Six years ago today I was diagnosed with metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer. Until my 5th anniversary last year, I hadn't thought much about how (or if) I should mark these occasions. I've concluded there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way to handle Cancer milestones which are frequently referred to as 'Cancerversaries'. Last year, I ended up settling for a '5 year' celebratory blog. I didn't think I…
Go on, climb that hill!
It was wet, windy and very cold and that was at the bottom of the hill I’m looking up at. It wasn’t a terribly big hill but I knew it would still cause me pain. Whilst the rain splashed onto our jackets and the wind howled, Chris and I looked at each other and we both said “do we really want to go up that?” Of course we do……. no pain, no gain! So we went up the hill and it hurt. Up there…
Background
Although initially considered rare tumours up until 10 years ago, the most recent data indicates the incidence of NETs has increased exponentially over the last 4 decades and they are as common as Myeloma, Testicular Cancer, and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. In terms of prevalence, NETs represent the second commonest gastrointestinal malignancy after colorectal cancer.
In fact, the graph of the SEER database…
This is the second blog in the Neuroendocrine Cancer Nutrition series. In Blog 1, I focussed on Vitamin and Mineral deficiency risks for patients. Those who remember the content will have spotted the risks pertaining to the inability to absorb particular vitamins and minerals. This comes under the general heading of Malabsorption and in Neuroendocrine Cancer patients, this can be caused or exacerbated by one or more of…
This has been submitted as a guest blog by the Community Team. Thanks to Jess for the highlight!
You can read it here: https://community.macmillan.org.uk/blogs/b/community_news/archive/2015/08/11/guest-post-sorry-i-m-not-in-service
