So, I had stage 4 lymphoma back in 2018. I was told I had no chance of beating cancer. I did 6 rounds of RCHOP chemotherapy.

I went into remission in Jan 19th, 2019. I’ve been in remission since. However, the side effects of cancer and chemo keep following me like an insane Ex.

3 years ago, my bottom teeth began, essentially melting. Breaking over the softest thing. Like, no joke, one tooth broke from a fucking marshmallow. Anyways.

I went to the oral surgeon and had to pay 22,000 dollars. That was for the teeth removal, and getting implants put in so I could have magnetic dentures. Which I had to pay another 6,000 dollars for.

Now, for the last…..Christ…8 months, my top teeth have been breaking. I would have done the surgery back in Jan/feb/march/may, but I didn’t have the money. I’ve been trying to raise it but…..let’s just say people have been less than helpful or understanding.

After finally getting enough money, tomorrow at 10am, I go into surgery to get all my top teeth removed. However, due to not having enough money, I have to wait to get implants, which really sucks.

This all stresses me out because of just how much pain I’m in, have been in, and how horribly I was treated when I had my bottom teeth removed. My surgeon at the time actually accused me of doing cocaine. I even managed to get dry socket in nearly every fucking tooth hole. It was hell.

After a lot of begging and paying for several X-rays, he finally gave me some. He gave me 30 T3s. If you don’t know what that is. It’s Tylenol that has codeine. They are not the best for real pain. After he gave me them, he then lectured me about how I’m a drug addicted and in his 15+ years of being an oral surgeon he has never given away “such an extreme dose”.

Then, about 3 weeks or so later, I had to go back to him for him to cut my gums and reveal my implants. He literally used ZERO numbing. He too a scalpel, cut my gums, sewed them tightly around the implants and basically told me to go fuck myself.

Because of that entire experience, the nonlogical part of my brain and my emotions just won’t stop playing “worst case scenario”.

And that’s despite knowing that my new oral surgeon is like, the head oral surgeon in my province. I’m in fantastic hands. But it’s just I’ve been in so much pain, I was treated so badly, because I can’t really chew right now, I’ve eaten a ridiculous amount of canned tuna, that I mix with my own personal sauce.

I am just so fucking mentally exhausted. I feel so fucking worthless. Like I’m just this piece of shit burden. And yes. Logically I know I’m not and all that. But no one’s brain works 100% on logic and reason.

I don’t even know why I’m writing this. I know most don’t care. I just….i….dont know. I need a break from my body.

hey all, my (24F) friend & housemate (22F) recently got diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing her first round of chemo today. i know i cant really do anything to help her in the ways i wish i could, but i want to get her a little care package of things that ACTUALLY will be useful and comforting that you wouldnt generally think of.

im getting a cozy blanket for her to take to appointments and am going to bedazzle a throw-up bucket for her (i know she'll love this), but im looking for other suggestions.

also, this is the first person close to me to be diagnosed, and we live together. i want to be as supportive as possible especially since we literally live together and i know i will become a bit more of a caregiver than most friends. I just want this to be as easy as it can for her.

thank you all so much in advance.

Can anyone give me advice on how to process the finality of this diagnosis and move forward. Right now it’s a mental block.

Hi everyone 👋

This is my first post here and im not quite sure how to approach the cancer I was diagnosed with last month, leading up till today... well here goes.

Last month I was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer (Basal Cell Adenoma) making contact with the skull base and eroding bone at the skull base. Fast forward to now and it has metastasized, moving from the skull based tumor down to my lungs and is in my blood. This cancer is so rare that no study has been done on this and current treatments such as chemo, blockers, and white blood cell boosters show no positive response. The probability of this cancer is somewhere around .02% im a 34 y/o male and am in decent condition. Thats all I have to cling on to in hopes of my body successfully fighting the cancer other than a surgery to remove the skull base tumor. Radiation was opted out for the lungs since they cant do a broad area (both of my lungs) I was told radiation is like a spot weld and not a flamethrower.

This is the second time I've has this cancer, 1st was in the parotid gland and was removed only to go unnoticed for 6 year as it slowly grows back in the same area, though my sinuses, and now is touching my skull. What im most angry and san about is that after my first surgery and radiation treatment I was never told to touch base with my oncologist by anyone. I was told to get regular checkups by primary care provider. This led to the tumor going unnoticed for years while it grew back. So this is what im doing here and some of the questions I hope to have answered.

1) Is there an institution i can call after the tumor on my skull is removed to have tests done in hopes they find a medication that works on it?

2) Should I try legal action for malpractice? ( I figured if im going to die from this i mind as well leave my wife and kids something to help out since I am the soul provider for the household)

3) How do I tell my 7 year old son and 4 year old daughter im most likely going to die? I take one look at them and my heart breaks instantly. Nothing could ever make me want to hurt them that badly.

Hey guys,
I have 2 brain tumours that I’ve been told are life limiting. This information is a lot to carry on its own but I thought I was doing well with it.
I found out yesterday that somebody I knew died in a drunk driving accident that evening, we weren’t close or anything but I feel really sick and in some ways angry.
I was on a night out with my friends and I tried to hold it together but I had to leave early because it was too much for me. I’m not one to cry very often and I usually keep my emotions to myself but as soon as I got home I broke down crying about all of my issues to my mum which I’ve never done before. I guess it took a crisis for me to realise I need professional help with everything I’ve been bottling up.
I’ve been referred to some charities and as I’m still a teenager I can get free counselling from them but I don’t really know the logistics of it. I’m in the UK so it would have to be a charity based here but are there any services available which would be able to speak about issues I’m having alongside my prognosis? If so how would I request this service.
Would also like to ask if anyone has had experiences with charity counselling and if it’s worth it to use that or just go to private therapy

Hi everyone, I’m posting because my family is really overwhelmed and I wanted to see if anyone has gone through something similar.

My dad is 62 and has had hepatitis for about 30 years, which led to cirrhosis. About a year ago he was diagnosed with HCC liver cancer. It started as a few small tumors, but later involved the left portal vein.

He completed 15 sessions of radiation about 2 months ago. Afterward, he had horrible fatigue and severe abdominal bloating, but they said there wasn’t enough fluid to drain.
About a month ago, his labs suddenly got much worse. His bilirubin went up to 7.5, AFP went from around 150 to 1,200, his liver enzymes increased and his jaundice became much more noticeable.

His recent MRI/CT says he has a left portal vein thrombus extending into the right portal vein, but we still haven’t gotten a clear answer on whether it’s tumor thrombus or a regular blood clot. The doctors haven’t been very clear with us, which has made everything even more stressful.

They’re now talking about immunotherapy, but we’re scared because his liver function already seems so poor and we don’t know if treatment could make it worse.

Has anyone dealt with HCC with portal vein involvement and high bilirubin like this? Did you or your family member still receive immunotherapy? How did doctors determine whether the thrombus was tumor or a blood clot?

my mother has had stage 4 appendix cancer for 4 years now. she’s my only parent and i’m a 20 year old immigrant in the united states acting as her caregiver. her prognosis is that she will likely pass within the next 3 months. i don’t have any access to financial support or any family support so I was wondering about any sort of support groups or help groups for young care givers in america, as well as any financial resources to continue paying bills and for her care as most of her income goes towards treatments and medical care. she currently is working full time and has 2-3 appointments a day. i don’t have any work authorization in america since i am ineligible on my visa, so as much as I would love to support financially i don’t have the ability to.

I stopped treatment for a while and am now starting again —

Has anyone split their testing up over multiple appointments as not to overwhelm themselves…

Been a ghost reader for a couple of months here. 50 years old Chinese Singaporen and I was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma in 2018.

With blessing.. I manage to beat the prognosis for many years.

2026 is a challenging year where I went through multiple operations on my lung (meta sis), radiation and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, recently, all failed as the tumors has turn aggressive and spread to other parts of my lungs.

Given three weeks to a month based on my oncologist but I am still staying positive that I have many more years to go!

But it was of great suffering. Everyday, I suffer with phlegms, cough and stabbing pain at the front and back of my chest.

Sometimes, I hope I would just pass away peacefully in my sleep. At time, I am trying to be hopeful :)

Perhaps, that is life. Trying to live in the moment.

Currently, on palliative medication but works a bit.

To all cancer survivors, stay strong!

Reddit post related to melenoma. 

Title: Side effects_Pembrolizumab/Keytruda

Hi everyone, this post is for anyone who has experienced, is on the other side of, or is currently experiencing any side effects of the immunotherapy drug (Keytruda,(pembrolizumab)) either during or post treatment. I myself completed 1 year of treatment using the above at the end of Feb this year to treat stage III (BRAFpositive) Melanoma. Following surgery to remove 14  lymph nodes at my left groin, I was treated for 1yr with the above drug and experienced the following symptoms:severe intense itch (usually around the ankles, groin area (itching until I hit flesh), moderate fungal issues in the nostrils, eyelids, eye sight would become blurry when tired (sometimes), easily tired out.

Two weeks after finishing/ completing the treatment, I started to develop swelling and joint pain around my ankles and feet.I panicked straight away as I thought I was having fluid buildup caused by the fact that I now had 14 less lymph nodes in and around my left groin so I was convinced this was lymph fluid building up which would require regular drainage ( they had warned me of the possibilities of this becoming an issue and to be honest, the thoughts of this were scary as I would normally be a very active person), so anyway,  I attended my gp and he instead suggested that it could be inflamed joints rather than lymph fluid collection. Relieved as I was to hear it wasn't a lymph drainage issue, I was now equally as worried about why I was having these symptoms and why now (post treatment). He prescribed me with Deltacortil enteric x4 2.5mg/day for 1 month ( tapering on and tapering off) along with Naprosyn EC 500mg (1/ day).

After day 5 on these, the swelling had reduced and I now had only very mild joint pain. 

It was around this time I decided to take up running again to rebuild some kind of strength, fitness level after all the treatment. At the start of the run I would feel some mild pain but after 10 minutes my body felt normal with no joint pains whatsoever. I would start to feel a little pain after about 8km, but no more than anyone with my fitness level. The morning after the run, I would be like a criple having great difficulty getting out of bed, putting on my clothes, climbing the stairs. 

I have been lucky enough to be able to avail of free chair yoga, pilates, and reflexology, massage therapy through my local Cancer care centre in Galway which has kept me active and mobile throughout and which I am very grateful for. 

Unfortunately,after completing and tapering off, the ( all day) joint pains returned after a few days. After another couple of weeks of suffering it out I returned to my GP and he decided it was best to put me back on the steroids x3 2.5mg/day  with naprosyn 500 x1 (again, tapering on) and I have been on them since. The pain while on the drugs is– uncomfortable but bearable. 

The joint pain is systemic and widespread ( I believe the term is polyarthritis), although its migratory and the hotspot (most painful areas) tends to move around. Initially ( back in march 2026) the hotspot seemed to be the jaw bone, knees, ankles , feet and toe joints. At the moment, the hotspot is the shoulder joints, elbow joints, wrist, and finger joints. For the last 2 months or so, night times have been the worst for me. I wake up every night several times with severe pins and needles and a kind of heavy dead pain from my elbow down to my fingers. The middle joints in my fingers feel pressurised, almost like they are going to explode. Two things that seem to relieve the pain and pins and needles is to hang my arms down low outside the bed, lying in an inclined position or getting up and moving around for a few minutes and doing arm extensions/ exercises.

Referral letters to rheumatology: GP has sent x2 referrals, oncology has sent x2 letters( 1 noted as urgent), dermatology have also sent one after a recent follow up appointment ( all public as I don't have private health care) . 

Current prescriptions from gp : 

•Deltacortril Enteric 2.5mg (3/day)

•Naprosyn EC 500mg (1/ day) 

•Telfast 120mg (1/ day) for severe itch. 

•Solpadol 30mg/500mg codeine phosphate hemihydrate 30mg paracetamol 500mg (taken as required)

Supplements:

•Vegan glucosamine 1500mg (tablet form) 1/day

•Glucosamine HCI, MSM &Chondroitin liquid with vitamin C. ( finished a 509ml bottle of this before the above Supplement.) 

•Wiley's finest wild Alaskan fish oil (Epa, DHA & Omega) 1 capsule/day. 

Has anyone who has had, or is currently on immunotherapy treatment experienced these side effects? If so, what has been your experience? 

For anyone who has had these or similar symptoms, what did you find helped on the road to relief/ recovery? Any advice is welcome. (Exp:Prescription drugs, Natural supplements, Natural therapies) 

Based on my symptoms and the information above, can anyone explain what is actually going on in my body at the moment? 

If you are interested in discussing any of the above further, please leave a comment below, or even if you would prefer to private message me, then please do and I will try my best to get back to you asap. (please bear in mind I have two small kids at home so It may or may not take a little longer to respond depending). 🙂

I got diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer Stage IIB late last year and have been on medical leave post-surgery for months. No chemo yet at the time as I was being treated for DVT in the same period. I returned to work the next year in February and returned to my (thankfully) 100% remote role and noticed significant changes to the team structure. Many more new folks were brought on while a couple of colleagues who came before me left. Several workflows and processes were also vastly changed while I was on break, which to me were necessary changes.

I was overwhelmed to say the least even if I was also given less demanding tasks — thank goodness without a reduction in my work hours or pay. While I welcomed it and my manager knows about my health situation (she said she wants me to focus in the meantime with familiar tasks), it also honestly makes me overthink that perhaps I might be slowly getting eased out of my role 🙃 (I have got to review my country's labor laws on security of tenure for people like me).

Anyway, a month after my return, I started my 6-cycle carbo-taxol regimen. I kept up with my work, only taking a day or a couple of days' off for the infusions.

And as you all know, brain fog is a common side effect of chemo. Already feeling overwhelmed upon my return to work, I also have to deal with feeling a little dumber than usual.

Reading comprehension and focus are the hardest things for me to deal with, and sadly my role in creative/content deems them as necessary.

While it's been 3 months since I finished chemo, my brain still isn't cooperating and I am feeling dejected.

So, how are you guys coping when chemo seemed to have zapped our brain cells? And will this feeling ever go away?

I am not wealthy and also still a couple of decades away (hopefully) from official retirement so I can't just quit and stop working.

Hi everyone, I’m currently seeing sarcoma specialists. I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone with a similar experience, particularly those with gastric LMS and recurrent liver/abdominal disease.

My history:

Apr 2024: Diagnosed with gastric leiomyosarcoma (LMS), approximately 9.5 cm in the upper stomach. Had a total gastrectomy followed by 6 cycles of adjuvant doxorubicin + dacarbazine.

Nov 2024: Surveillance scan showed a ~6 cm cyst in the liver. Surgery was performed and it turned out to be metastatic LMS.

Late 2024–early 2025: I was in and out of hospital several times because of infections.

Mar 2025: Started trabectedin as systemic/adjuvant treatment.

Mar 2026: Two new liver tumours appeared, approximately 1.3 cm and 2.4 cm. The smaller lesion was ablated and the larger one was surgically removed. My oncologist recommended Votrient (pazopanib) to help control the disease, but I declined at that time.

May 2026: Surveillance scan showed a new ~2 cm lesion/area at the edge of the liver.

Aug 2026: This lesion had grown rapidly to 13.8 cm. It was found to be recurrent abdominal LMS, and I underwent surgery involving removal of the tumour, a wedge of liver, and a cuff of diaphragm.

This round,I have also had tumour/genomic testing, including CDx/RNa and ex vivo drug testing. Ex vivo drug testing returned and the tumor isnt chemo sensitive.

At the moment, I am considered NED after surgery, but my doctors are concerned about how quickly the tumour has been growing and have recommended systemic treatment such as Votrient or gemcitabine/docetaxel (Gem/Tax).

Any suggestions or recommendations on what I should look into next?

TIA!

I was diagnosed with CML about a week ago, and I’m really worried about the side effects of the medication and how to deal with them. Can anyone please share their experience and tell me what it was like for you?

I have been in remission for about two years now and my blood work is coming back bad again showing signs of it being back have to see an oncologist tomorrow and I'm so scared that they say that it's back on top of that I have to get some more skin cancer removed any tips to help with anxiety thank you so much.

Rant. I'm just under six months post-chemo for stage II Hodgkin lymphoma. I'm only 29. I lost my mom three years ago, and my dad and my brother are autistic and have essentially completely abandoned me during this journey. My mom's family isn't much better. Not a single one came to visit me, despite the fact that I'm only a state over. We kept in touch over the phone, and I received a few care packages, but by the time I finished treatment, the involvement had already noticeably decreased. No one even checked on my the day I got my final scan. I went to every treatment, every scan, every appointment, either by myself or with a friend. And I never once complained.

Then, today, my grandma told me I never call her unless I need something from her. I was genuinely astonished. I looked, and I've called my grandma sixteen times this summer. She hasn't called me once. Out of the sixteen times I've called, I only asked to go to her beach house twice. And both times, she said no. Apparently that constitutes someone calling just because they need something.

Four months before I was diagnosed, I had a vomiting episode that lasted all day, and I wasn't able to come to the beach house until late the next night; my grandma wasted no time letting me know how disappointed she was in me for being late, but never expressed concern for the unexplained vomiting. The entire time I've been sick - from the time I got my fertility injections, to the times my dad withheld money from me, to the times I was suffering with bone pain and exhaustion from the chemo - the script I got was pretty much, "Get over it." My grandma was apparently even mad that I started a GoFundMe, even though it was my aunt (her daughter) who told me to do this.

I don't even know what to do at this point. I feel like I've been completely abandoned by my family. No one seems to care about what I feel, or what I've been through. This experience has taught me how unbelievably selfish people can be: even the people who are supposed to love you unconditionally.

I had a total thyroidectomy on Thursday the 27th and this is me today. I had been wearing my cute little pajamas with the button up tops, but I ran out so today I finally cut into one of my exes old T-shirts and this is the result. Yesterday was my 56th birthday so it was a long day of friends and family and cake and pizza and it was a really good day. I hope everyone is recovering well and not being too stressed out by the prospect of an upcoming surgery. I feel like everyone heals differently and I truly believe that my positivity and confidence in my surgeon are going a long way to alleviate any stress and fear or side effects. I’m sleeping much better as of last night and I have finished all of the Harry Potter movies plus the first two Fantastic Beasts movies and I’m halfway through the third movie. But today I finally got up and did some dishes and vacuuming and working on the computer from home. I am anxiously awaiting the outcome of the tests of my thyroid because I had a nodule on my thyroid for over 20 years and out of nowhere after a year and a half I found out that the pain in my hip and legs are metastatic bone cancer from thyroid cancer. You really could’ve knocked me over with a feather. Sending everyone good vibes and well wishes from North Central Florida!

I apologize, but this will be rather long. I am writing this for my girlfriend who had cancer in 2024, but I will need to include some of her back story to make sure all of the symptoms are understood. For reference, she is in her mid-40s now.

As a teen she was diagnosed with sisticial enteritis, and I doubt I spelled that right. In college, she got an implant to send electrical pulses to her bladder, and that will come into play later.

In her early 30s, she started experiencing occasional episodes of AFib. At that time, she had bypass surgery. She lost weight, and the AFib went away. She didn’t experience it again until she was pregnant in 2019. After the pregnancies, she quit experiencing it. She ended up settling at a higher weight than she would have liked, but it stayed steady.

After some bleeding and other problems, she found out she had uterine/endometrial cancer that had also invaded her cervix in early 2024. She had a full hysterectomy. Afterwords, for the next couple of months, she felt better than she had felt in years. She had energy, her body functioned better, etc.

The surgery was in late march, and she started radiation either in the end of May or the beginning of June. Then, everything went down hill. She had three rounds of brachytherapy. After the first or second round, I can’t remember which at this point, she had to go to the ER because she was swelling, feeling faint, and had chest pain. Anyway, she managed to finish out the radiation, and then things got interesting.

Within a couple of months, she was reporting a sharp shocking sort of pain in her lower back and hip area where the implant was. Our first thought was that radiation had damaged it. During this same period, she put on 35 pounds in just a couple of months. She also felt sore and lethargic. By November, she had put on over 40 pounds.

The week of Thanks Giving, she experienced AFib again. She went to the ER, and she was admitted. Over the next couple of days, they diagnosed her with HFPF, and seemed to blame everything on being over weight. Keep in mind, the AFib only happens when her weight is high.

In May of 2025 she was scheduled to have the implant removed. She wanted to feel better before surgery, so she went to a liquid diet like she had done with bypass surgery three weeks before this surgery. A lot of her swelling went away within a week. She lost close to 15 lb in just a few days. At the end of that week she was making a birthday cake, and she tasted it. She put on several pounds over night. At first, we thought the problem might be gluten. She did have the implant removed, and the back pain disappeared for a month or so, but we’re now thinking that it was because of a lack of swelling.

After eating for a couple of weeks, her weight would rapidly rise over night again. She settled at a weight that was about 20 pounds above radiation weight.

In January she decided to try liquid again. She lost close to 30 pounds in 3 weeks on protein shakes. Then, she added fruit to a shake one night. She bloated up within a couple of hours and gained several pounds. She then tried semi-peptide shakes, but those messed up blood sugar because of the high carbs, and she ended up in AFib. She went to the ER, and they focused on the heart and ignored her stomach. They did discover that her albumin was low, and that is odd because she had been drinking protein shakes.

I should mention that she had pale stools and sometimes had blood in them before she started the intermittent liquid. They did do a colonoscopy, but claimed it was just hemorrhoids.

Over this year, things have only gotten worse. If she eats, she gains between 6 and 10 pounds over night. It doesn’t really seem to matter what she eats anymore. At the same time, even if she stays hydrated, her urine turns dark. If she goes to liquid it goes right back down.

Does this sound like a case of radiation enteritis that anyone else has had? Do these symptoms sound like any sort of post radiation symptoms that anyone has had, and if so, what was it? If you have experienced it, what is the treatment?

She does have an appointment with another GI doctor coming up this month.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or ideas you might have.

53 years old and ignored my health for way too long. Finally wanted to have a hernia checked out so I got a doctor. Nurse took my blood pressure and I was sent via ambulance to the hospital, super high. Found out kidneys were also stage 3 (from years of high BP neglect) and I was anemic. Got on the meds, now BP great and kidneys in rough shape but they should carry me to older age as long as I keep the BP down. Had my first colonoscopy yesterday as a normal screening and also to help eliminate sources other than my kidneys for the anemia.

Woke up in the recovery room to the doctor telling me I have colon cancer. Showed me pictures, I guess it was 4cm. I thought they had to send out biopsies to determine that, but I guess it is clearly cancer and the biopsy is just to tell what kind? I haven't told anyone yet, other than my wife who was with me. I am usually very chill and this has got me so anxious. I figured I would just blast this to the internets as a test run. I'm sitting at work nervous as hell to tell anyone. My work is beyond awesome, from the staff to the office and owners, so they will do (and have for others) whatever I need. I'm just so hesitant to tell people. I don't want to tell my children or siblings or parents or friends; my grandchildren are too young to really understand. Part of me hopes that I scan clean for the rest of my body, get it taken out with surgery, and that's it, and no one would be the wiser. My heart has been racing all morning, it's so difficult to focus on anything.

So 3 months ago I posted about having an emergency surgery to get out a giant mass, which turned out to be cancer. Well in the process of waiting for my hysterectomy/chemo (doctor wanted my body to fully heal) I had to go to the hospital AGAIN for the same pains and surprise it was another mass. This mass was 50% bigger than the last one and they went ahead and did the hysterectomy while they took it out. I have been struggling big time because i was still healing from the first surgery, then they had to cut me open again so soon/bigger incision and now I'll have to be starting chemo. I really need some advice on how to get through this because healing from this surgery is already such a struggle and going on chemo while I'm healing seems like its going to make me even more miserable. 😭