| A treatment of cancer explained |
| Written by Dane Masters | |
| Sunday, 09 November 2008 | |
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Very often we tend to ignore the information about the many treatments of cancer unless there comes a time when we have to pay attention to it. Unless we are fascinated with reading medical journals we hardly bother to know more about the problems or the solutions or the symptoms of cancer. This is what happened to one of my closest pals as well.
Very often we tend to ignore the information about the many treatments of cancer unless there comes a time when we have to pay attention to it. Unless we are fascinated with reading medical journals we hardly bother to know more about the problems or the solutions or the symptoms of cancer. This is what happened to one of my closest pals as well. My friend is a clinical nurse who has specialization in geriatric nursing. She has an incredible knowledge of medical matters. Surprisingly however she was totally ignorant of any information about cancer or of the latest treatments of the disease. That was until she was reported to be suffering from invasive cervical adinocarcinoma. We were both in the dark about cancer and were aware of only the harmful side effects of chemotherapy and the radiation. Now we know much more than we knew at that point of time. I would give you here one of the treatments of cancer that she underwent. After Vaness was diagnosed with cancer, she was immediately operated upon. She underwent a radical hysterectomy that removed the harmful growths that were spreading the disease to her lymph nodes. After that she was taken for a PET scan which is a Positron Emission Tomography test that is done to know what would be the further course of treatment. The scan showed that the cancer had hit her lymph nodes; it reached up to her lungs and downward to the vaginal region. One of the reputed surgeons suggested her not to follow the standard procedure of the treatment of cancer and to extricate the malignant lymph nodes (all the lymph nodes cannot be extricated as these aids in secretion and are necessary for the running of our system). She got a lot of suggestions but she followed the surgeon's advice and two months later underwent surgery for the second time. Next came the consultation regarding chemotherapy and radiation. The doctor, she said, was wonderful, taking two full hours to explain the pros and cons of chemo and radiation, those that included statistics on likeliness of each particular side effect. Compared to what my best friend and I had known previously, the rates of losing hair, for example, or losing bowel control, were surprisingly low. In addition, many subsequent symptoms are psychogenic. That is, they are brought on by the patient thinking about them coming on. If you think about vomiting enough, you will vomit. She was then administered an IV on one side of the body. She also had to take two medicines, Glutamine as well as Compazine. While Glutamine keeps the immune system strong; Compazine reduces the feeling of nausea that came as the result of using Amaphostine injection(s). Vaness then started her treatment of cancer. She had to take chemo as was scheduled. She also had to take radiation therapy for a continuous five days every week for a stretch of ten weeks. The radiation therapy takes care of the symptoms and brings about an improvement in the quality of life. It however cannot cure; there is after all no cure of cancer. The two treatments together can be used for a total of ten weeks. After that it would not be used as these will not cure the cancer and instead might kill her. The irony is in the fact that while the treatment is strong enough to counter the disease, it is also strong enough to kill the patient. There is however a percentage who with the help of the doctors, their friends and their own mind have miraculous recoveries and they actually survive to tell the tale. What is heartening is that this percentage of survivors is growing with each passing year. The Article Author: Dane Masters is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about skin cancer charts graphs, please visit Prevent Skin Cancer for current articles and discussions. |
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