Lost and Found – a Novel by Ron Rink

Lung cancer is one of the most dreadful human diseases around the world today. If an individual can be diagnosed very early, it is possible for a complete cure to take place.

But, there’s where the big catch is — it is often next to impossible to detect this disease early!

When symptoms begin to occur, the cancer is often quite advanced. The first and foremost early symptom of lung cancer is coughing up blood or haemoptysis.

You should consider this early symptom as a warning sign of a possible lung cancer, but one which might be curable. If you do find that you are coughing up blood, you should immediately contact your physician to get the necessary advice, particularly if you are a person above 40 years of age with a smoking habit. Sometimes this early symptom of lung cancer may be due to the effects of a secondary tumor somewhere else in the body.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most often searched items on the internet is for information about lung cancer.

It wasn’t that long ago when you could barely find any information of value. But today, that’s no longer the case. With so many people still smoking – and so many other factors about air pollution and occupational hazards in general – this topic is one that we all need to know more about.

And, don’t keep this information to yourself, either. Pass it on to your friends and family members so they too can have a better understanding about this disease. It is always advisable to include your friends and family members in the “health care provider team”.

Lung cancer is the abnormal growth of lung cells or a tumor in the lungs. This information on lung cancer can be more understandable only when the cause of the disease is ascertained. Although the main causative agent of lung cancer is smoking, other causes include Radon, exposure to toxic chemicals, occupational hazards, air pollution, etc.

It is important to know the symptoms of lung cancer. The symptoms include loss of appetite, persistent coughing, continuous infection in the lungs, and sometimes oozing of blood during coughing. There may be even loss of memory when metastasis is noticed in the brain, which is one of the sequels of lung cancer.

The best way to prevent the occurrence of lung cancer is to not use tobacco. Even if you are now a chain smoker, you can reduce your risk of lung cancer by quitting completely. There are so many ways and means available on-line to help you quit smoking. There are products today that can ease the withdrawal symptoms. Since smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, it is highly advisable to completely quit smoking. Your risk continues to decrease as long as you don’t smoke ever again.

A good medical professional can easily point out the particular cause of this disease. They can evaluate your smoking history, symptoms, exposure to occupational and environmental hazards and medical history.

Information on lung cancer treatment is also readily available. Lung cancer can often be diagnosed with a chest X-ray. In order to find out the stage of your lung cancer, other series of tests are available to detect whether it is non-small cell or small cell lung cancer and to confirm whether it is present in the lungs only or has reached other parts of your body. Treatment varies depending on the stage of the cancer. Treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery. Sometimes a combination of all these may be used.

If you have been diagnosed with lung cancer, you will want to closely follow the advice of your medical professional to help keep the disease under control.

Even though you require extra rest after detecting the disease, and if your doctor says it is okay, you should not stop regular activities such as walking, playing golf, indulging in an active sexual life, etc., Make use of your body to feel better about yourself and to help you get rid of anger or tension. Ask your health care professional about what activities are good for you to do.

I’ll be back with more soon.

Shanti.
****************************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER
These articles were written with great care. However, in spite of this, errors or omissions may occur. These articles are provided “as is” without any warranty whether expressed or implied. All readers of these articles agree to use the information provided in these articles entirely at their own risk.
These articles should not be used as a basis for any form of diagnosis or treatment for any medical condition whatsoever – including Lung Cancer.
Always seek the advice of a professional medical doctor.
***************************************************************************************

In the last article we talked about the two forms of lung cancer – non-small cell and small cell. We also indicated that the more common form is the non-small cell form.

Small cell lung cancer is not as common as non-small lung cancer. This type of lung cancer spreads rapidly and may reach different organs of the body. This type of lung cancer is called oat cell cancer.

During recent years, lung cancer has been proclaimed as the deadliest form of cancer in many developed nations, including the USA, where 170,000 people die from the disease each year. Even though lung changes begin almost immediately upon exposure to carcinogens, lung cancer takes years to develop.
Read the rest of this entry »

I would like to begin a series of articles on a very important subject – Lung Cancer.

This disease is beginning to have some profound implications, not only to the health and well-being of our own society here in America, but also throughout the world.

The main reason this has become such a prevalent problem – SMOKING!

That’s it – plain and simple. Too many people are still smoking – and too many people still have to breathe second-hand smoke. This is especially upsetting to me when I see parents smoking around their young children.

So, for the next several articles, lung cancer will be the topic. I will probably intersperse a few articles on other topics just to break the tension – or the boredom – or whatever. But, generally, you’ll be getting a heck-of-a-lot of information about this subject. These articles will run over the next month or so.

Now, I’m not a doctor or a health professional — so let’s clear that up right away. In fact, I think I better post a disclaimer here right away so we don’t have any misunderstandings. I’m very interested in the broader subject of health and nutrition, so that’s my primary reason for embarking on this series.

I hope you enjoy these articles. My purpose in doing this is to offer the point of view of the average person, rather than the professional.

Here is the more legal language for the disclaimer:
***************************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER

These articles were written with great care. However, in spite of this, errors or omissions may occur. These articles are provided “as is” without any warranty whether expressed or implied. All readers of these articles agree to use the information provided in these articles entirely at their own risk.

These articles should not be used as a basis for any form of diagnosis or treatment for any medical condition whatsoever – including Lung Cancer.

Always seek the advice of a professional medical doctor.
****************************************************************************************
Okay, that’s done. Now let’s get on with our first article.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi everyone …. I hope that all of you in the USA that celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday have had a warm and loving time with your family and friends. I’m going to be celebrating mine tomorrow (Saturday). So I still have it to look forward to.

I have a rather sober subject for today’s posting. I hope you’ll bear with me.

One of the factors of today that is on so many minds, mine included, is the subject of good health and nutrition, good life style — especially diet and exercise — and what poor nutrition and a lousy lifestyle can bring to your life.

As a person who is living with cancer, I am most sensitive about doing whatever I can do about the way I live. Oftentimes, my expectations are greater than what reality has to offer, but I still feel that to give up the fight is an exercise in futility.

I received the attached email from a good friend of mine a few days ago that I’d like to share with you. It struck home the point that I’m trying to make — “Take Care of Yourself” — and it did so in a beautiful way.

I titled this post, “The Past Cannot Be Changed”, to catch your attention. But the point of this posting is to drive home that the future is defintely in your power.

I hope you’ll take a moment and read it.

Shortly after my breast cancer diagnosis, I read a newspaper article that quoted a study on risk factors for breast cancer. The results indicated that women who had participated in track and field events in high school had a lower risk of breast cancer as adults.

I was at an angry place in my life, so this new information only fueled my anger. I even said out loud to my husband, “What good does that do me now? It’s not like I can go back in time thirty years and join the track club!”

My husband wisely pointed out that this new information could give today’s teenage girls added incentive to participate in sports. He also said, “You’re absolutely right. You can’t go back and do what you should have done thirty years ago, nor can you undo anything you might have done that increased your risk of breast cancer. But you can change what you’re doing or not doing today and increase your chances of a better tomorrow.”

It took a while, but I worked through the anger, and now I see what I went through as an opportunity to encourage young women to participate in physical activity and maintain a healthy weight throughout their lives in order to reduce their risk of breast cancer and other life-threatening diseases and conditions.

It’s important to remember that many risk factors for cancer are unknown and many others are beyond our control, but feeling guilty about the things we’ve done, or not done, that may have increased our risk of cancer doesn’t do any good; it only wastes valuable time and makes us feel worse than we already do. On the other hand, it is important to know what those things are so that we can change the way we take care of ourselves now.

*** You can take a little walk today even if you’ve never been even remotely athletic.
*** You can improve the quality of your diet today even if you’re overweight.
*** You can stop smoking today even if you’ve smoked for years.
*** You can wear sunscreen today even if you’ve been a sun worshipper all your life.

While it’s not possible to change the past, isn’t it wonderful that we can learn from it and that we can use what we’ve learned to give ourselves and others a brighter future?
*********************************************************************************************

I got this message from Roger and Kathy Cawthon who are the founders of The Cancer Crusade. You can learn about that here: http://www.thecancercrusade.com

Have a great day and “Take Care of Yourself!”

Shanti