For those of you with an enlarged spleen,  who fly often – Do you find that your belly hurts more when you’re in the air? Prior to this summer,  I hadn’t flown much,  and my last flight was my honeymoon 2.5 years ago (at which point my spleen was definitely enlarged,  but not as enlarged as it is now). This summer I have taken several trips and I have noticed that during each flight my pain increases significantly. I’m writing this from the plane right now, and I’m feeling terrible. It gets so bad that I get dizzy and nauseated, and get very flushed. Now before someone suggests this: No.  It’s not motion sickness. I’m not prone to it at all.

I’m curious if anyone else experiences this. Maybe im just weird…well, we know I’m weird… but i mean about this specifically. My guess is it’s got something to do with cabin pressurization.

I’ll post this as soon as we land 🙂 Thanks in advance for any input/suggestions.

As always, you are your own best advocate. If you do not take care of yourself who will?

Until next time,
Lina

This has come up several times in the different message boards I have participated in over the years: Do we have cancer, or not? (Please note: the factual information in paragraph 3 was gathered for this article – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19472396?dopt=Abstract – The opinions expressed throughout, however are my own. Please feel free to leave comments with your take on this subject!)

When you look up the word “Neoplasm” on the internet (an activity during which extreme caution should ALWAYS BE EXERCISED), the first choices that come up are “NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms”, and “Characteristics of malignant neoplasms”, among others. People see “Cancer” and “malignant” and immediately get scared. Here’s the thing though…Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, MPNs, prior to 2008, were Myeloproliferative DISORDERS, or MPDs. 

What exactly happened in 2008 to so drastically change the very existence of these diseases? Well…the World Health Organization reclassified them. Yep, That’s all. In 1951 When William Damashek described the disorders; he included CML, PV, ET and PMF in the group. At this time they were classified as Disorders. In 2001 the WHO gave them a broader heading of Chronic Myeloproliferative Diseases (CMPD), and included chronic neutrophilic leukemia, chronic eosinophilic leukemia/hypereosinophilic syndrome (CEL/HES), and “CMPD, unclassifiable”. Then in 2008 the WHO reclassified things a bit again. The term CMPD was just replaced by Myeloproliferative Neoplasm, or MPN.

You didn’t suddenly go from NOT having cancer, to HAVING cancer…the disease in itself, the proliferation of cells that do not belong where they are, is the fundamental meaning of “cancer”. The very definition of cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Our little family of diseases fits pretty well in that group when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?

I like to think of it as trying to organize your sock drawer. You have white socks, black socks, red socks, blue socks, those are easy to organize. But what about the multi-colored argyle socks? Where do you put those. Or the red white and blue striped socks? Or the holiday themed socks? How do you classify things that fit so many different headings? You use broader definitions. This is just what makes sense in my goofy mind. 

I know that cancer is a scary word, but you could call it a disorder, a neoplasm, a disease, or Fred, if it makes you feel better, It will not change the fundamental nature of your disease. What matters is how you approach it. As long as you are approaching your situation assertively, and proactively, and educate yourself as well as possible, the classification of the disease shouldn’t mean much.

 As always, you are your own best advocate. If you do not take care of yourself, who will?

Until next time,

Lina

Hello there all 🙂 

Little update and a question…

Update – I’m feeling much better, still icing my backside off and on. Bruised, and sore. But feeling better. Now I’m just starting to stress out about the results of the test. But hopefully they’ll come through soon. I’ll let you know what they are as soon as I hear 🙂

Now for the question: I’m thinking about doing the Video Blog and posting to youtube. I would ask for subjects here, and then record a video and post it to my youtube channel. Would anyone have any interest in that? I would still write here for the most part, but an occasional video post might be interesting. I’ll set up a poll, but please leave a comment with your opinion, and also suggestions for a topic you’d like discussed 🙂

Thanks all!

As always, you are your own best advocate. If you do not take care of yourself, who will?

Until next time,

Lina.