right, Im not meant to be here any more".  They kill those cells with radiation and hopefully they stay away.  But will immuno- medicine, hawaiian seaweed and all that stuff help ?   I guess the answer is probably a very definite maybe.   Our medical establishment isn't great in terms of being a source of knowledge - I've met with scientists to discuss things like autism, and for extremely intelligent people with a very rigorous protocol, they're like everyone else - flawed humans who don't like hearing that they don't know everything, or hearing viewpoints alternative to the narrative they've invested so much into.   So yeah - on the flipside, if the secret to preventing cancer is in some kind of SUPERIMMUNO stuff, the orthodox medical establishment probably will poo-poo it for as long as possible, until the evidence is just plain undeniable.   I reckon gene therapy is probably what we'll see in 25 years - where at risk persons are identified at birth and given a preventative innoculation of sorts.  As long as the zombie apocalypse doesn't happen in the interim. ... View more

i resent it when people say it to me sometimes. at other times i appreciate it. in the end i realize they really dont know what to say in times like this and they just want me to be happy and try to look forward; and i am grateful to have their love.  ... View more

Hello Braveb I am just st 2 years past HER2+, bilateral mastectomy. I get little purple dots on my skin all the time since chemo and taking Femara. The dots appear especially if I have drank coffee or had a glass of wine, apparently a common side effect from your liver having to process meds’ and ‘toxins’. The meds I now take now cause gastric reflux which in turn causes infected sinuses etc (according to my ENT). Happy days 😁 ... View more

Chef T, mate, I hope you're still with us - and if you are, I'd also urge you to push for clinical immunotherapy trials. These days drugs like Interferon are keeping people with blood cancer alive indefinitely, which was back years ago pretty-much a death sentence.  My half-brother's father (no idea what word applies to that relationship, stepfather twice removed or something, heh) has a very similar cancer outlook to you, and was given <6 months to live, put into a palliative care facility.   Now, on some immunotherapy drug, he is still alive (and this is at least 2 years later - in the intervening time I was diagnosed, treated and limping along for a year after).  His tumours have not vanished but have shrunk by about 80% and they're cautiously using words like remission instead of palliative.   Just in case your doctor has given you "I'm sorry there's nothing we can do", even if your remaining life is measured in weeks and months, you sound like a FIGHTER and one thing I'd do is fight the system making sure that if there is an unexpected treatment path, or even new experimental treatments, you're on the list.   If it's a side-track, I'm sorry, I'm just remarking in case it's something that nobody else has mentioned and might be useful.  Good luck with your fight, as you say, make sure your last breath is exhaled from a body and mind that still has hope and love and strength intact.  All the best. ... View more

Hi Moeka, one of the common themes across this forum is that waiting to see the Doctor totally sucks.  It's the worst time, because there are so many horrible possibilities.  At least once you have seen the Doctor you will know exactly what you are dealing with (and, importantly, not having to deal with). There's even a term for it- 'scanxiety'.   The only advice I can offer you is to try and distact yourself, so you don't brood about it, and maybe ask your husband if he would like to be kept busy too.  Keep in touch with this forum, too- we're all here cheering both of you on.  love and hugs, Emily ... View more

It was so lovely catching up with you all on Saturday and to see how well you're doing. A big well done for all your efforts in using the techniques and hope that the GP mindset is starting to creep into your awareness :) It is so wonderful to see (when we look for it) how many opportunities there are to feel grateful and that even the seemingly insignificant events can have great impact. Ben, what a great video clip. Thanks so much for sharing. Kirsten, well done for taking on the 21 day challenge! Awesome! I thought I would share this great quote with you. "Sometimes you're not given what you want because something better is planned for you instead." I wish you a happy and peaceful week. Meiron ... View more

Once again Ben, very interesting and thought provoking. I attended my first relay for life event with my husband earlier this month and we walked(well he wobbled)in the survivors and carers walk and I also wondered about what makes you a survivor and did we belong there as his brain tumour is slowly but surely sucking the life out of him. By the time we had done the lap of the local little aths track, slow but steady, I decided that as long as he is still breathing he is surviving. So he is a SURVIVOR. And we are trying to live each day with some joy. ... View more

Once again,you are entertaining and educating us, even though you've had more, serious bad news .I hope it doesn't get any worse for you. ... View more