[Dr ST]

Dear Narayan Sir,
Sorry to hear about your disease. I hope they are controlled and you will have a great time ahead. Medical science has advanced a lot and these tumours are curable. Renal cell cancers and prostatic malignancies have better outcomes when compared to other intraabdominal cancers. I appreciate your courage to come up with the disease in this forum. May the almighty bless you, Sir.

Regards

[ysjoy]

Dear @V.Narayan Sir,

Thanks very much, for sharing story of your encounter with cancer and the insights gained

Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery,

Best regards,
ysjoy

[shebin]

You are a very strong person sir....I am sure you will defeat cancer and tell us about it soon.

[Mathan1130]

@Narayan - Sending good vibes your way for a speedy recovery.Get well soon!


Cheers
Mathan

[Joli]

My father has had a colon cancer surgery recently. He was diagnosed just before the COVID first wave struck. Being of the religious types, he preferred to evoke the almighty and proceed. It worked for him as two subsequent tests in 2021 revealed that he was free of the malice and was in remission. In a 2022 test, the bad boy was back and a few days ago, after consulting multiple doctors, we agreed to the surgery. The tests determined that it was Stage-II A. We are now awaiting details from the gene tests to understand the chemotherapy course.

[NPV]

Dear V.Narayan sir, shocked to hear this!

Take care and I'm sure you will recover and rebound quickly to normalcy. I'm absolutely sure you have the attitude and mental strength to tackle this head on. God will be kind to you, for you have brought happiness and hope in many families by your good deeds and helping needy children with medical conditions, practically gifting them a new life, may the force be with you Sir

Huge Respect and Best wishes for a complete recovery!

[Romins]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Can insurance companies refuse to offer coverage at some point or are they bound to do so regardless of age if you have started your policy at an earlier age and continued it without a break.

My mother is 69 and I had taken a policy when she was 55. Insurance premium increases significantly (almost double) after the age of 65 but the cover continues.

It is better to take a small sum assured at an age of 40 or at least before 60 and increase the amount later. I got Senior Citizen cover for my father in when he was 62 and it covered 5 times hospitalization with co-payment of 30%. The insurance is still valid and continues at the age of 76.

[Paul63]

Wish you the very best to beat your ailment, just one tip: seek an online opinion from TATA Memorial's service from industry experts, they give you factual prognosis and treatment options.

[Goandiaries]

Thank you very much for sharing this with us. I have seen many of your posts in the forum and was not expecting something like this!

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Alternate Medicine

Every well-wisher will become an expert on suggesting alternate medicine full of anecdotal miracles to cure cancer. I prefer the tried and tested route of allopathy and modern medicine when my life and limb are at stake. So, this route is simply not for me.

Try alternate medicine if you must but please don’t replace your main line treatment under modern medicine for this.

I understand this completely. However, I would suggest you read about "cold exposure and cancer". Science suggests that deliberately exposing yourself to cold could make it harder for the cancer cells to grow.

Links to a couple of posts that I remember reading last year:

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20...udy-shows.aspx

https://www.morozkoforge.com/post/mi...20its%20source.

I'm not sure if you have heard of this before, so thought it might be of some interest to you and others reading this forum as a preventive measure.

[NytSky83]

I wish you all the strength, courage and speedy recovery sir.

Thank you for penning this note here and sharing it with all of us, especially where you shared the importance of the annual health check-ups and medical insurance coverage.

[Karaboudjan]

Dear Sir,
Thank you for sharing this with all of us.
I pray for a speedy recovery for you. Your ordeal and the courage to share it has given all of us a much needed first hand experience of dealing with such a situation.
God will give you and your family the strength to come out of this.

Take care sir and wish you a speedy recovery.

I look forward to reading more and more posts from your end on the various topics on TBhp.

[I_am_TSG]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Background

Our lives are always a mix of some blessings and some hardships.

Thank you for sharing your experience, sir. I have quietly read your posts and enjoyed your wisdom on this forum over the years and truly appreciate you sharing this piece of personal experience as well. I regularly report CTs and MRIs with suspected masses, etc. and often think of the impact that one line of my report will have on the life of that patient. Had to go through this entire process a few years ago when my mother was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. She is thankfully doing fine now.

I'm sure you will be fine too. It's a process, this cancer treatment, and one has to go with it and hope for the best. Wish you a speedy recovery.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Wow, thanks for sharing this shocking and arduous experience. Both my paternal grandparents, all 3 of my paternal aunts were victims of cancer. So my father was very sure he was going to get it. But he didn't, and passed away peacefully and quickly one day in his early 80s. It skipped my father, but will it skip me? That's a thought I get once in a while.

What are the specific medical screenings for cancer? Is it something we can do every year?

I wish you very quick recovery...

Genes often have a weird way of expressing themselves. Some generations they do, and in some they don't. I truly hope that the genes your father carried skipped any high-risk mutations and as a result you don't carry any at-risk mutations yourself, but you should be careful nonetheless. I usually recommend annual blood tests with cancer screening profiles for anyone above 40 years of age. Yes exceptions occur and people less than 40 do get cancer but doesn't really make sense to mass-screen everybody especially when people have to pay for these out of pocket. In countries with universal healthcare, the health system won't screen anybody younger than a certain age (set by guidelines) since it doesn't make financial sense for them to screen beyond at the ends of the bell shaped curve of occurrence.

In addition to blood tests, I am a big supporter of annual radiological exams - there's nothing like a whole-body MRI to screen out for any new growths or suspicious areas that need further investigation. While some of my more conservative colleagues might say it's completely unnecessary, I think the benefits far outweigh the effort. And there are no risks since MRI does not involve radiation. I know for a fact that quite a lot of UHNIs in India and abroad undertake this exercise on an annual basis.

If the above sounds an overkill, I would definitely recommend an annual ultrasound of the abdomen and pelvis at the least.

Then there's also gene testing to test for any mutations in your DNA - it's a one time test and one gets to know any genetic oddities. This is recommended in people with a strong familial history of cancer.

Hope this helps anyone with similar questions in their mind.

[Slowjet]

Dear Sir,

Wish you a speedy recovery. It is really good that you have spread awareness in a very clear manner.

Regards

[sam264_2000]

Thank you for sharing this, Narayan Sir.

My maternal grandfather fought with oral cancer for 11 years. He was a reputed criminal lawyer in Western Maharashtra and this meant that he may have to stop practicing law because he could no longer defend in court. Thick skinned guy; he resumed practice after the initial 2 years of treatment and successfully continued it for next 8 years, travelling back and forth between Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Kolhapur and Sangli. Imagine doing this in 70's and early 80's. All this while, he also saw through wedding of his 4 kids!!

Your fighting spirit is half the battle won. As anyone can tell, you have taken the bull by it's horns. Our prayers and best wishes are with you.

[DigitalOne]

Dear Narayan sir,

I don't know you personally, but having read your thoughtful and insightful posts over many years, and also having engaged with you in some of these conversations in team-bhp, I somehow felt a close connection with you.

This is indeed shocking but yet you have taken it with such courage and written about it with so openness and objectivity, it is truly inspiring. Thanks a lot for sharing. I can only pray for your full and quick recovery, and looking forward to your writings as you go along this recovery process.

Warm wishes
DigitalOne