Thoughts and opinions cause I think about stuff and I don't want to confuse it with my personal journey.
I travel a lot and a "friend" is making jokes about me spending more time in hotel rooms than in my apartment. The truth is I'm enjoying the opportunity to meet new people and to speak up for lung cancer.
In October of 2022, I led an introductory workshop for the Health eMatters conference. It wasn't recorded but several people have asked for the slide set. I converted it to pdf and have posted it here for those folks to see.
I attended the Canadian Lung Cancer Conference on behalf of Lung Cancer Canada in July of 2022. I came away with a sense of the cutting edge of research and debate in the lung cancer community.
Noctambulant stalker
Peddler of false comfort and fake hope
Denying the terror and death of cancer.
The toast of boardrooms around the globe
Prowess with profit and unpronounceable drugs
that twist the tongue,
tire and wrack the body.
Leave financial ruin,
fatigue, and side effucks in their wake.
2018
January 19 - GP referral to Breast Clinic
March 6 - Mammogram and Breast Ultrasound
March 20 - Breast biopsies
April 3 - Biopsy results (IDC breast cancer) CT scan and bone scan
April 4 - referred for fine wire lung biopsy (First indication of lung cancer)
April 13 - EBUS - for lung biopsy (because fine wire was taking too long)
April 30 - Biopsy results - First meeting with medical oncologist. Lung cancer Stage 3B - Breast cancer on the back burner.
May 11 - PET scan.
May 14 - Radiologist and oncologist - Stage 3C - treatment plan
Virtual conferencing has become important as countries lock down to slow the spread of coronavirus. Virtual Conferencing includes Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams as well as a variety of other platforms. Several months ago I spent a few hours experimenting with the new kid on the block - Zoom. I had been doing conference calls for years. Since I was working in the remote wilds of Saskatchewan in the nineties it was very common. Skype calls were a thing for awhile and when my wife and I were apart it was one of the tools we used to connect.
I had reason today to reflect on palliative care in another context.
The common perception of palliative care is that is about managing death. It is not. The best definition I have heard is that palliative care is about symptom management. As such it is appropriate to engage with palliative care early in the treatment process to manage symptoms.