stage4's Cancer Blog

June 9, 2009

July Marks 4 Year Anniversary of Diagnosis-4 Years past my est. shelf life

Hi Blog Friends,
Ever wonder how much doctors really know?

Before I was diagnosed I thought they were never wrong. It never even crossed my mind they could be wrong, even after watching House.

I am so glad to report I have been proving oncologists and surgeons wrong for 4 years as of next month.

Did the cancer disappear? No, unfortunately that is only in fairy tales and in a few rare cases with my type of cancer.

Would I have died a lot earlier if I would have listened to multiple doctors? Yes. Absolutely, no question about it.

I am a fanatic about telling people they really have to make decisions for themselves based on the information they have.

When I got to the point that the chemo was obviously killing me, I stopped chemo (against advice of doctors) and started traveling and enjoying life as much as possible. I did a clinical trial which unfortunately did not work but may have slowed the cancer growth. I am researching the possibility. All I know for sure is when I quit chemo the cancer slowed to about 25% the speed of the growth during chemo.

There are not a lot of people walking around that were diagnosed stage 4 colon cancer with mets to the liver 4 years ago. Whatever it is I am suppose to do before I go, I guess I have not done it yet.

I just got back from 10 days in Illinois with my entire family for my neices graduation. I had a great time. I have had a sinus infection that I got there since I got back but it is worth it.

Time to plan the next adventure…
Donna

Posted on June 9, 2009 at 10:55:43 PM by Donna Richno ( Link to this post.

July Marks 4 Year Anniversary of Diagnosis-4 Years past my est. shelf life, Post a comment.

8 comments)

kellye, jill like this.

karlak sent you a prayer.

Donna,
BOY… you had me scared. I have tried to reach you several times, but couldn’t. I’M Sooooo HAPPY YOU ARE STILL KICKING & PROVING THE DRS ARE WRONG! Several bloger are going thru what you did & their Drs are giving up on them too. I can’t wait to tell them to read you new post. I keep telling everyone to listen to their body & be their own dr (like you)
So HAPPY FOR YOU! Sandy

Posted on June 10, 2009 at 6:51:18 AM by granny10

Donna – You rock! I have been wondering what you have been up to. That is so impressive that you are living way past what the doctors said you would. Thanks for posting this. Are you doing anything different that you can think of other than stopping the chemo when it got to a point where it was killing you?

Posted on June 10, 2009 at 10:01:38 AM by jill

Dear Donna,
That is great! I am so happy for you! I agree they do not know everything. Be well!

Posted on June 10, 2009 at 5:27:45 PM by whyanyone

Hi Donna, my name is Amy and I am stage 3 colon cancer and you just gave me more hope! bless you and thank you!

Posted on June 11, 2009 at 5:37:06 PM by ambrian04

Donna you are such an INSPIRATION. And you hold hope to those that are batteling this horrible disease. That is wonderful you are enjoying your life and traveling. My mom stopped Chemotherapy too. It was debilitating and it was literally killing her. She is having a much better quality of life without it.
Hugs!

Posted on June 19, 2009 at 9:37:40 AM by kimberly

Congrats on yr four coming up! I ordered your book tonight. The order form has a big credit card number blank across the paypal part. (fyi)
I cant wait to get it!
saw yoru pics of yrou trip..Always wanted to do a cruise but will wait couple more years till last two kids are big enough to enjoy it.
How do they put the eyes on the towel creation?
BARB

Posted on June 27, 2009 at 9:53:19 PM by Anonymous

Jill,
To answer your question. I think the thing I did that mostly helped was to seek out the best specialist surgeon. The only one that was optimistic.
I kept copies of all scans, reports, learned how to read them and educated myself in all chemo drugs and clinical trials available. When I changed chemo drugs on the reoccurance, I did the homework and requested them and the doctor concurred. I took his suggestion the 3rd re-occurance and not only were the side effects unbareable but the tumors grew and new ones appeared while I was doing chemo.

Nothing special. Attitude was my best defense. I was not going to be a willing bystander on my own health.
Some people say when I quit chemo that I was giving up. I didn’t give up. I wanted to live as long and as high of a quality of life as I could and the chemo drugs were killing me. I was getting weaker and sicker by the day and what’s worse is that it was doing nothing.
Donna