My Cancer Story - To help others.

[grober]

Maybe this ?
Medical cannabis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And this
Cannabis and Cannabinoids (PDQ®) - National Cancer Institute

While folks tend to focus on the medical efficacy of new anti cancer therapies they also highlight the problems society has with effective new drug development. New drugs have an enormous obstacle race of regulatory frameworks to navigate through. Expensive testing regimes involving animals and eventually clinical trials involving human subjects have to be performed before a drug can be brought to market. While designed to prevent unsafe drugs reaching the general populace and admirable in conception this costs enormous sums of money. Cannabinoids are naturally occurring compounds so I imagine they can't be effectively patented. If they can be grown and extracted as a global commodity the chances of controlling their production and supply would be almost impossible. Faced with this dilemma would any large Pharma company with a wary eye on its annual shareholders meeting would be persuaded to fund the appropriate research and development without a guarrantee on returns? One of the complex dilemmas we face in the 21st century and one which has already been felt in the development of new antibiotics.


Here's an example from the "sharp end" of drug development
http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3162

 

[brucemillar]

I have read a lot of articles on the healing capabilities of cannabis. Like most drugs there appear to be many conflicting reports. If it were to be a proven cure I would be chomping, smoking, drinking rubbing it all over. In my particular case early diagnosis was/is key. After that then I not convinced that cannabis would help or even hinder. surgery was the only way that I could see to stop the spread.

I have not tried any alternative medicines. But I have completely changed my diet and lifestyle.

I gave up smoking and cut back drastically on my booze intake. Gave up fried food (I didn't eat meat meat anyway). I now live, what would be considered by many to be a healthy lifestyle.

I still suffer from the after effects of the chemotherapy and more so the surgery. But I am alive and have a good quality of life. Basically I just get big aches and pains and tremendously tired. The aches and pains are something that I have learned to live with. Some will get better others I know will not.

Reactive Hypoglycemia is something that i find very difficult to live with. Again with diet and lifestyle changes it becomes manageable.

I am back at work now. That is fantastic. I never thought I would get that far, although I dreamed that I might.

So life is good and I intend to enjoy it every single second of every single day.

 

[brucemillar]

Well it's a year ago today that I was diagnosed and given months to live.

Thanks to the fabulous doctors and nurses and the incredible surgeon James Gossage, I'm still here and feeling pretty good.

I got my first hole in one last week on a beautiful golf course playing with dear friends in the sunshine. Does it get any better.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[brucemillar]

Well, after a routine CT scan (three weeks ago) showed some suspect lymph nodes, it was back in to London Bridge for another Endoscopy followed by a PET scan. Endoscopy showed lots of scar tissue that was worse due to a month long bout of viral gastroenteritis. Yesterday I got my PET scan results. Looking good. Woohoo. Life is good again.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[AMGeed]

Great news! Onwards and upwards:bannana:

 

[Tan]

Hi Bruce

Thank you for posting this thread and I am so happy that you are doing so well.

One of the best medicines is a positive mental attitude.

I wish you well and remember to getting some spare golf trousers....for when you get another hole in one!

Best regards

Tan

 

[Dave Barlow]

Ha ha ha ha

 

[finisterre]

I know how scary that was!

 

[brucemillar]

Yesterday I watched my beloved 124 300te 4Matic leave home on a flatbed. The final part of her full restoration. My plan is to enjoy this without me leaving on a flatbed. All digits crossed.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[rusty55]

Well I'm so pleased you have all good results and you go and enjoy your future with a great car once it's back
Good luck

 

[rusty55]

My farther had the same but for years blamed my mums cooking etc and left it too late. I had a check up and have been living with barretts and take anti reflux tablets to stop it possibly turning into the same. I am now starting to eat better.

 

[350e]

High Bruce,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am so pleased to read that you are enjoying life again and that the enormous burden of coping with cancer has been overcome.

I would like if I may to record the splendid treatment provided by Professor Robert Thomas and his team and Bedford Hospital treating my wife's breast cancer. You rightly sought a second opinion in order to gain the treatment required but I would like to think that your experience is unusual. Day in and day out the NHS provide exemplary treatment to very many people required to endure the treatment that you have undergone and happily with similar outcomes. I mention this because I wouldn't want anyone to imagine, as I am sure you don't, that private medicine is a prerequisite to successfully overcoming cancer.

Have you made any changes to your lifestyle, diet etc since receiving treatment ?

 

[brucemillar]

High Bruce,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am so pleased to read that you are enjoying life again and that the enormous burden of coping with cancer has been overcome.

I would like if I may to record the splendid treatment provided by Professor Robert Thomas and his team and Bedford Hospital treating my wife's breast cancer. You rightly sought a second opinion in order to gain the treatment required but I would like to think that your experience is unusual. Day in and day out the NHS provide exemplary treatment to very many people required to endure the treatment that you have undergone and happily with similar outcomes. I mention this because I wouldn't want anyone to imagine, as I am sure you don't, that private medicine is a prerequisite to successfully overcoming cancer.

Have you made any changes to your lifestyle, diet etc since receiving treatment ?

What a great post. Thank you.

What I would say here is this. The biggest issue/killer is not getting an early diagnosis. What I encountered is, I am told by the experts, not untypical. GP's as a rule will not always associate difficulty in swallowing and stomach pains as early signs of cancer. Add to this a reluctance to spend money by having CT/PET scans and Endoscopy diagnostics, then you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Survival rates from Oesophageal cancer are so appallingly poor due to that single factor. It is also seen as an "old persons" condition so often not diagnosed in younger people. The facts are stark. It is on the increase and in a younger generation. Why? Nobody that I have met is able to give a precise reason. It may be diet and or lifestyle related, it may not. It is not thought to be linked to smoking (but smoking never helps with so many other problems).

Have I changed my lifestyle & diet.

Yes I have had to do this due to ravaging effects of the surgery, in its early days. Weight loss is big consequence of the surgery (I lost 6 stone down from 13 to 7, but now up to 9).

I always ate a healthy diet (vegetarian) and still continue with that. I just can't eat much at any one time. That is massively frustrating (a small price) as your brain is hungry but the stomach is full. Overeating at that point is incredibly painful, due the tiny stomach stretching within the confines of it's new home in my chest cavity.

I play golf every week, and love it. I also walk my two Siberian Husky's eight miles every day, they love that.

Outwardly I look perfectly normal and that is a very important thing. I was always vain and have remained so. Inwardly it is a challenge dealing with the pain, which is now limited in the main to discomfort.

Next month I am taking my surgical team to play golf for a day at the London Club in Kent. That is my very small thank you to them for saving my life and allowing me the time I have with my young family and grand daughters.

This is survivable. Do not suffer with indigestion or reflux. If you start to struggle to swallow food (it won't go into your stomach) insist on a second opinion. Quote them my story.

 

[Druk]

Ace picture Bruce, and if I may say...very dapper

 

[Deleted96908]

Yes I have had to do this due to ravaging effects of the surgery, in its early days. Weight loss is big consequence of the surgery (I lost 6 stone down from 13 to 7, but now up to 9).
and allowing me the time I have with my young family and grand daughters.

Bruce, I've been following your story for some time, but not felt compelled to write before today. Your description above brought it home to me, as best as I can imagine, what you've been going through. My own travails with my teenage son's blood cancer have been well documented on this forum last year and I thought I was hardened to all the horror stories one hears about this ghastly illness, but on reading the above I was shocked once again. Despite this I am sure you've barely touched the surface of what you've been thorough and none of us can imagine how it must have been for you. My only previous experience of an illness similar to yours, was that documented by Christopher Hitchens, which I am sure you too will have encountered.

This is survivable. Do not suffer with indigestion or reflux. If you start to struggle to swallow food (it won't go into your stomach) insist on a second opinion. Quote them my story.

My son was subject to numerous issues with the NHS, not least his local care team suggesting he should go off an enjoy his 16th birthday some weeks away, before returning for chemotherapy and radiotherapy - the so called gold standard. Luckily, Oxford Children's Hospital (OCH) stepped in by chance and rectified the situation, but not before the cancer had spread to his lungs. As a result of this, OCH tried in earnest to educate the original NHS unit to the dangers of tardy treatment of teenagers with cancer (and us all of course, but more so with young growing bodies) and how dangerous radiotherapy is when given to youngsters, given they have 60 or 70 years in front of them in which the radio treated cells can again mutate into secondary cancers. As a result of this I educate everybody I can about the dangers of late diagnosis, late commencement of treatment and even worse, inappropriate treatments and applaud your efforts in the same.

Of course, we are in the hands of our doctors, and for most of us, the NHS experience is good and sometimes brilliant, if not regularly at the levels enjoyed by most in Europe.

I was wondering also whether you'd read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This was recommended to me by my son's haematologist. If you haven't read it and are in remission, then I think it would be a brilliant read for you. I won't go into details here, you can find those yourself, what I will say is that reading is my passion and I consume books at an alarming rate, but nothing touched me or educated me as much as this book did. Pleased also to say that we gave some of our time pro bono (VFX) to the TV series that is now accompanying the book.

Ace picture Bruce, and if I may say...very dapper

Absolutely, what a photo!

 

[oldguy57]

Can only reiterate what others have said - I have had 2 friends die of "indigestion". Protracted symptoms should be investigated properly but it remains the case that contacts with GPs can be very hit and miss. Recently had what amounted to an argument with a GP but I made the mistake of backing down and then ended up at A&E a matter of days later! I do have great sympathy with a GPs job but their mistakes can be a matter of life and death. So glad you stood your ground and got sorted.

 

[brucemillar]

Well it is now just over 1 year to the day (01st September 2014) since I had my surgery in St Thomas's , London.

What a year that has been. My beautiful eldest daughter passed all her GCSE's with A's & B's. My youngest gained distinctions in her exams. I have become a grand father again to my Son and his partner and their two beautiful daughters. I got a hole in one at golf and started back to work full time.

My wife just never ever gave up on me and makes me proud every day.

On the 15th October I am taking my surgeons out to play golf with some great friends at the London Club in Kent. When I was so ill I promised my lead surgeon (the brilliantly talented James Gossage) that if I made it we would do this. Now we are.

My 124, 300TE 4Matic Estate is finally in Wright Tec to complete her restoration and will soon be back on the road.

My Pajero (Lets not go there yet) but CARAT on this forum has shown what forums should be all about and has stepped in to try and fix her.

Life is indeed good folks. Enjoy.

 

[camerafodder]

I think that definitely qualifies as a Brucey Bonus!

 

[AMGeed]

What a difference a year makes (and a great surgeon).

I like stories with a happy ending!

There will be a lot of laughs on that round of golf I'll wager

 

[Mrhanky]

Bruce don't know you but have followed your story and I am so delighted for you and your family.

Stay well and enjoy life.