Neuroendocrine Cancer – it can be ‘smoke and mirrors’

In a previous life, I used the term ‘smoke and mirrors’ quite a bit.  I was used to dealing with many different types of people, some who wanted something, some who wanted to buy or sell something. Most of the time it was overt but the devil was usually in the detail.  Sometimes there was an element of ‘covertness’ or a ‘hidden agenda’.  It was always tricky working out the details of the hidden agenda and sometimes it was only known when it was too late.  Some of you will already be seeing where I’m going with this line of thinking – if so, you worked out my hidden agenda!

‘Smoke and Mirrors’ is basically a term connected to the art of deception, a con trick, a way in through confusion and trickery (think magicians on TV!). 

Whilst certain cancers can appear with precise symptoms and leave you under no illusion what you’re facing, others can be a bit more circumspect – Neuroendocrine Cancer can be one of those.  It will fool you into thinking you’re not even ill and even when it puts its head above the parapet, this can come over as a routine illness and/or vague symptoms which will deceive both you and your physicians.   Thus why awareness is really important.  I won’t repeat my key messages but you can find them here in my blog entitled “Neuroendocrine Cancer can be silent – but it doesn’t mean we should be” – the more these posts and ones like it are shared, the quicker we can discover the hidden agenda. 

I have another hidden agenda!  I was inspired to write this post by my friend and blogger Shannon – she writes a blog called ‘A tale of two tumours’.  I really like this blog because there are no hidden agendas, what you see is what you get and she has catchy titles.  I also like Shannon because she has a great attitude despite the fact that she is probably still looking for the ‘hidden agenda’ or at least bits of it (then again perhaps we all are?).

Shannon has one of the uncommon variants of our disease, one of those tricky cases it would seem.  Her issues started some time ago and she was eventually diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease (see my Syndrome blog).  She has previous issues with pituitary, parathyroid and recently diagnosed with a Thymic NET.  She believes there is a potential connection with MEN1 (see my blog Running in the Family) but this is currently dismissed by her physicians.

There is potentially a new problem outlined in her latest blog which inspired me to write this post.  She has a very strange symptom in that she can smell smoke despite there not being any smoke and this happens in different locations.  Her latest blog is her story about this symptom and what happened next.  Excuse the language but I would be frustrated too!  Read the blog ‘Where there is smoke …..’ by ‘clicking here’.

I wish Shannon well and hope she gets some answers – no more tumours please.  You are a survivor!

Thanks for listening

Ronny

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