Re: Cancer, Chemo, and Diabetes

Will, T2 wrote:
Hello friends,

I debated a while before posting this, but if what I am about to say
can do any of you any good I am happy to tell the story.

A very close friend of mine died last weekend, in King George County,
Virginia. He was only about 47, or so.... very much in the prime of
life, so to speak. About 2 1/2 weeks ago, my friend was diagnosed
with esophageal cancer. Yes, it had progressed to his lymph nodes, and
there appeared to be some, but limited, liver involvement. Then last
week, a bone scan revealed that it was also in a hip bone.

My friend's first round of chemo occurred only about a week ago, of
less, and he immediately suffered extreme diabetic hyperglycemia
(until the chemo, he was not deemed diabetic), and he went into renal
failure. With insulin, they stabalized his bloood glucose, and his
kidneys were able to re-start. Then, suddenly on Thursday, his
conditiion deteriorated, as the cancer began to destroy his vital
organs, and he died on Saturday....

The history of my friend's illness and demise occurred over a
remarkably short period of time. Only a month ago, he was fine, and
then he started feeling sick about three weeks ago, and went in for a
"checkup". It just goes to show that none of us knows how much time we
have left, and how delicate our health really is....

One very interesting thing for me was the sudden onset of acute
diabetes, after the administration of chemo. I guess no one really
knows at this point, but it was like the chemo simply "knocked out" my
friend's pancreas. Something else that comes to mind is that my
mother's diabetes did not manifest itself, until after she had chemo
back in the 60s. Still, it seems that chemotherapy does help save
lives, and I am quite aware that some of you have experienced it.

Coincidentally, this week, I am reading a psychology book one of the
the themes of which is that nothing of reality is really like it
seems.


Will, T2
The grieving of the loss of a friend is very hard. My friend died some years ago, not suddenly like yours, but a death due to a broken heart. I did not believe that there could be such a thing, but when her partner died, she, over time, simply stopped living.
She was in that precarious position of having no family or friends to turn to. Her parents were gone. She had no children, no relatives of any kind. I tried to help as best I could from here, 6,000 miles away, but could not just walk out on my teaching job and other responsibilities.
I guess the jist of this e-mail is that when we lose someone we love or in any other time of great stress, we must have someone to turn to for comfort and support, someone to talk to, someone to be with, someone to share our music with.
Will, you and others are using this group to express their needs and experiences. Eventually, you will be able to remember all of the good and wonderful times you had together with gratitude. My sympathy goes out to you and others in equally stressful situations.
We are your 'someone to be with'.
Lorna
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cancer, Chemo, and Diabetes
    ... my friend was diagnosed ... | (until the chemo, he was not deemed diabetic), and he went into renal ... | diabetes, ... for some type of surgery, I forgot what it was now. ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
  • Re: Cancer, Chemo, and Diabetes
    ... A very close friend of mine died last weekend, in King George County, ... a bone scan revealed that it was also in a hip bone. ... (until the chemo, he was not deemed diabetic), and he went into renal ... diabetes, ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
  • Re: Cancer, Chemo, and Diabetes
    ... A very close friend of mine died last weekend, in King George County, ... a bone scan revealed that it was also in a hip bone. ... (until the chemo, he was not deemed diabetic), and he went into renal ... diabetes, ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
  • Re: Cancer, Chemo, and Diabetes
    ... A very close friend of mine died last weekend, in King George County, ... a bone scan revealed that it was also in a hip bone. ... (until the chemo, he was not deemed diabetic), and he went into renal ... diabetes, ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
  • Re: Treating T2 and the value we place on our lives
    ... They live oblivious to the dangers they face from poorly managed diabetes. ... There still is a popular belief that a diabetic diet should preclude you from eating "sweet things", and people simply do not relate to "all carbohydrates" such as a bowl of plain rice, plain potatoes or plain bread and think of them as also being bad. ... When the person is a distant friend, you can simply leave them to their beliefs. ... I am not able to contribute much of anything about treatment, I just share my experiences of trying to treat T2. ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)