PM FAO Doodab's liver

[Coalman]

You seem to be taking a pragmatic approach to it all, doodab. I'm sure I'm not alone in admiring your strength and determination. As a CUKker, I've always liked and respected you - you're a straight-up guy with honesty and integrity, and that goes a long way to explaining the affection that the CUK collective feels for you and the shock that your news has given us all. The forum is a superficial place where the idea of 'friendships' seems laughable, especially with so many people projecting a persona (or multiple personas!), but I think, when the chips are down, the support, affection and sadness we all feel at your news are very real emotions.

As regards the treatment/no treatment thing - I suppose it's very difficult to quantify in terms of quality versus quantity, especially as both those variables are so hard to pin down.

Only you and your family can decide what's best - and what's best today may not still be what's best a month or six months down the line.

Anyway, I'm rambling, so will shut up and go eat a sandwich.

xxx

I was thinking of posting something similar, but WSS.

I've never met you as I've never been to a CUK meet up, but reading your posts over the years have (generally!) been enjoyable.
Your story is extremely 'sad making' as my 6 year old says. It reminds me of another sad story involving a young boy and cancer.

Chin up, keep posting, but spend as much time as you can with your loved ones.

Coalman

[Paddy]

Well I think with smoking the risk is so high you can say it causes it, and indeed cancer research says exactly that.

I'm not saying also to beat yourself up, but you might want to understand what caused it, and make the lifestyle changes as you are treated.

I can add to that that smoking will make any lung tarred–up and black. That is not good in any event.

BTW my father who had lung and liver cancer gained an extra year of life by giving it up once he was diagnosed

[mudskipper]

Well I think with smoking the risk is so high you can say it causes it, and indeed cancer research says exactly that.



I'm not saying also to beat yourself up, but you might want to understand what caused it, and make the lifestyle changes as you are treated.

But you don't know that it did cause it - chances are it is a significant contributer, but it's possible that you would have got it anyway. Smoking hugely increases the risk of lung (and other) cancer, but if 'smoking causes cancer' then all smokers would get lung cancer. Anyway, it's semantics, which doesn't seem worth arguing over...

[suityou01]

I think the big shock here is that Doodab is so young. This is completely unfair, and totally shocking.

IIRC Doodab is a keen cyclist who did 50 milers for breakfast and laughed his ass off at me chafing my way across the south downs.

Doodab did absolutely not bring this on himself. This could happen to any one of us. I understand from Doodab he is in the very best of care, so I have learned to keep my beak out of his affairs.

How many old timers do you know in your local boozer than live the lifestyle of a swamp rat and yet don't befall this? I know plenty.

Very upsetting, and I am treading very carefully in what I say here as I don't want to cause any further upset to Doodab.

I am looking forward to you stabilising Doodab and getting your life back to "normal".

[doodab]

I may have missed this but what are the genetic tests for?

Depending on if the cancer is expressing certain genes, it makes it a candidate for treatment with something called monoclonal antibodies, which basically cause your immune system to attack the tumour directly. These + chemo are more effective than chemo alone, if you have the "right" sort of cancer.

[NotAllThere]

Could have been caused by Fukushima - that's estimated to cause an extra 50 deaths due to cancer per year. Tobacco products contain polonium as one of the major carcinogens. You can never pin down precisely which high energy particle finally interacts with the wrong cell.

Personally, I'd plump for it being caused by a high-energy cosmic ray from two neutron stars colliding.

[NickFitz]

You seem to be taking a pragmatic approach to it all, doodab. I'm sure I'm not alone in admiring your strength and determination. As a CUKker, I've always liked and respected you - you're a straight-up guy with honesty and integrity, and that goes a long way to explaining the affection that the CUK collective feels for you and the shock that your news has given us all. The forum is a superficial place where the idea of 'friendships' seems laughable, especially with so many people projecting a persona (or multiple personas!), but I think, when the chips are down, the support, affection and sadness we all feel at your news are very real emotions.

As regards the treatment/no treatment thing - I suppose it's very difficult to quantify in terms of quality versus quantity, especially as both those variables are so hard to pin down.

Only you and your family can decide what's best - and what's best today may not still be what's best a month or six months down the line.

WMSS++

Anyway, I'm rambling, so will shut up and go eat a sandwich.

...a diet of bacon, sausages and ham are all risk factors.

[doodab]

They're not proven to cause cancer, they're shown to increase risk. No point in beating yourself up about what you could have done differently - non-smoking teetotallers whose biggest vice is a morning coffee still get cancer.

There was a guy in the bed opposite, teetotal, never smoked, vegetarian, waiting for a liver transplant. He'll die sooner or later if he doesn't get one.

[Mich the Tester]

There was a guy in the bed opposite, teetotal, never smoked, vegetarian, waiting for a liver transplant. He'll die sooner or later if he doesn't get one.

Now that's going to be really sad. The silly bugger hasn't lived.

[OwlHoot]

In my case, 10+ years of smoking, lack of exercise and a diet of bacon, sausages and ham are all risk factors.

It's mostly down to luck, or lack of it, and genes.

Also, tobacco smoke isn't the only carcinogen. Far from it - Diesel exhaust and aspergillus type moulds, among other things, are _far_ more dangerous than tobacco smoke. But you rarely hear politicians and health campaigners mention them because they aren't fashionable evils.

I'm the same, except 40+ years of puffing away (since I was 12). But I reckon cigarettes have saved my life more than once, keeping me awake on long motorway journeys. So, if I ever get cancer, and they haven't found a cure for it by then, I'll call it a draw.

Anyway, good luck, and who knows perhaps there is some experimental treatment that may turn up in time to benefit you.