30Sep 2014 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments
Living with an incurable cancer – does mind over matter help?

Living with an incurable cancer – does mind over matter help?

Inspiration, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship
When I started blogging in 2014, it was relatively easy - all I needed to do was to talk about my experience to help raise awareness of Neuroendocrine Cancer; then talk about my hike along Hadrian's Wall for a local Charity.  The blog was only ever intended to be a temporary supporting tool for the walk and its build up; but I was persuaded by good reviews and viewing numbers to keep it going.  That suddenly made it more difficult! In my early blogs, there were several 'no go areas' which were either too complex or potentially controversial.  I didn't really have much time to think them through properly at that point in time. However, I've since dabbled in some of these areas to test the waters.   I'm not a healthcare…
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24Sep 2014 by Ronny Allan 6 Comments

Passive patient or active advocate?

General
Sorry to have been quiet for a while but I've been so busy with house, family and cancer campaigning activities.  Additionally, I've been continuing my research into Neuroendocrine Cancer.  Why do I do this?  Whilst I have a great medical team, I'd also like to be my own advocate and this means understanding what medical people tell me! Moreover, I don't want to be a passive patient, I want to be an active advocate for my own health.  I found this infographic on the internet which sums up my own views nicely (special thanks to Know your Own Health Ltd). [caption id="attachment_1938" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Passive vs Activated Patient[/caption] I actually enjoy researching neuroendocrine disease and I'd like to think it was all in one book somewhere - this simply isn't…
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06Sep 2014 by Ronny Allan No Comments

No flushes please!

General
[caption id="attachment_1893" align="alignnone" width="640"] No flushes please![/caption] Despite people's expectations, diagnosing Cancer isn't a two minute job. There is a whole host of stuff to consider and medical staff clearly want to get it 100% correct in order to plan and manage the patient's treatment. I wrote a blog on 26 July "celebrating" 4 years since diagnosis - it's worth a read, check it out at this link here: http://wp.me/p4AplF-c Continuing with the 'four years on' theme, 4 years today I started my first treatment. That was a full 6 weeks after diagnosis. I think many people might expect a quicker execution of treatment. However, I cannot remember becoming impatient, albeit mine was to be palliative/cyto reductive (tumour debulking) rather than curative. I did have a 3 day Octreotide Scan…
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03Sep 2014 by Ronny Allan 3 Comments

Childhood Neuroendocrine Cancer – 1 in 7 million!

General
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!  The newspapers and social media will no doubt be featuring many child cancer articles and I notice the UK's top soap Coronation Street is already featuring such a story. I personally cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to be a parent who has a child with cancer. I would just hope my child would be placed into the care and safe custody of experienced medical teams and would be able to get access to the best treatments available.  I don't know that much about Childhood cancers but the Cancer Research UK site has a nice summary on this page.  You will note that over half of childhood cancers are either Acute Leukaemias or Brain Cancer. I do know a lot about Neuroendocrine Cancer…
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