I have a lot of be thankful for – I’m still here for starters!
BUT
……… here’s a list of 10 things I’m NOT thankful to Neuroendocrine Cancer for!
Thanks for growing inside me for years before making your vague announcement
Sorry too late, I’m metastatic and around 50% of patients will be at diagnosis (so I’m not alone!). It’s very SNEAKY!
No thanks for making a right mess inside my body!
I mean, I look really good, I look really well, but you should see my INSIDES and the little suckers tend to come back and haunt you.
No thanks for screwing up some of my hormones
There are many hormones involved with Neuroendocrine Cancer which is unique in that different types can result in elevated levels of different hormones, often more than one is involved. Serotonin has caused fibrosisin my retroperitoneal area and is currently threatening important vessels. I don’t really need that right now!
No thanks for the ongoing symptoms and side effects
I was showing symptoms of a Neuroendocrine Cancer syndrome known as Carcinoid Syndrome (currently) such as flushing and diarrhea and fatigue was probably there too, but these were thought to be something else or ignored (by me). I don’t suffer too much nowadays other than side effects of the disease or the treatment I’ve had or receiving. However, I know from speaking to many patients the effects of the various syndromes associated with Neuroendocrine Cancer can be pretty debilitating and oppressive to quality of life.
These syndromes can be so strange and so weird, they can be very difficult for patients, nurses and doctors to treat. They can be a real ‘witch’s brew’.
Another pill for life. I have a left-sided thyroid lesion and my treatment also messes with my hormone levels.
No thanks for increasing my diabetes risk
No thanks for pushing me into pre-diabetes. My blood sugar is spiking, most likely due to treatment.
No thanks for making me retire early
I loved my job but not if it was going to kill me. I made my own decision based on how I could survive in a financial sense. Made easier as I was only 8 years from retirement but I guess I’m one of the lucky ones despite the fact I took a big hit on the income going into my bank account.
The truth is that many people still need to work whilst struggling with side effects of the cancer and its treatment. Getting some form of financial assistance from the government is not a done deal.
Neuroendocrine Cancer is a very expensive disease to treat.
This is fast becoming a big issue regardless of country and regardless of healthcare system in place. However, in privately funded healthcare, it can be exacerbated by the level of insurance cover. Read more about financial toxicity for cancer patients which is a growing problem worldwide.
……….. and no thanks to anyone who says it’s a “good cancer“
I campaign hard for Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness including continually pointing out that a Neuroendocrine Cancer with a pancreatic primary is NOT Pancreatic Cancer as is often quoted in the press. The two main reasons I take up these campaigns are as follows:
1. They are totally different cancers despite an anatomical relationship. Although they share some similar presentation, they have different signs, different treatments and vastly different prognostic outcomes. What that means is that anyone who is looking for useful information on either needs to be very careful on interpretation, they could end up with very bad advice and in some situations, become more concerned than they should be (particularly with the prognostics). See more below.
2. These two different cancer types have different awareness organisations, patient support groups and patient leaders/advocates. In most cases, vastly different awareness messages. Both of these organisations and advocates need all the help they can get, they need all the resources and funding they can get.
Both Pancreatic Cancer and Neuroendocrine Cancer are diseases that need maximum publicity, both disease types have their own unique situations, thus why the awareness messages can be so vastly different. It’s really important, therefore, that publicity surrounding famous patients be attributed to the correct cancer type in order that the advocate organisations and supporters can gain maximum benefit to forward their causes. Unfortunately, thanks to doctors and media, this very often doesn’t work out in favour of Neuroendocrine Cancer due to the Human Anatomy of Neuroendocrine Cancer (this problem actually goes beyond the pancreas).
Where the press and doctors regularly get it wrong
Two famous people in particular, one in 2011 and the other this year, are regularly reported in the press as having died of Pancreatic Cancer.
Steve Jobs. One of the most famous technical innovators of his time and creator of the most valuable company in the world. He had a Neuroendocrine Cancer with a pancreatic primary. Read his story here.
Aretha Franklin. One of the most famous soul singers of her time. She had a Neuroendocrine Cancer with a pancreatic primary. Read her story here.
For me, one of the two main differences are the cell type. When people talk about Pancreatic Cancer, they really mean something known as “Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma”. It starts in the exocrine cells, which produce enzymes to support digestion. Neuroendocrine Tumors start in the endocrine cells which produce hormones.
For me, the other big difference is prognostics. Unfortunately, it is statistically proven that most people with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma will die, whereas most people with Neuroendocrine Tumors with a pancreatic primary will live.
For a more detailed comparison, see this excellent article from NET Research Foundation.
Pancreatic Cancer – Why I support their campaigns
Personally speaking, as a healthcare advocate online, I do support many cancer awareness campaigns, I think this is important to get similar help coming the other way (this frequently works for me). However, I very much suspect, other than Neuroendocrine Cancer, my biggest support area online is for Pancreatic Cancer. I’m drawn by their excellent campaigns where they focus on key messages of prognostics for what is essentially a silent disease (in many ways the same issue with Neuroendocrine Cancer) and they make these more compelling by focusing on people rather than gimmicks. The prognostics can be upsetting reading as they are quite shocking figures which have not changed much in the past 40 years, a key sign that more must be done for this awful disease. I frequently share this symptom graphic below because it might save a life and I ask that you do too.
1. The annual NANETS symposium took place last month and I constructed an article of several important outputs. One day I might make it there, been to ENETS twice. Would love to attend UKINETS but they don’t seem very ‘patient’ friendly.
2. I spoke alongside IPSEN Pharma SAS (Global HQ) at the annual Eye for Pharma Patient Summit. It was an honour and a privilege to stand in front of 200 people to tell my personal story plus my involvement in LivingWithNETs.com. The audience was a mix of the Pharmaceutical industry, Healthcare industry and Patient Advocates from many different illnesses. A fantastic and real awareness opportunity which is part of my promise to take NET awareness to new audiences rather than just share stuff between NET patients and advocates.
the best kind of story – a 2 legged one
3. I’m still reeling from winning the 2018 WEGO Blog Award and if you missed the live announcement, you can listen to the quite short video clip here.
Personal NET News
My NET. I still await the output from a meeting with my Oncologist and Surgeon to address the new issues identified my routine surveillance scan and a subsequent Ga68 PET/CT. Fortunately the issues are not classed as urgent at this stage. They have dismissed PRRT as an option at this stage (kept in reserve) and it looks like surgery might be on the cards. You can read about my Ga68 PET/CT experience here and my fibrosis issues here.
Looking for Advice?
If you are reading this and you are currently undiagnosed but strongly suspect NETs – this article might help.
If you are diagnosed and looking for a NET Specialist and the sort of questions to ask – this article will help.
Blog Site Activity in September
Due to the vagaries of Facebook inner workings, some of these articles created or updated in the last month may not have even shown on your timeline. So, ICYMI …….here’s a summary with links, includes updated blogs. You can actually sign up to receive my blog articles direct to your inbox when published – subscribe here.
Living with Cancer – Worrier or Warrior ? worry and anxiety is common with cancer patients but can you worry too much to the point it is counter productive? Even warriors can worry.
There were many distractions in October 2018, I was very busy with Ipsen speaker stuff plus a holiday in Scotland but still managed over 32,000 views, the third biggest monthly figure. Here are the top 10 most read articles which contributed to last month’s figures:
I’m constantly looking for opportunities to spread awareness and advance the cause of Neuroendocrine Cancer patients. Thank you all so much for the support in helping me do this.
Please join my 2018 (but perpetual) awareness campaign event here (select ‘Going’)
I continue to receive a steady flow of private contacts, mainly from patients seeking information. I don’t have an issue with private contact but please note my disclaimer
Please also note that due to sheer numbers of requests, I cannot accept telephone or video calls on a one to one basis. Please just message me and I will respond – see “Send Message” button when you CLICK HERE. (also please ‘Like’ this page if you have not already done so). On a personal note, please do not send me friend requests on my personal Facebook page, I get so many and want to keep this little area of ‘sanity’ free of NET stuff. I have so many other sites you can contact me on – all inside the newsletter. The number of non-patients contacting me for other reasons (mainly to help with something) continues to grow and this is producing some great publicity and awareness.
Ronny Allan’s Private Facebook Group
As the number of people contacting me has increased so much, it’s becoming very difficult to answer all questions myself. I’ve therefore set up a chat room here (I’m not the only one who can answer questions!). This is not like many forums, it’s a place to make people feel safe and to discuss without many of the other distractions that can be found on forums and is moderated accordingly. I welcome all types of NET, people from any country and I also welcome carers/caregivers and medical people. It’s also a place where I will bring in expertise to chat about various issues. The first online chat was held on 28 Feb about the problems NET patients can have with being unable to produce sufficient digestive enzymes and the treatment to correct this issue PERT (Creon etc). The second chat will be about “Weight” and you can join the event by selecting ‘Going’ to this event (you will be kept up to date inside this event). Join the chat group by clicking here (please answer the simple questions so you can be processed quicker). As at 31st October 2018, there were almost 2000 people in the group.
New Audiences for NET Cancer
I said it was my aim to find new audiences for NETs rather than just share stuff within our own community. Sharing memes and animal pictures between patients is not my scene – I want to extend awareness much wider than that and with much wider and compelling messages, particularly to the outside world. Doing that is a way to ensure we move away from being a niche condition that no-one has heard of. I’m doing this all the time, although it may not always be apparent.
Engagements and Invites
I spoke at the Eye for Pharma event in London alongside an important Pharma NET contact. See above.
I just received an invite to help build an educational tool for NETs. More to follow when I am at liberty to tell you.
I’ve accepted an appointment to the Strategic Advisory Board on MultiMed Inc the owner of Cancer Knowledge Network based in Canada who have featured my articles in the past (https://cancerkn.com/) – They also publishes a magazine called Current Oncology which is Medline listed. This is not a NET site but my inclusion will no doubt raise the profile for us. Read more here.
Cure Magazine. I’ve been accepted as a ‘Cure Today’ contributor which means my articles will get a wider distribution than they do now. Cure Magazine has a readership of 1 million. Click here to read more. In October, I was featured in Cure Magazine twice.
“Cancer isn’t all about me”“Poker Face or Cancer Card”
Twitter. I’m ‘extremely’ active on twitter and I find a lot of research stuff there, in addition to new audiences. I also use it to support other conditions and it’s mostly returned (i.e. others help with NET awareness and are made aware of NETs in the process). There are people regularly retweeting my stuff who do not have a personal interest in NETs and I am now regularly copied in on many tweets by those wishing to use my account as a vehicle for dissemination. In the last month, I tweeted 190 times on my personal account which led to over 117,000 views of my tweets. I was mentioned 134 times by other tweeters, 1524 people looked at my profile (where it mentions NETs) and I gained 50 new followers. My tweet “Ignore this post” remains the most tweeted article about NETs ever posted on twitter. Check it out – click here.
WANT TO JOIN MY TWITTER ARMY? Just ask.
Daily Newsletter from my twitter feed (Nuzzel). There is so much on twitter that I could swamp the community Facebook site so I started a twitter newsletter via an app called Nuzzel which seeks out stuff I normally like. This has been a huge success from my point of view resulting in an increase in blog hits and to a wider population than just NETs. Click this link and sign up if you think this is something you’d be interested in receiving – you don’t need to have a twitter account to read, just sign up with an email to join over 630 other subscribers.
WEGO. I continue to be featured by ‘external’ organisations such as WEGO and my PODCAST is reaching new audiences – click here. In March, I managed to get into a very well contested short list for an article about the use of Facebook for health communities in light of the recent bad press for the service. The recent awards will continue to showcase my work which has the effect of spreading Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness to NEW audiences in addition to enriching my experience as a Patient Leader. WEGO is a fantastic organisation! They recently listed me as one of the top 5 bloggers to watch in 2018. This is great awareness and good feedback for my own efforts. Read more here. I have made the finals in the last 3 years and I was their winner in the 2016 Best in Show: Community and 2018 Best in Show: Blog announced on 26 Sep 2018. Check out my WEGO Health profile here.
Click the picture to watch the video of the live announcements
Social Media and Stats
Blog Milestone. At the end of last month, I accelerated past 741,000 blog views! Thank you all so much ♥ Keep sharing! On track for one million in the latter half of 2019.
Facebook Milestone. Almost 7000 ‘Likes’ by the end of the end of last month but my projected numbers are down so far in 2018 (despite a 20% increase in blog hits). The Facebook page is now my biggest outlet for awareness and education so please recommend this page to anyone you think would be interested. There are buttons to share the page and invite others to ‘Like’ it.
Also check out my sister Facebook sites here (go to these pages and click on ‘Like’)
These are fallback sites to counter the Facebook algorithm whereby you may not see all my posts on the main site (click on the links to see the pages)
I’m expanding into Instagram to see how that goes. I’ve amassed over 300 followers to date. Initially, I’ll just be posting pictures of things that inspire me, mostly scenic photos of places I’ve been or want to go! I really enjoy these pictures, I hope you do too. You can follow me here: Click here to go to my Instagram page
Community Statistics (the measurement of my efforts on your behalf)
Figures
Facebook: 6981. This is a key outlet for my blog – pleaseencourage others to like my page (if you’d like to know how to use your Facebook to invite others to my page – let me know, I can provide you with a step by step approach).
Most blog views in one day: 4453 on 16 August 2018. Why the spike? ….. “Aretha Franklin”
Most blog views in one week: 14,830 in August 2018. Why the spike? ….. mainly “Aretha Franklin”
Most blog views in one month: 38,275 in August 2018. Why the spike? …..“Aretha Franklin”
Summary
An amazing amount of awareness and hopefully, support for others. However, I cannot do this without you guys liking, commenting and sharing! The likes give me motivation, the comments and private messages give me inspiration or at least a chance to explain further – and they also keep me humble. The sharing gives me a bigger platform. A bigger platform generates more awareness.
Thanks for your great support in last month. Onward and upwards!
No thanks for screwing up some of my hormones
