27Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan 11 Comments
Detective Doctors

Detective Doctors

Awareness
Share this post please The sooner any cancer can be correctly diagnosed, the better chances of a curative scenario for the person concerned.  However, some cancers are in the 'difficult to diagnose' category.  Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) are in this category due to the vague symptoms which may be mistaken for other diseases and routine illnesses. This is one of the reasons there have been many lengthy diagnostic delays.  In many cases, it can be very quiet leading to incidental diagnosis at an advanced stage. It's SNEAKY! In some cases, it can be a little bit noisy. For example, some of the most common misdiagnoses appears to be Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), asthma, or menopause.  Patients complain of abdominal pain, wheezing, shortness of breath, diarrhea, flushing, palpitations and a whole host of other minor issues.  There are…
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20Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Awareness, Awareness, Awareness

General
When Tony Blair swept to power in 1997, he said:  "Ask me my three main priorities for government and I tell you education, education, and education".  His approach of repeated word emphasis has been copied and recycled by many others replacing the words with something to suit their own message.  I'm now guilty of similar plagiarism! One of the key aims of my blog is to spread awareness of Neuroendocrine Cancer and I'm very pleased to be part of the 'worldwide team' doing my bit to help. I started blogging in Apr this year mainly to support a sponsored walk but it has turned into something more permanent.  I start to twitch if I haven't blogged for more than a week :-)  I'm now fast approaching my first 10,000 hits which is…
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16Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments
Neuroendocrine Cancer – Horrible Hormones

Neuroendocrine Cancer – Horrible Hormones

Patient Advocacy
Hormonal imbalances are quite common in many conditions including day to day stuff. With Neuroendocrine Cancer, it can be a real challenge both at diagnostic and maintenance phases.  In addition to the cancer angle, there's some strange stuff going on, inexplicable, frightening for the patient, an unwanted ingredient causing chaos!Until I was diagnosed with metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, I didn't have a clue about hormones - it's one of those things you just take for granted. However, hormones are vital to human health (male and female) and it's only when things go wrong you suddenly appreciate how important they are.  Hormones are involved in many conditions, not just an issue with Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) but the presence of over-secreting hormones (often called peptides throughout) is useful to aid a diagnosis, albeit…
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06Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan No Comments

A Commitment to Fight Cancer

General
[caption id="attachment_1992" align="alignnone" width="640"] Steve Davis and the Author[/caption] I was a spectator at the Bournemouth marathon on Sunday 5 Oct 2014.  I was there to shout for my old army friend, Steve Davis, who was running 26.2 miles for PLANETS Charity.  When Steve found out I was living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, he immediately volunteered his services to help raise funds. Steve is a runner but when you are '50 something', running a marathon is no easy feat - not easy on your feet either :-) I had seen excerpts of marathons on television but this was my first time as a spectator at a live event.  One thing that struck me was the sheer number of people who were running for good causes. The usual big names were there (Cancer…
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