Cancer, what's the killer?

[shadron]

The "golf ball lumps" were probably lymph nodes. The lymph system moves institial fluid (the fluid that occurs between body cells, which leak out of the blood vessels) through the body and dumps it back into the circulatory system in one of the chest arteries. At various places in the system there are lymph glands, knots of tissue particularly alive with leucocytes, white blood cells. These lymph glands organize the leucocytes and act as filters for unrecognized cells as part of the blood immune system. When the body is fighting infection, they become inflamed and you suffer "swollen glands". I would guess that the bidy was organizing it's last stand against an overwhelming invasion of cancer cells, or perhaps some opportunistic infection.

I'm sorry for your family's pain. I think your other sister's anger could very well be artfully covered fear, though, so I would take it easy there, but not let loose.

My understanding is that many cancers, like AIDS, fall to opportunistic infections. Cancer has the ability to turn off parts of the immune system in order to escape detection, leaving one open to pheumonia and other common infections.

 

[LibraryLady]

I lost my brilliant brother to cancer 6 years ago. It's so hard. My deepest sympathies.

 

[Tatyana]

Actually, I think it would be very difficult to find a melanoma cell in a blood sample. However, if you find a lump, you biopsy it, and then the histology tells you it's a melanoma metastasis.

Rolfe.

I am really sorry to hear about your sister, and very happy to hear she wasn't in any pain till the end.

There is a tumour markerfor melanoma called s100. While it is not entirely diagnostic, you can measure it in a blood test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_protein

 

[Disclord]

I am really sorry to hear about your sister, and very happy to hear she wasn't in any pain till the end.

There is a tumour markerfor melanoma called s100. While it is not entirely diagnostic, you can measure it in a blood test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_protein

I would lay in bed at night, literally shivering with fear that my sister Suzanne would either get extreme pain or lose her ability to swallow or maybe choke while she was still coherent and lucid. The thought of her dying didn't scare me - I don't know why. But the thought of pain and/or swallowing troubles did. When she finally died, I knew that we had pretty much kept her pain at bay and she'd never been really coherent after she couldn't swallow, so I was really thankful that it ended so peacefully... and for some reason, I thought people always died with their eyes open, but she closed them as she died. It was weird though, because minutes after she died, she looked like yellow wax... she had told me to take a picture after died, but I couldn't do it. I was surprised how long she stayed warm. They didn't take her body away for about 4 hours and she seemed to stay warm for most of that. I wasn't there when they took her - I didn't want to see that - for some reason, I associate removing a body from a house with a murder and it freaked me out.

One happy memory - several days before she died she asked for her little facial shaver because the hair on her upper lip was growing like crazy. I got it for her and noticed, with horror, that it was one of those 'shavers' that pulls the hair out by the root. So, I said sarcastically "Suzanne, you are dying of cancer yet you want to increase your suffering by ripping your whiskers out by the root???" She doubled over with laughter and laughed till she couldn't catch her breath. That night, I got her to eat some chicken and strawberries... it was a good day.

 

[Disclord]

The "golf ball lumps" were probably lymph nodes. The lymph system moves institial fluid (the fluid that occurs between body cells, which leak out of the blood vessels) through the body and dumps it back into the circulatory system in one of the chest arteries. At various places in the system there are lymph glands, knots of tissue particularly alive with leucocytes, white blood cells. These lymph glands organize the leucocytes and act as filters for unrecognized cells as part of the blood immune system. When the body is fighting infection, they become inflamed and you suffer "swollen glands". I would guess that the bidy was organizing it's last stand against an overwhelming invasion of cancer cells, or perhaps some opportunistic infection.

I'm sorry for your family's pain. I think your other sister's anger could very well be artfully covered fear, though, so I would take it easy there, but not let loose.

My understanding is that many cancers, like AIDS, fall to opportunistic infections. Cancer has the ability to turn off parts of the immune system in order to escape detection, leaving one open to pheumonia and other common infections.

Her glands did swell towards the end, but the lumps were tumors - the doc's had biopsied a few of them and confirmed it. I was shocked though because I didn't know that could happen... nor did I know that radiation treatments caused such burns - her scalp was so red and inflamed from the radiation that even a gentle stream of water hurt. For some dumb reason, I thought radiation was somehow targeted 'inside' and didn't affect the skin. Dumb of me, I know.

Luckily, she didn't get an infection at the end. I was scared of that too. The day she died she started to get a rattling sound in her throat so I would place atropine drops under her tongue every 2 hours to keep that at bay. I used to always wonder what the 'death rattle' sounded like - now I know - it's not like anything else.

 

[Dave Rogers]

My sympathies, Disclord, casebro and Cainkane1, and everybody else who's been through this sort of loss. My sister has just found that the malignant melanoma in her abdomen wasn't completely removed by surgery, and the latest occurrence is somewhere they can't operate. It doesn't look like she has many years left. I haven't said anything about it because it's hard to know what to say, but the more I know about it, the easier it will be to cope. She's in excellent health at the moment; I hope she, too, stays that way as close to the end as possible.

Dave