Have A Good Old Moan....

Customers have been the worst today... had one guy screaming abuse at me down the phone because I wouldn't accept his grandkids college ID to buy an 18 DVD!

My brother has cancer of some kind (a blood cancer, but not clear what kind yet). Not sure how bad it is yet.

🙁

Oh Janine, I'm sorry 🙁 I don't really know what to say except you're in my thoughts and I hope your brother can get better x

I'm so sorry to hear that Janine, wishing him a full and fast recovery xxx

Thanks guys 🙂 We're definitely hoping for the best. He's had a form of arthritis connected to his psoriasis for almost twenty years, so he's been on immunosuppressant Drugs for about 14, so it's sort of been expected. There was a huge panic a couple of weeks ago when they first starting testing after he found a lymph node that was swollen when he contracted some kind of virus, but didn't realise it was something like that at the time. Since he's on these drugs illnesses hit him very hard and unfortunately, all of the symptoms he had matched all of the worst symptoms of the worst forms of cancers!

Still a blow though, he's only just 39 so still young. He's pretty upbeat still though and I'm just trying to be a sounding board for my mum as she doesn't deal with this kind of stuff well generally Through all this her husband (they got married when I was 33 so it feels weird to call him step dad!) has cancer (prostate and it's under control but he also has some cognitive issues that are starting to get really bad and one of good friends is quite literally about to pass away from cancer, so it's all a bit much for her 🙁

That is very young, it's really frightening when something like that happens to a person of our age group isn't it as it just doesn't seem right. I hope that they have managed to diagnose it in time to be able to treat it and that he is able to kick it's arse! He sounds like he is a brave guy to have been dealing with that stuff since his teens. It's good that you're there to support your mum, this must be a difficult time for her with all that's going on. Sending you and your family positive thoughts and good vibes xxx

I'm going to add this here, even though it's good news! Seems weird to post it in the other thread though, because it's relating to my last post just up there.

Finally, after a lot of tooing and froing, my brother has finally be cleared of lymphoma (I'm assuming any other form of cancer as well, but my mums explanations are a bit confusing sometimes!) and it seems like it's just a cyst which at one point had the unfortunate coincidence of the noro virus looking like all the symtoms of the worst symtoms of aggressive lymphoma! When I posted he was in the middle of being ill and to be honest, I was the only one that thought this could be something other than cancer and he was just ill with a viral or bacterial infection of some kind which was making the symptoms of what ever else was making a gland very, very swollen seem worse. I had to accept when the doctors said it was cancer (pre proper testing/biopsy obviously) that it was. This again is my mums explanation being a bit off. Speaking to my brother about it made me more optomystic that it wasn't, but I resigned myself to it being cancer, hence my post here! It seemed like the most obvious explanation and I'm a firm believer in occum's razor (the most likely explanation is most likely the cause) so fine.

Rounds of testing and confusion, accidental spreading of infections they didn't know were there, biopsies etc etc etc, realising the lump was at least partly a cyst and one doctor finally said, 'ah, so I see you have psoriatic arthritis'. Apparently, cysts and lumps growing around joint areas are common with psoriatic arthritis! The whole, him being so young with psoriatic arthritis, it's normally seen in people over 70 and he's had it since his late teens meant that it was again a confusing case. It had taken them years to work out what was wrong with him with the arthritis, especially has they had always thought it was eczema that he had! The weird coincidence with that though, my step sister has the same thing, just less severe. So two rare cases in one family that aren't even related by blood lol

So yeah. He should be fine. He'll unfortunately have cysts he will have to have drained/removed for the rest of his life. Still better than chemo and radiotherapy though! Great life saving techniques, but nobodies wants that 🙂

That's great news Janine, both that it doesn't seem to be something as life-threatening as you initially thought and that he seems closer to getting the appropriate treatment for the condition he actually has.

It might be a good thing that your step sister has the same condition, it can really help to know someone who is going through a similar experience. We've had a similar weird thing this last few weeks where my sister in law and I both seem to have developed Pernicious Anaemia both at the same time! (God help her daughters in the future if it runs in my family and hers! )

I'm really pleased to hear that there's been some good news, I was a bit worried when I saw you'd posted on this thread again and was hoping the update wasn't a bad one.

It's so weird how these coincidences happen isn't it!

Is the anaemia easily treatable? Is it just B12? Or more complex? I hope it works out soon though! x

So glad to hear your brother will be fine. Sometimes it is hard to diagnose things and doctors tend to always go for the worst case senario. They rather be covered by saying its cancer and then correcting themselves than saying it isnt and having to give the  bad news later on.
It happened to me last year, not with cancer but I was having numbness and was told it could be multiple sclerosis. I was franticly worried for weeks while waiting on MRIs but turns out i just have nerves which are too close to my skin and stress can sometimes cause inflammation and numbness during certain movements.

Thanks Janine, it's all a bit up in the air at the mo, I have to take some B12 tablets for 2 months just in case it's just a diet related thing (which seems really unlikely as I eat meat and dairy these days, plus there's the fact that most of my mum's family have PA) so if there's no improvement (about 3 weeks in at the mo and still feeling dreadful) then they'll start me on B12 injections (PA prevents you absorbing B12 from food sources). It's just super annoying as I can't exercise coz I'm breathless and dizzy all the time so feeling a bit sluggish from that too. One of the most annoying things is that I've been to so many different doctors, pharmacists, dentists and nurses with a weird sore tongue over the past couple of years and not one of them said it could be due to B12 deficiency yet as soon as I googled it there were tons of photos of tongues that looked exactly like mine!

Funny you should mention that Puerkz as they have done MRIs on me to check for MS too due to me blacking out and getting numb hands and feet but hopefully it's jut down to this B12 stuff. I was really worried as my dad has had MS since his twenties and it's not a very pretty disease to watch someone have. Glad you didn't turn out to have it and hope there's something you can do to relieve your symptoms!

The other thing they checked me out for was epilepsy but they basically said that I'm not blacking out frequently enough to be worth them doing the scan where they induce seizures (it worried me the other day though when I described what it feels like when I black out to my boyfriend who does have epilepsy and he said it sounds exactly like his experience of it!).

So glad to hear your brother will be fine. Sometimes it is hard to diagnose things and doctors tend to always go for the worst case senario. They rather be covered by saying its cancer and then correcting themselves than saying it isnt and having to give the  bad news later on.

Oh yeah, definitely. This time though, it was pretty much that they were sure it was cancer, never "it could be", just what kind was the issue then. Several docs involved and they all were of the same opinion. I hold no grudges though, I would definitely rather they err on the side of caution! At first they weren't sure, but then lots of indications came back that it was so they all agreed.

Yeah defo better to prepare to treat him for the worst case scenario than working their way up to that and potentially having his health deteriorate. I'm sure that it was very distressing to hear it initially but great news that it turned out not to be.

so glad youre brother doesnt have cancer Janine!

Every autumn and winter i increase the amount i condition my hair as it gets dry a lot faster and sheds more, ive just realised that the reason it sheds more in autumn isnt just seasonal its because my hair cant stand conditioner on my scalp 🙁 so what i thought was helping it was actually making it worse!

Ive stopped conditioning my scalp, only doing the lengths now and ive returned to my normal shedding but i wish id realised this sooner

So glad to hear about your brother Janine, must be such a relief for you all!

Both of my shoulders dislocated in my sleep last night. I managed to put them both back in place, but my right shoulder is so painful this morning. It's that sort of pain that makes you feel sick 🙁