When I was undergoing my initial treatment and surgery I didn't really have the knowledge I have now. I was initially treated by experienced Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) specialists in an established NET Centre and I guess I felt comfortable with what was happening. In hindsight, I wish I had studied the disease earlier as I would have understood at the time what was actually happening to my body and more fully understood…
The sooner any cancer can be correctly diagnosed, the better chances of a complete cure for the person concerned. However, some cancers are not as easy to diagnose as others. Neuroendocrine (NET) Cancer is one of the difficult to diagnose cancers due to the vague symptoms which may be mistaken for other diseases and routine illnesses. With some patients, this may go on for many years. I don't normally pay too much attention…
When I was discharged from hospital following major surgery in Nov 2010, I knew I would shortly be commencing long-term monthly 'somatostatin analogue' treatment and had assumed Octreotide (Sandostatin LAR) would be the drug of choice. However, my Oncologist prescribed Lanreotide (known in the UK as Somatuline Autogel).
Somatostatin Analogues (Octreotide/Lanreotide) are mainstay treatments for many Neuroendocrine…
As I write this, I'm well into the 5th anniversary of my 18 day stay in hospital for my first major surgery treatment for metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer. The surgery on 9 Nov 2010 had lasted 9 hours but according to my surgeon Mr Neil Pearce, I tolerated it well. My first week was quite tough and I outlined how this went in my blog 'patient experience' part 1. If you've not read it yet, please click on …
I seem to be having lots of "5 years ago today......" moments this week. Following my recent NET Cancer Day awareness blogs which culminated in blog post I woke up on NET Cancer Day, my memories of that 18 day stay in hospital from 8 - 26 Nov 2010 are not only reminding me of how important that particular treatment was, but also how surreal it felt at the time. Some of it is still a blur, particularly the early…
