Comments by "Brenda Snow" (@brendasnow8255) on "The Patient Story" channel.

  1. My husband also ignored all sorts of symptoms and times of feeling sick, until he finally couldn’t. Even then, he only told me anything was wrong because he couldn’t drive after a colonoscopy. It was Stage 3. He was 54 when diagnosed. We asked for a second opinion on the treatment, which saved his life. He survived 37 more years, and died of natural causes.
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  2. It wasn’t breast cancer, but my husband’s first oncologist said “Sell everything and take a trip around the world, because you’ll die from this in about a year.” We didn’t do that, of course, and my husband lived another 27 years, cancer free.
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  3. I’m so happy that you’re cancer free! My husband had his chemo for stage 3C colon cancer on Fridays at three. He was down for the count all weekend, then went to work every day. He even went on business trips, but I went along because he was very weak. His company would have given him generous time off, but he wanted to work. They allowed him to come in late, leave early, and sometimes take a quick nap. Chemo for an entire year. He was 54 and lived until he was nearly 82.
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  4. You’re such an intelligent, articulate young woman, and a great advocate for yourself. Best wishes for a long, happy life.
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  5.  @annakouzovleva6606  We live in East Tennessee, but we went to Duke University Medical Center’s oncology department in Durham, NC for a second opinion on treatment. They recommended this chemo called 5FU, and he used their protocol, but got the chemo here, once a week for a whole year. Made him really sick, but it worked. He went back to Duke every three months, then six months, for two years for follow up. Anyone with cancer should try to get a second opinion, outside their area, regarding the best treatment.
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  6. My husband was treated at Duke for stage 3C colon cancer. He lived another 27 years, with no recurrence. He was treated with something called FU15– I think. Couldn’t tolerate it well, but did manage to stay on it for a year. If he hadn’t gone to Duke from Tennessee he would have died.
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  7. I’m sure that your family appreciate every extra day with you.
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  8. Doctors make educated diagnoses, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if they didn’t ignore test results?
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  9. My husband had a story like yours at age 54. He was cancer free the rest of his life and died of natural causes at nearly 82. His was Duke stage 3C. There was a huge duodenal tumor and the lymph nodes in his abdomen were cancerous, but the cancer hadn’t spread; if it had, it would have been stage 4. He had chemo weekly for a year and had a prognosis of dying in about a year if he hadn’t had that type of chemo. Going to Duke Medical Center saved him. All of those years ago, things went quickly. Colonoscopy on Tuesday, surgery on Thursday, oncologist in two weeks, and then a visit to Duke for a second opinion on the treatment.
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  10. I’m happy, so happy, that you’re well.
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  11. Everyone with cancer should go outside their local area for a second opinion on treatment. At the time that my husband had colon cancer, the American Cancer Society had ads telling people to do that. We did, and he survived Stage 3 (so staged because it hadn’t metastasized), while people in his local chemo room with Stage 2, who did not receive the type of chemo that he had, did not survive.
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  12. You can’t take Tylenol with liver problems.
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  13. It’s so irritating to hear that doctors minimize symptoms and because of them, cancer progresses unchecked. A friend’s sister had been treated for lung cancer and developed a cough. Instead of thinking it was due to the cancer, her doctors prescribed cough medicine and then antibiotics, when actually, the cancer had moved to Stage 4.
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  14. So many young people are getting cancer these days that I wonder why doctors keep dismissing cancer as something else, just because someone is younger than what doctors are used to.
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  15. I’m so sorry to hear that you have cancer. That’s scary for you and your family and friends. Best wishes for a successful treatment.
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  16. I feel so angry for you! This happens a lot, but I wonder if they discount what women say more than what men say about their symptoms. My husband was “lucky” with his stage 3C colon cancer, because his symptoms were classic, but especially, because the huge primary tumor blocked the colonoscopy. He had surgery two days later and chemo three weeks after that. He lived. That was then, but I shudder to think how long all of that would take these days.
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