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Old 22nd March 2024, 11:58   #151
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Quote:
Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
Comrade I'll be back. I have several boxes lying unopened
Would love to know what they are?

Mr. Narayan, Thank you very much for sharing this with us, takes a lot of fortitude to do what you are doing.

I wish you a speedy & complete recovery.
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Old 12th July 2024, 09:32   #152
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Dear Friends,

I will be updating this thread at relevant milestones so that in the future it can serve as a guide to others unfortunate enough to get hit by cancer.

This month I'll complete 18 months of living with cancer. With the grace of God, I mean that literally, I am it seems on the mend. All medical markers thus far indicate improvement in the right direction. I am grateful to God for this because at an earlier point in time I was reasonably sure, the way things were wobbling, that I would soon be a medical statistic.

Two learnings etched in my mind now, one on cancer and the other on food.

First the one on food. We eat too much in modern life. Today I eat less than half or one-third of what was normal pre-cancer and I am happier for it. With time the stomach shrinks and protests if I eat more than 40% of the past. Less food, of course of good quality, = better health.

Second on cancer - like I said earlier it is non-linear and even the recovery is non-linear. I could be feeling great physically walking 4 kms in the park and I could be completely drained out 2 days later. A lot of this is to do with reduced immunity and vulnerability to viral fever, colds type of infections and gyration in body salt levels. This is par for the course due to the medicines, injections etc.

My treatment will continue till early 2025 when I complete 2 years and if I am in remission it will hopefully stop or trail off.

My sincere thanks to members who have shared their good wishes and prayers for me through this thread.

V.Narayan
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Old 12th July 2024, 11:52   #153
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Good to hear. I pray to God that you return back being healthy 100% and be a guiding light to multiple people on and off the forum
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Old 13th July 2024, 11:18   #154
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Sir, Great going and wish you the best.

Using your thread would like to share my journey as well. I was detected on November 2022.

Same cancer in different body acts and reacts differently to the treatment. Hence never put your self in any common situation. Medicine has made tremendous progress and each year new medicine and line of treatment are introduced. As sir has mentioned earlier , as first line of treatment never trust Auryvadic or Homeopathy. Please go with conventional line of treatment available.

I am detected with high risk multiple myeloma which as of now been considered as not curable, BUT AM UNDER LIFE TIME MAINTENANCE. I am under remission and go for tests every 3 months for at least 2 yrs. I was under remission within 6 months of my treatment after which I was advised for Bone Marrow transplant which took place in October 2023. I was fortunate unlike few and took transplant quite well. I was kept under isolation for 15days as SOP in hospital as WBC count went down almost to 100. I was discharged only once WBC count started increasing and reached 5000.

Have joined Gym to work on my bone and muscle mass . I eat regular healthy food and there are no restrictions but having similar side effects like loss of strength, fatigue sometimes. But otherwise I would say I feel as normal as I can. Need to ensure that body is ready to take harsh medication which might need to be increased incase of relapse.

As of now had to take all the Vaccines we had as a child since blood has lost all the memories due to BMT. India expect new line of treatment called CAR T by 2025 which might help and change lives of many and am sure will help me as well.

Being mentally strong certainly helps but BEING PHYSICALLY FIT WORKS WONDERS.

Cheers
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Old 14th July 2024, 15:26   #155
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Amazing lessons sir just following your thread to relive through your experiences in life fighting the dreaded C word and great to see your latest positive status.

Cannot agree more than we tend to eat more than what our body demands and just listening to our body is the first step towards good health.

@satkaj just humbling to hear about your battle too and your personal experience that the first line of defence just be allopathy and wonderful to see you bounce back by joining a gym.

Kudos to serve as an inspiration to all of us middle aged members in this wonderful journey called life.
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Old 14th July 2024, 16:36   #156
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Happy to know that you are on the recovery path. Its a battle with the most dreaded and feared disease, where earlier, patients would be seen as spending their last days or months battling it. But not anymore.

I know two of my close relatives, one my maternal cousin brother who was just 27 when he was detected to have brain tumour. A major brain operation was successfully done and with all those chemotherapy sessions that followed, he became weak losing immunity and becoming susceptible to infections. There was hair loss and he had to wear a cap for at least a decade. But now nearly 25 plus years later, he is doing well in life.

The next is my maternal cousin sister who is elder to me and was detected with breast cancer while she was around 66 years old, about six years ago. Multiple tests and chemotherapy sessions followed and she too became very weak, needing family support with maids all the time. Surprisingly, her recovery was dramatically fast. Having recovered, she has happily started going on conducted tours confidently, of late.

Though we always have doubts about recurrence, benign cancer cases if well treated in time are a boon for patients, who start with a new phase of living as a survivor. In my cousin brother's and sister's cases they go for checkups and touchwood- with God's blessings they are doing OK.

In your case too, Mr Narayanan, you have emerged successful till date. Do please take all precautions suggested by your doctors.

To keep such diseases at bay one must have enough of natural foods every day to get a good immunity. Especially dry fruits and fruits are excellent for keeping fit and to detoxify our systems. I recall an old interview by actor Dev Anand wherein he was asked how he remained so young, fit and agile over the years? He replied that his evening diet comprised only fruits and some raw seasonal vegetables like carrots, cucumbers and so on. He further justified his food habit by saying that during evenings we tend to have much oily stuff with snacks that need to be avoided. I had seen him on one occasion during a programme at age 75. He rushed to the stage like an youngster and was very articulate, jovial and alert, defying all those 75 years of seasons he had witnessed.

A regular and daily exercise regimen works wonders for a healthy life.

Consumption of two garlic pods every morning is a good way to ward of heart disease, cancer and quite a few other illnesses. Garlic contains numerous compounds that have anticarcinogenic properties, which help protect against cancer. It is safe and healthy for most people. But if you’re taking blood thinners, talk with a doctor before increasing your garlic intake. Since hundreds of years garlic has been believed to be having medicinal values, that modern medicine now proves are all correct.

Last edited by anjan_c2007 : 14th July 2024 at 16:40.
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Old 15th July 2024, 11:17   #157
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

I have missed out on sharing a biggest learning during the treatment is “DO NOT FOLLOW OR BELIVE GOOGLE”

I am yet to come across any specific article which gives accurate information in the lines of my current treatment. Most of the articles say LIFE EXPETANCY OF AROUND 5/7yrs. My wife, daughter were the most affected reading such articles. Unfortunately the same was supported by one of the 1st doctor we consulted.

Even Dr. Agarwal, the first thing he advised was not to Google. After all the good and bad experiences with doctors having senior, well referred doctor is the key to your treatment.
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Old 16th July 2024, 06:10   #158
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Quote:
Originally Posted by Satkaj View Post
I have missed out on sharing a biggest learning during the treatment is “DO NOT FOLLOW OR BELIVE GOOGLE”

Even Dr. Agarwal, the first thing he advised was not to Google. After all the good and bad experiences with doctors having senior, well referred doctor is the key to your treatment.
Thank you @Satkaj for stating this learning for the benefit of all. I fully endorse your observation. I pray for your full recovery. May God bless you and your young family.

All,

It is like saying let me overhaul a jet turbofan engine by reading up on the internet. And the human body is a 1000x more complex than a jet engine. And along with the internet univershitty {no, that's not a spelling error} there are these well wishers who ply their favourite juice or leaf or root or snake oil which will cure you miraculously. Have it if you wish as a side effort but please, dear cancer patients, do not abandon allopathic treatment and please keep it as your primary treatment. Nothing to beat an experienced doctor whom you trust. And for extra safety seek a second opinion at each stage - that is what I am doing every 90 days.

Another lesson, which we all know theoretically, is the unbelievable powers of recuperation of the human body. The caveat here is that we look after it well, eat healthy, eat in serious moderation, and allow our body to heal itself.

Last edited by V.Narayan : 16th July 2024 at 06:16.
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Old 3rd August 2024, 18:57   #159
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

I have been doing some reading related to cholesterol and as a result, my social media feed has lots of content related to both the positive and negative effects of cholesterol. One such random video claimed that low cholesterol levels are a sure-shot indicator of Cancer and if the levels are below 100, the chances of recovery are slim.

@V.Narayan & @Satkaj, if I may ask, did you observe your cholesterol levels drop during your diagnosis?
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Old 3rd August 2024, 22:13   #160
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Yesterday's badminton quarterfinal match at the Olympics where India's Lakshya Sen got the better of Chou Tien Chen was a really tough one. The Chinese Taipei player gave his everything in the game but eventually lost. However, his off field victory is what brought me here.

In the run up to the Olympics, he went through a thorough health checkup and was fortunately diagnosed with Colon Cancer.
Quote:
As one of the world’s best players, Chou has a packed schedule with tournaments almost every week. When a gap opened up between tournaments in early 2023, he decided to use the opportunity to undergo a full physical exam

Whereas a set of doctors advised that he could be at risk but not immediately:
Quote:
“They checked for the cancer and said it is high risk,” Chou said. “They said I could come back maybe one year later. I said I’d think about it. It's really weird because I got a health check, maybe I got cancer or something I can cut earlier, but they said, ‘You just wait for one year.'
He preferred to have a second opinion:
Quote:
I thought it was very weird, so I change the hospital and I checked it again and they found the cancer
Quote:
After receiving the diagnosis, Chou underwent surgery to remove cancerous cells from his colon. The doctors also cut out a part of his large intestine to prevent the spread of the disease.
Once the surgery was over, he made it back to the court.

Quote:
“I am really happy that I could come back because I found out really early, so I cut it out really early,” said Chou, who is now encouraging others to also seek early diagnosis and treatment. “Thank God for giving me the mind to think that I needed to go and get a second opinion.”
Cancer treatment - Lessons to share-img_20240803_215928.jpg

Found his philosophy worth emulating.

Quote:
Every time I feel uncomfortable, I tell myself:

Yes, I can come back!
Source:
1. X
2. olympics.com
3. Wikipedia
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Old 4th August 2024, 00:17   #161
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaguar View Post
I have been doing some reading related to cholesterol and as a result, my social media feed has lots of content related to both the positive and negative effects of cholesterol. One such random video claimed that low cholesterol levels are a sure-shot indicator of Cancer and if the levels are below 100, the chances of recovery are slim.

@V.Narayan & @Satkaj, if I may ask, did you observe your cholesterol levels drop during your diagnosis?
Fortunately or unfortunately till I was diagnosed , I was doing quite well without even a Crocin or even having any family doctor on board. I had started yearly full body checkups which were restricted to 2d echo, CBC, LFT etc but had never done Cholesterol check. After my BMT and as a follow up as per my recent count my cholesterol is 130.

If you have read my post , the first advice my doctor gave was NOT TO FOLLOW GOOGLE and that also applies to random social media reels.

In my case , my doctor never ever asked me to keep check on cholesterol. I am sure he would have asked if was such an important benchmark.

My humble requestto you is to avoid following such reels and feeds. To answer your question, I asked my wife to find my report on her mail without giving her details of your query. Can you imagine her condition if in case my cholesterol would have been below 100?

As said earlier. Each cancer , each body , each treatment is unique in todays day and age. Only one common thing is that all cancer patients and their families live each day on hope that the treatment patient is going through gives 100% result .
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Old 4th August 2024, 15:01   #162
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

An amazingly beautiful young woman friend of mine had never minded wearing glasses, but a boyfriend objected to them. Many a woman would have, rightly, told him what he could do with his objection, but she did decide to look into alternatives and went for an eye examination.

That eye examination led to the discovery of cancerous cells. That guy's stupid vanity saved her sight, maybe more.

I have to admit that, as I progress into my 70s, I find myself reluctant to even find out. It is a few years since I had a master checkup. I know, partly due to good advice here, that this is stupid. I'd better get on with it.
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Old 7th August 2024, 13:23   #163
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Re: Cancer treatment - Lessons to share

Quote:
Originally Posted by Satkaj View Post
If you have read my post , the first advice my doctor gave was NOT TO FOLLOW GOOGLE and that also applies to random social media reels.

In my case, my doctor never ever asked me to keep check on cholesterol. I am sure he would have asked if was such an important benchmark.
I am not following Google or random feeds blindly. However, there is a disconnect between doctors as well, which leads to confusion. So one is forced to do some self-learning to at least ask the right questions.
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