Very Worried

I wrote about a month ago how my husband has been in remisson for  6 months(hodgkins stage IIIb bulky tumors) but for three months now has had extreme itching to the point where he scratches til he bleeds. now he is very tired and says he feels something pushing on his throat but he does not feel a new lump. i know his systems is low because he is breaking out in cold sores all over his mouth and chin ( had many the month he was diagnosed). he called me at work today and said he called the cancer clinice because he just feels like something is wrong. i know it has to be really bad for him to call because he waited almost a year to see a doctor before and he was suffering with cough, weight loss and night sweats (and a large lump on side of his neck) for most of the year "its just the flu" he would say.

sorry i am rambling.. anyways my question is the last time we saw the doctor she said that he would not have any more scans done at all.(keep in mind only been in remission for 6mths) is that normal not to have scans done til at least 2yrs of remission.  can we demand another scan now.( she is our new doctor the one that was with us the first year left the clinic). i don't know if it makes a difference but we are in ontario,canada.

 

any advice would be helpfull  (sorry for spelling errors)

any fevers or nights sweats?  He needs to get back in to be examined.  It may or may not be a recurrence, but those symptoms need to be checked out.

One of your problems is that you are in Canada and a victim of OHIP. No wonder your dr. told you no new scans. You'd probably have to wait a half a year for one anyways. In anycase if you have a possibility of getting to Buffalo and have any way of getting insurance in the US or paying outright just for diagnostics you'd be way better off.

I'm so sorry, it's bad enough to have to deal with the actual illness, and then there's the insurance and all the red tape.

Good luck to you.

he had night sweats but for only the last month before we found out about the cancer he was already stage III with other symptoms by that time.

he had 12cm in sternum that only went down to 6cm (according to them scar tissue) 9cm mass near collarbone that was removed. 5 cm mass on either side of dia. and small ones in spleen. i am not sure but lungs where affected as well.

i know alot of people have had to wait when it came to the scans in canada but in oct 07 we did not wait at all. by the time we saw the doctor til the time he started chemo (including have surgrey and scans) was only 4 weeks that is why i am shocked with this doctor.

 

 

Hello chriscaregiver. I live in Ontario Canada as well and I would tell you to absolutely demand another scan. Our health care system being what it is makes it necessary for us to be firm when advocating for ourselves or others. I have been dealing with non Hodgkin's for almost four years and even though I refused all traditional treatments and opted instead for alternative, my family doctor monitors my condition and can request a scan or any other tests and the wait has never been long. It would appear from the cold sore outbreak that your husband's immune system is letting him know that it is compromised. I had many of the same signs before my diagnosis that I was not knowledgeable enough at the time to recognize. There are many good natural products that are powerful immune system boosters. Two, that my medical/alternative doctor doctor recommends highly are AHCC and Avemar. Here is some information on both. Let me know if you are interested in learning more. ______________________________________________________________ AHCC http://www.ahccpublishedresearch.com/wwwroot-ahcc/studies/AH AVEMAR http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-news/1,12705,00.htm http://www.rejuvenation-science.com/avemar.html http://www.avemarresearch.com/TOC.html http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/article/3603/reduce-cancer Avemar is the new wonder-alternative cancer treatment / adjuvant therapy for boosting the immune system and fighting cancer. "Research at UCLA has demonstrated that Avemar reduces glucose flow into the cancer cells.  Cancer cells can evade NK [natural killer] cells by masking their outer membrane with a special substance that the NK cells recognize as 'normal.'  Avemar suppresses the release of this masking substance -- allowing NK cells to better target and kill the cancer cells."  Avemar's immune-stimulating ability appears to be so powerful that it can be useful in helping to restore even the most severely compromised immune systems. ______________________________________________________________ On 1/22/2008 chriscaregiver wrote: I wrote about a month ago how my husband has been in remisson for  6 months(hodgkins stage IIIb bulky tumors) but for three months now has had extreme itching to the point where he scratches til he bleeds. now he is very tired and says he feels something pushing on his throat but he does not feel a new lump. i know his systems is low because he is breaking out in cold sores all over his mouth and chin ( had many the month he was diagnosed). he called me at work today and said he called the cancer clinice because he just feels like something is wrong. i know it has to be really bad for him to call because he waited almost a year to see a doctor before and he was suffering with cough, weight loss and night sweats (and a large lump on side of his neck) for most of the year "its just the flu" he would say.sorry i am rambling.. anyways my question is the last time we saw the doctor she said that he would not have any more scans done at all.(keep in mind only been in remission for 6mths) is that normal not to have scans done til at least 2yrs of remission.  can we demand another scan now.( she is our new doctor the one that was with us the first year left the clinic). i don't know if it makes a difference but we are in ontario,canada.  any advice would be helpfull  (sorry for spelling errors) -----end quote------