26Feb 2015 by Ronny Allan No Comments
Do you suffer from NET Brain?

Do you suffer from NET Brain?

Awareness, Humour
The acronym 'NET' (NeuroEndocrine Tumour) can be advantageous to NET advocates and organisations because it occasionally attracts readership from outside the Cancer community when links are accidentally found by 'surfers'.NET just also happens to be a common truncation of the word 'Internet' or 'Network'.  The vast majority will realise the irrelevance (to them) and move on but 1 or 2 might just hang around and take a look.  Bingo - we have spread a little bit of awareness!However, these unintended awareness opportunities are not confined to 'NET'.  According to my blog statistics, other than my name, the most common search phrase which leads to my blog is "No Fear" - the title of one of two blogs I wrote on so-called 'scanxiety'.  However, I suspect many surfers, base jumpers, bungee jumpers, climbers, extreme sport types and those looking for…
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24Feb 2015 by Ronny Allan 10 Comments
Surgery for NETs – Chop Chop

Surgery for NETs – Chop Chop

Treatment
At the end of 2014, I was feeling pretty good celebrating 4 years since my first 'big' surgery in 2010. It prompted me to write an article Surgery - the gift that keeps on giving. In that particlar article, I really just wanted to say I was grateful for the early surgical treatment and as I was just about to spend another Christmas with my family, I was reminiscing what a wonderful gift it was at the time. Other than some detail of the surgery, I didn't get too technical, I just wanted to generate a thankful and festive mood. However, a recent private message from a subscriber prompted me to study the current benefits of surgery for Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) in more detail just to ensure my understanding was still in line with best practice. …
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17Feb 2015 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments
Colonoscopy Comedy

Colonoscopy Comedy

Humour, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on pinterest Pinterest Share on whatsapp WhatsApp Share on email Email Last year I wrote a series of articles on the 'coping' side of cancer, one of which was about still being able to have a laugh. This was my way of saying no matter how tough life is, you need to stay positive and maintain your sense of humour. When I think back to some of the treatments I've had, I sometimes have a little laugh even although I wasn't laughing at the time! My favourite 'treatment laugh' is the 'suppository story' which occurred in hospital shortly after my first major surgery - it wasn't funny at the time but I smile when I think back to it. On a…
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10Feb 2015 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Turning a negative into a postive

General
[caption id="attachment_2625" align="alignleft" width="400"] Lung Cancer Breathalyser[/caption] Interesting piece in the news today and there's an amazing story behind it.  The "Lung Cancer Breathalyser" is not a new technology but following the death of his wife from advanced colon cancer, inventor Billy Boyle has produced something good enough to have been accepted on a trial basis by the NHS. If successful, it has the potential to save thousands of lives. Lung Cancer is a big killer and the survival rate at Stage 4 is around 5%. Let's hope this invention works. When I was reading the article, I immediately recognised his wife as a blogger I was following and who died on Christmas day after fighting advanced colon cancer for 2 years.  Her final and penultimate blogs are very inspiring and worth reading. Her…
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03Feb 2015 by Ronny Allan 25 Comments

Lanreotide – Four more years

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship
This post has been superseded by the following: Lanreotide: it's calling the shots - click here. Lanreotide:  10 more years please! - click here. Lanreotide vs Octreotide - click here. Original post: The UK general election steps up a gear this month and social media is playing a huge part in the debate leading up to 7 May 2015.  In the USA, the different parties are busily working on their candidates ready for 2016. It appears that politicians worldwide, are keen to exploit all areas of communication to eke out votes from the young and old who now use social media on a scale which makes 4 or 5 years ago look prehistoric. In 2012, Barack Obama's 'four more years' tweet was the biggest retweeted post ever up to that point after he thanked his 22 million…
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