Awareness Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

03Nov 2014 by Ronny Allan 32 Comments

The Human Anatomy of Neuroendocrine Cancer

Awareness

OPINION. Sometimes when I'm searching for cancer information, I'm presented with a 'pick-list' of types which mostly tend to be anatomy based. I do find it annoying when I cannot find my own cancer on the list .....some respectable organisations are just not as up to date as they should be! I can now totally understand why so many Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) patients have become their own advocates and why they have to shout quite loud for recognition and understanding. One of the key facets of NETs is that it is not tied to a particular part of the human anatomy. Unlike (say) lung cancer, where the primary is in the lung, or breast cancer where the primary can be found in the breast, neuroendocrine tumours arise from a cell type which can be present more or less…

27Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan 11 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – shh! Can you hear it? (…..I didn’t)

Awareness, Patient Advocacy

[caption id="attachment_4472" align="aligncenter" width="550"] shh! - can you hear it? I didn't.[/caption] 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…

16Oct 2014 by Ronny Allan 12 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – Horrible Hormones

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Technical NETs

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 ........like a lot of other things in life I suppose! The presence of over-secreting hormones (often called peptides throughout) is useful to aid diagnosis albeit it often (but not always) means the tumours have metastasized. It's also a frequent indication that the person has an associated NET syndrome. This is a really complex area and to understand the hormone problems associated with Neuroendocrine Cancer, you need to have a basic knowledge of the endocrine and neuroendocrine systems. I've no intention…

26Aug 2014 by Ronny Allan 2 Comments

If your Doctors don’t suspect something, they won’t detect anything!

Awareness, Patient Advocacy

Opinion: One of the most discussed and debated Cancer issues is late diagnosis. Cyberspace is full of disturbing stories and many different cancers are involved. Some cancers are much more difficult to diagnose than others and this increases the need for more awareness and education campaigns. Under-diagnosed or Under-reported? Like many other Cancers, Neuroendocrine Cancer (known as Neuroendocrine Tumors or NETs) is one of a number of 'difficult to diagnose' conditions with some of its variants more difficult than others. It's a less common form of cancer but with a fast rising incidence rate, possibly the fastest rising incidence rate of all cancers. In fact, its fast rising incidence rate has been a positive in some ways, contributing to awareness and the introduction of new treatments. In some respects, the incidence rate increase is due to people knowing more…

12Jun 2014 by Ronny Allan No Comments

My stomach sometimes cramps my style

Awareness, Diet and Nutrition, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship

[caption id="attachment_13469" align="alignnone" width="720"] Seriously![/caption] When planning to walk Hadrian's Wall in the north of England in 2014, I carried out a number of risk assessments (as all good Project Managers do!). In true 'Donald Rumsfeld style', I considered all the 'known unknowns' and the 'unknown unknowns' :-) Anybody who doesn't is either reckless or supremely confident (the latter can sometimes be the same as the former......). As a Cancer patient, there were some issues I had to consider which might not have made the list for most walkers covering this sort of distance and this type of terrain. One of the issues I occasionally experience is stomach cramps, not that frequent but problematic and quite painful when they occur. If you've had abdominal surgery, you might be having to deal…

31May 2014 by Ronny Allan 4 Comments

Hadrian’s Wall Day 6 – Mission Complete!

Awareness, Inspiration, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer

[caption id="attachment_1144" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Sunset over the Solway Firth (Scotland in the distance)[/caption] The final leg of the walk took us from beautiful Carlisle to the remote coast of North Cumbria at Bowness-on-Solway. We are staying there tonight before beginning our journey home tomorrow (via Newcastle). Amazingly our digs have a wicked view of the Scottish coastline and the setting sun - see picture above which was taken from our room. It was pretty surreal to have finished 6 days of torturous walking but also to be able to look at such a wonderful view of the country in which I was born. Some people say final leg of the walk is pretty boring but Chris and I disagree. Yes it's flat but the first half is a wonderful…

22May 2014 by Ronny Allan 1 Comment

My blog goes International!

Awareness, Patient Advocacy

One of the most interesting statistics in my blog app is the total number of views recorded each day. It even breaks the total down into which posts were most viewed and which countries the viewers were from (but please note it does not identify the name or any other details of viewers). I'm always very pleased to have readers from overseas locations - I hope they enjoy reading my blog and find it useful. To date, these include readers from USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Barbados, Belize, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, UAE, Bahrain, Philippines, Nigeria, Kenya, Croatia, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Czech Republic. Neuroendocrine Cancer is not unique to UK, it's an International disease. If you research, you will find Neuroendocrine Support groups in most countries. There…

20May 2014 by Ronny Allan 1 Comment

Diagnostic Challenges

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Treatment

I was checking my statistics this morning and found the most viewed post to date was published on the day Stephen Sutton passed away. I didn't really want to jump onto the Stephen Sutton bandwagon but when I found on the day of his passing that it had taken 6 months to diagnose his bowel cancer, I knew this would be relevant to Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness, particularly important as it's one of the primary aims of my blog. I'm thinking the top viewing score to date is not because it mentioned Stephen Sutton (sad as that event was) but because the issues he faced are well known to Neuroendocrine Cancer patients, many of whom are readers. In the past week, the newspapers have published several follow up articles on…

17May 2014 by Ronny Allan 1 Comment

Dr Google will see you now

Awareness, Humour, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship

Whenever I need to know anything nowadays, I mostly just look on the internet and sometimes I ask my virtual PA 'Alexa' to look for me! However, you need to be very careful in acceptance of what is credible information and what isn't. As a relatively experienced health blogger and activist, I like to think of myself as 'internet savvy', so I occasionally find myself using 'Dr Google' to diagnose my aches, pains and unusual feelings (and I confess to using it to help others). I mostly find there are no real or definitive answers online for patient issues. Although I seem to learn something on each piece of research, I also find some really worrying stuff. Some symptoms can have dozens of reasons and I often realise how…

04May 2014 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments

Diagnosis – I’m no longer in control

Awareness, Survivorship

[caption id="attachment_10806" align="alignnone" width="777"] back in control?[/caption] 'Diagnosis'. The dreaded moment when you're looking at an Oncologist and waiting to be given some news. I'd been to a routine annual Asthma clinic, referred to my GP, referred to a specialist, had a bunch of tests and now referred to an Oncologist. Rewind 2 months to May 2010...... I was happily working, getting stuff done, making things work. I had sufficient autonomy and freedom of manoeuvre. I felt in control. I'm happy as a pig in the proverbial! My annual Asthma clinic comes along and it's an opportunity to work at home for the day....yahoo - no commuting! "Hi Ronny" - "Hi Liz". Blah Blah Blah. However, glad Liz was taking it seriously - I just wanted to get back to my laptop,…