Thank you all on this thread who have shared this long journey with me. It was nice to share news and feel less alone. Thanks also for kind ears on those moments when I needed to rant in a safe place. I have been blessed these past few days by many who have shared Mr. Image stories with me. My best so far is our 54-year-old son told me when he sat with his father and held his hand last week they did something they had not done since he was small. He told me he and his dad use to play a game whenever they held hands. His dad would squeeze his hand 3 times really quickly and then he would try and squeeze his dad's hand faster. He said his dad always won until this last game he beat him. Bittersweet.
Thank you all on this thread who have shared this long journey with me. It was nice to share news and feel less alone. Thanks also for kind ears on those moments when I needed to rant in a safe place. I have been blessed these past few days by many who have shared Mr. Image stories with me. My best so far is our 54-year-old son told me when he sat with his father and held his hand last week they did something they had not done since he was small. He told me he and his dad use to play a game whenever they held hands. His dad would squeeze his hand 3 times really quickly and then he would try and squeeze his dad's hand faster. He said his dad always won until this last game he beat him. Bittersweet.
@ Dormouse, Thank you his service was yesterday so your thoughts were indeed right on time for the day. It was a day of happy memories from friends and a beautiful service. I did a thing that was a bit in reverse from the usual I held the reception first in the church garden, and people shared their memories and then we went into the church for the service. Many told me they liked meeting Mr. Image's other friends and hearing about his life before the service.
The thread no one wants to be in ... after years praying through this thread and its predecessors, it's my turn to report in a prostate cancer diagnosis given yesterday. Caught early and eminently treatable but unsettling nonetheless. After reading the PCa online support groups and the last 121 pages, I'm very fortunate. Prayers would be appreciated for five assorted adult offspring who are concurrently watching their mum (my ex) going through surgery and chemo for breast cancer.
@Qoheleth, prayers for you and your family. My brother in law was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months ago, and after surgery is doing very well
The thread no one wants to be in ... after years praying through this thread and its predecessors, it's my turn to report in a prostate cancer diagnosis given yesterday. Caught early and eminently treatable but unsettling nonetheless. After reading the PCa online support groups and the last 121 pages, I'm very fortunate. Prayers would be appreciated for five assorted adult offspring who are concurrently watching their mum (my ex) going through surgery and chemo for breast cancer.
Prayers for you, Qoheleth. There has been enormous improvement in treatment, but when I had my operation coming up to 30 years ago now, the operation still had various side effects. The good thing was that having had the operation soon after diagnosis, I was now free from the risk of that common cause of cancer death amongst men.
I am really rather frightened at the moment. My mother is being kept alive by capsules which provide replacements for the pancreatic secretions which don't happen because her pancreas is full of cancer cells. This can't be removed because it is lovingly wrapped around a number of huge blood vessels.
The scary part is that the main manufacturer of these capsules appears to have gone bust, and certainly the supply she has relied on has more or less dried up. Getting hold of these replacements has turned into a full time job, and a replacement or a solution to the company's ills is desperately needed before my mother resumes starvation, because she can't digest what she is eating, as lead her to a desperate state in the three months before the (new primary) cancer was diagnosed.
Prayers/positive thoughts/purchasing of small to medium sized pharmaceutical company all welcome.
That is wonderful. My late father had myeloma - I knew nothing about myeloma until he was diagnosed and we found that other people tended to confuse myeloma with melanoma.
I've seen a similar piece of news about a drug developed for solid tumors that has just gone into stage one trials on humans after succeeding amazingly in mice, etc. I read up a lot on stuff that was in the pipeline back in 2017 when my sister was dying, and some of this may be finally coming to fruit. I hope so, but I'm wary of putting much hope in anything that hasn't gotten to stage three trials in humans.
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Bittersweet, yes, but a wonderful post.
Lord have mercy!
Prayers for you, Qoheleth. There has been enormous improvement in treatment, but when I had my operation coming up to 30 years ago now, the operation still had various side effects. The good thing was that having had the operation soon after diagnosis, I was now free from the risk of that common cause of cancer death amongst men.
The scary part is that the main manufacturer of these capsules appears to have gone bust, and certainly the supply she has relied on has more or less dried up. Getting hold of these replacements has turned into a full time job, and a replacement or a solution to the company's ills is desperately needed before my mother resumes starvation, because she can't digest what she is eating, as lead her to a desperate state in the three months before the (new primary) cancer was diagnosed.
Prayers/positive thoughts/purchasing of small to medium sized pharmaceutical company all welcome.
Praying.
Amazing is an understatement.