Health Considerations - Post Peak Oil / Climate Change

[fuzzy]

Best of luck Ralph, don't forget cancer patients get free [any] prescriptions. Start stockpiling codeine, and any lifelong meds.

[vtsnowedin]

Not to be crass but both Ralph and Adam2s mother are at the end of their lives and it is not a matter of "saving" their lives but of how many "good days" the healthcare system can give to them and their families beyond what no treatment would provide. And to be clear: a day spent in a wheel chair wearing soiled adult diapers and a feeding tube down your nose is not a good day even if your grandson which you treated well in your will visits you that day.

[adam2]

Not to be crass but both Ralph and Adam2s mother are at the end of their lives and it is not a matter of "saving" their lives but of how many "good days" the healthcare system can give to them and their families beyond what no treatment would provide. And to be clear: a day spent in a wheel chair wearing soiled adult diapers and a feeding tube down your nose is not a good day even if your grandson which you treated well in your will visits you that day.

In the case of my mother, you are correct, the condition has no effective treatment and wont get better. Without oxygen therapy, mother would have probably died already.
It is a case of giving her the best quality of life for the final months, strong painkillers are not needed at present but are available to ease end of life.

I feel that you may be unduly negative regarding Ralph, testicular cancer is increasingly treatable and Ralph may well have decades of normal life left.
"recently made redundant, and taking a few months off before looking for another job" suggests no great age, unlike Mother who is nearly 90.

[Little John]

For men with testicular cancer that has not spread beyond the testicles, the survival rate is 99%. For men with cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes in the back of the abdomen, called the retroperitoneal lymph nodes, the survival rate is about 96%. For men with cancer that has spread outside the testicles to areas beyond the retroperitoneal lymph nodes, the survival rate is still 73%.

The prognosis for men with testicular cancer is, nowadays, very good.

http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/test ... statistics

[kenneal - lagger]

Are prostate and testicular cancer the same thing?

Hope all goes well with the treatment, Ralph.

[Little John]

According to the most recent data, when including all stages of prostate cancer:

The 5-year relative survival rate is 99%
The 10-year relative survival rate is 98%
The 15-year relative survival rate is 96%

Survival rates by "stage" are:

Local stage means that there is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the prostate. This corresponds to AJCC stages I and II. About 4 out of 5 prostate cancers are found in this early stage. The relative 5-year survival rate for local stage prostate cancer is nearly 100%.

Regional stage means the cancer has spread from the prostate to nearby areas. This includes stage III cancers and the stage IV cancers that haven’t spread to distant parts of the body, such as T4 tumors and cancers that have spread to nearby lymph nodes (N1). The relative 5-year survival rate for regional stage prostate cancer is nearly 100%.

Distant stage includes the rest of the stage IV cancers – cancers that have spread to distant lymph nodes, bones, or other organs (M1). The relative 5-year survival rate for distant stage prostate cancer is about 29%.

So, depending on when it is picked up, the prognosis is not as bad as one might have thought and certainly a hell of a lot better than it used to be.

I would just add that the survival rates, outlined above, barring the distant stage, are probably not that far off the survival rate for anyone in, say, their mid-fifties.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate- ... rates.html

[adam2]

Are prostate and testicular cancer the same thing?

Hope all goes well with the treatment, Ralph.

No, the prostrate is an internal gland near the base of the penis, it often becomes swollen and sometimes cancerous in old age. An enlarged prostrate results in a need to urinate frequently.The gland presumably serves some purpose, but it can be surgically removed if need be.
The testicles are external organs.

[vtsnowedin]

At any rate best of luck to you Ralph. They have come a long way in finding effective treatments for prostrate cancer. My own father had his removed at age 65 but that was back in 1962. He lived to be 84.

[PS_RalphW]

Thanks for the kind messages. My cancer is described as intermediate, which is based on a combination of test results, and leads to a treatment strategy. I haven't seen detailed test results, which would give a better indication of long term survival, somewhere between 90% and 98%, which would be as good as cured. The treatments risk long term side effects, but who suffers what is impossible to predict. Hence sometimes the decision is not to treat until the cancer progresses. With my family commitments not treating is not an option. A friend recently died of bone cancer 6 weeks after presenting at hospital, because he had been ignoring/misinterpetting symptoms for years.

I do find it strange taking medicines to make me feel ill when otherwise i am feeling perfectly well.

[stumuz1]

Adam. Sorry to hear about your mum. Years ago when we were posting essential supplies lists, one of the items you posted really made me chuckle.

2 x bottles of plymouth gin for mother.
Hope you both are still managing to share one or two.

Ralph. Best of luck with the future. It seems the probabilities are on your side.

A lot of the things you have posted over the years have stayed with me and guided decisions i have made. I should have said at the time how useful and thoughtful they were.

The life I'm living at the moment has been shaped greatly by discussions on this forum.

Take care.

[Potemkin Villager]

The treatments risk long term side effects, but who suffers what is impossible to predict. Hence sometimes the decision is not to treat until the cancer progresses. With my family commitments not treating is not an option.

Good luck Ralph, as I get older I realise more that much in life is impossible to predict. I wish you a good outcome.

[adam2]

Adam. Sorry to hear about your mum. Years ago when we were posting essential supplies lists, one of the items you posted really made me chuckle.

2 x bottles of plymouth gin for mother.
Hope you both are still managing to share one or two.

Ralph. Best of luck with the future. It seems the probabilities are on your side.

A lot of the things you have posted over the years have stayed with me and guided decisions i have made. I should have said at the time how useful and thoughtful they were.

The life I'm living at the moment has been shaped greatly by discussions on this forum.

Take care.

Thanks for your kind words.
Mother has never been much of a drinker, and I have largely given up for now.
If I avoid drink, this does not in any way help with mothers illness, it just does not "seem right" to drink when mother is seriously ill.
If the end came suddenly, there is very little that I can do, but to be intoxicated just seems wrong.
Headline that I don't want to see in the local newspaper "carer swilled gin whilst elderly mother died"

On a more general note, I am glad to hear that your life has been influenced by these forums.

[emordnilap]

I've known several people with prostate cancer; all have lived long enough to die of other causes. That wasn't a particularly cheerful sentence, Ralph but you get the drift. One man I knew lived to be 99, having has PC for over 20 years.

Health considerations taken in the light of TEOTWAWKI are as worrying for those with decreasing ability, through things such as arthritis or slipped discs.

[kenneal - lagger]

Having a glass of wine with a meal or sitting back and relaxing with a glass of your favourite tipple in the evening does you good occasionally and cannot be described as "carer swilled gin whilst elderly mother died".

We all deserve time to sit back and enjoy but those caring for others especially so, Adam.

[Little John]

I make my own beer and religiously imbibe one pint per night with my tea for entirely medicinal purposes....