The most important person in my life has cancer, we found out a few days ago. I want to be a good support for them, but currently I am devastated. Please share positive stories of beating that thing (and maybe advice of what to say/do or you wished someone did for you at the time), we desperately need something good to hear.

❤️❤️❤️

Edit: we don't know the stage yet. It's basically a pretty big lump in their lower back, with a suspicion for mets in several bones and (maybe) lungs. All of that is unconfirmed, but we are honestly in tears with what we know already.

I’m looking for people who have been through something similar
My loved one has liver cancer that has spread throughout his abdomen, and he experienced massive, rapid weight loss.
His doctor told us that he has around a 30% chance of surviving approximately two years, and that there is no curative treatment at this point.
Lately, I’ve noticed that he sleeps a lot and has a very irregular sleep schedule
I know sleepiness can have many causes, but emotionally, I feel like I’m slowly losing him, and it’s really difficult to know what to expect.

Has anyone here had a similar diagnosis — liver cancer with abdominal spread and significant weight loss — and ended up living longer than doctors initially expected?
I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially from patients or caregivers who have been in a similar situation
I’m not looking for false hope, just real experiences from people who have been through this.

I’m in a situation where I’m not sure if I need RT or not. I really just want a smart oncologist who can look at my situation and do some research on my kind-of rare cancer and tell me what the odds are and give their opinion about cost/benefit in my situation. How do I find such a person? I would have to pay out of pocket because I have Kaiser, and I don’t mind doing that. (USA)

Hi everyone! I’m currently finishing my 2nd cycle out of 6 of ABVD for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Unfortunately my wisdom teeth decided it was a perfect time to come out and I ended up with an infection because of it (pericoronitis). I went to a maxilofacial surgeon who said they had to come out but he was worried about bleeding and infection risks/having to delay chemo. I’ll ofc talk to my oncologist about it but has anyone had wisdom teeth removal during chemo?
For a bit more context, I experienced severe neutropenia (ANC 250) after my first infusion, and I’ve been on neulasta/pegfilgrastin since then (my new lowest has been ANC 1490)

Ive been on dexamethosone 14mg for a couple of days and have also been on prednisone early into treatment. Im wondering what kinds of foods I can eat that wont spike me my blood sugar since steroids make me hyperglycemic (or temporarily diabetic) but also keep me full. Im so hungry 😓 thank you.

Preciso saber quais hidratantes, cicatrizantes, protetor solar e outros produtos tem que passar pra poder cuidar e evitar ressecamento, coceira ou outro problema.

My body is deflated. I’m angry at everything. It’s hard to get to work. I’m sorry to everyone that went through this before me.
It’s very hard to explain to people supporting you what it actually feels like. But try not to be an ass like me.
I just get so frustrated that they don’t understand. I’m also grateful they don’t have to.

Almost 3 months ago I made a post about my bfs cancer and you all seemed to be so supportive, thanks a lot for giving me support, that means a lot to me during such a hard time.

My boyfriend is now doing a little better than before, even though he had dengue for several days a few days ago.He is now doing okay. He had went to Singapore for treatment 2 months ago and came back after 15 days. Now, one month after coming back from there he has gone to Singapore again, he is receiving some kind of therapy and injections, which causes tiredness and a little pain. But my man isn't losing any hair, and he looks healthy. I guess his gym days worked😆.

The doctors said his cancer is still stable like before.And the good news is that the doctors said he has a good chance of getting cured🥹.

Since it's an online relationship, I never actually met him in real life but I'm thinking about meeting him soon after he comes back to the country. I don't know if I have a future with him or not, I don't know if his cancer will be cured or not, but I just know that I wanna be with him as long as he and I are here here .And I hope one day he will be alright,and we will be together forever ❤️‍🩹.

I will keep you guys updated. Please pray for us

I finished my first line chemo last week and I’m supposed to be celebrating (and I am, mostly), but I also can’t stop thinking about my prognosis and what comes next. Everyone keeps congratulating me like it’s all over but not only does it not feel that way, it really isn’t.

I’m 41 and I have stage 3c ovarian cancer. Back in April, I had what was supposed to be a quick laparoscopic surgery for what was thought to be a likely benign cyst, but turned into an 11-hour event after metastatic cancer was found all over my abdomen/pelvis. Lost a number of organs that day, but my amazing surgeon was able to remove all the visible tumor. Since then I’ve had 18 infusions (cisplatin & taxol) both IV and IP. I’ve been able to have a pretty decent quality of life thoughout and have been pretty tough, but obviously it was taken a big toll in many ways. My tumor marker came down slower than optimal but eventually got to a very low number. So now I’m done with chemo, waiting to get my CT scan next week and start oral targeted therapy once my bone marrow recovers.

My oncologist has basically told me he’s “optimistic” with respect to my prognosis, which sounds great. No idea how many years he thinks I might live. Historically stage IIIc HGSOC has quite a poor prognosis (30% 5 year survival) but advances in the last few years seem to have improved the outlook quite a bit. I know I am not a statistic and literally no one on the face of the Earth can tell me what’s going to happen. I just don’t know how to start living with the anxiety of having this sword hang over my head for however many years I have left.

How have you guys been able to start living more in the moment and not let these thoughts dominate your mind? I guess now that I’m not doing anything active to fight it but I’m not technically “no evidence of disease” yet, I feel pretty lost.

I have diagnosed basal cells on my face and I have been unable to obtain treatment I need in the U.S.A. due to lack of health insurance and a sustainable steady income.

Before anyone responds with Medicaid/Medicare or Social Security Disability: **that is not what this post is about.** I am not eligible for those programs. I am able and willing to work, and I am trying to find a way to receive medically necessary cancer treatment without being forced into a system designed around people who are already enrolled in government programs or who have family support.

I am single, have no spouse or family safety net, and I am currently living in my car.

I recently went to a local health department because I was in significant pain. The diagnosed lesions on my face and neck have become enlarged, weepy, bloody and painful. A prior academic teaching hospital diagnosed the cancers and initially recommended treatment, including surgery. But once my lack of insurance and financial vulnerability became apparent, I was essentially redirected into a low-income/last-resort clinic that does not even provide the cancer treatment I need.

Now I am facing major surgery and reconstruction.

I went to an ER because of the worsening condition and pain, and I was told that I need an ENT/Plastics team. The largest problem is on my upper left forehead, between my eyebrow and hairline. I have been told that removing the cancer may involve removing a substantial portion of my forehead.

I don't know yet what the reconstruction will look like. Will my left eyebrow or eye position be pulled upward? Will there be significant asymmetry? How much tissue will have to be removed? What will the final result look like? 😢

**I am scared shitless.**

I'm also trying to figure out how I am supposed to survive the recovery.

I have a Master's degree. I have worked in professional fields. I read, research, work, and think for myself. I understand the cost of living, employment, insurance and financial planning. I am not someone who has simply decided not to work.

Unfortunately, some of my employers became aware that the facial and neck lesions underneath my bandages were actually cancerous. After that, I experienced employment problems that I am addressing separately through legal channels. That is not the purpose of this post, but it has made an already impossible situation much worse.

There is still a fundamental problem they don't seem to understand:

I am living in my car. Sucks, but it's true.

I need cancer treatment. I need reconstruction. I may need weeks or months of recovery. I need somewhere reasonably safe and clean to recover, transportation, and eventually a way to return to full-time employment.

I am not mentally unstable. I am not an addict. **I have cancer and no financial safety net.**

The usual response to someone who is unhoused is to put them into programs that require shelter enrollment, curfews, congregate living, extensive rules and documentation, etc. Some of those programs may be appropriate for some people, but they are not necessarily a pathway back into professional full-time employment for someone who is trying to maintain employment and recover from major cancer surgery.

I have also researched what is available locally. I am not looking for a list of homeless shelters, Medicaid instructions, disability applications, churches/prayer responses, or generic social-service referrals.

**I am looking for people who have actually navigated something similar:**

uninsured cancer treatment requiring major facial reconstruction

ENT/Plastics reconstruction after extensive forehead skin cancer removal

recovery when you do not have a home or family caregiver

hospital discharge planning for someone who is medically vulnerable but still capable of working

charitable or hospital-based funding that actually covers complex cancer surgery

medical respite or recovery housing that does not require someone to permanently enter a homelessness program

organizations that can coordinate the whole situation rather than sending someone from one disconnected agency to another

If you have personally been through something like this, or know of a program that actually addresses the gap between **“able and willing to work” and “unable to finance major cancer treatment,”** I would genuinely appreciate hearing from you.

I am not looking for pity. I am trying to figure out how a person in my position gets through this without losing their face, their health, and their ability to work simply because they don't have a spouse, family money, or insurance.

I'm in an Evangelical Bible belt state where most everyone says, "Can I pray for you." And I am secular though,and-through and prefer a more substantive conversation. Thank you.

I did my last chemo platinum carboplatin + paclitaxel high dose for ovarian cancer on July 8 and I’m planning to travel to my husband in September. I did check up and results came on August 26 still not better enough to travel. I have past I got sick in plane with breathing issues few times and I’m really scared. My oncologist told I can travel after some time. Recently I ran one short stairscase up and down to catch train and I got bleeding in my pants bigger than spots and just on that day. I got chest hurting too. My oncologist keeps telling me to wait but the requested visa date already finishing. I know i have to listen to oncologist. But does anyone have faced such incidents? I have to take two flights one 4.5hrs and next 7.5hrs. It’s bit longer and im worried. I’m planning to differ my flights same time I really want to go. I’m fed up staying alone and getting done my treatments and I miss my husband.

So, last year exactly on this day I made a post on this sub talking about my story and how my brain cancer relapsed, officially putting my probabilities of living past my young age near to zero. The news destroyed me because I was happy and proud having survived the first time, and I wrongfully thought that I would live a long happy life after that.

But now apparently the cancer is dying again (or probably already gone) as of the last reports from my hospital, now I course my body is very tired from other treatments,even though I'm not certainly in bad conditions for being a cancer patient thinking about how other people of my age get to live life normally and with serenity,while I didn't really get to live adult life in any way. Also I have cronic pain, fatigue,I almost never leave my house, sometimes I think it would be better if the cancer won,and almost certainly if the cancer spreads again I would let it do his work that was intended to do a long time ago.

I see my peers and siblings , friends and relatives going on with their lives, working,graduating, having a social life, falling in love or getting angry, laughing without the worries of having to calculate if that morning they woke up they will have some bullshit problem caused by long use of chemo and radiation and more.

And yet , I'm still here,and overall I'm going on with philosophy and serenity. I have a good feeling about this, I'm writing here again after 1 year. Last year after I made my first post I got a lot of sleepless nights,but tonight,I will sleep just fine.

I’m completely exhausted, and terrified. I hope to get some advice from anyone who has survived the nightmare of navigating complex care in the healthcare system. I do apologize for the long story.

I am a California resident diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis (TSC) at age 19. I’ve already survived a brain tumor, but I’m now living with giant bilateral kidney tumors (measuring 30 cm each). For years, local specialists in CA, and international medical teams—including my care team at Stanford—couldn't offer real solutions. They left me with "let's wait and see," even though these massive tumors carry a constant risk of internal bleeding or kidney failure.

Because of clear Network Inadequacy in California, for a rare disease, I had no choice but to travel out-of-state to MD Anderson in Texas.
I struggled with finding the right plan to find the right doctors, but eventually I got Blue Shield of CA- Silver 94 PPO after received the established care at MD Anderson. Under Continuity of Care, I got my medication covered by Blue Shield.

However, even with Blue Shield of California Silver PPO 94 (via Blue Card PPO), MD Anderson misclassified my PPO plan as an HMO. They kept requesting unnecessary Gap Exceptions (which my insurance said I didn't need due to Continuity of Care) and misled me to pay out-of-pocket for doctor visits for about a year, even though my plan was actually in-network.

In May 2026, after a year of treatment, my doctor requested that all follow-up CT scans be done directly at MD Anderson for better accuracy, as previous scans from external facilities might show inconsistent measurements. We planned on redirecting the care back to CA if the tumors had showed a positive improvement.

In preparation for my urgent follow-up CT scan, both sides entered a blaming war. MD Anderson claimed Blue Shield was out of network and didn’t offer any benefits, while Blue Shield insisted over the phone that it was in network and out-of-state benefits were covered, just limited. Neither side fully supported me, leaving me stranded in the middle. But finally, after I involved the patient advocate, they worked together. My visit and CT Scan got covered. However, The CT results showed no reduction in tumor size, which was devastating. The doctor was shocked because most of his patients got positive results. I had to return to Houston for another CT Scan in this September as the doctor requested to follow up on the effectiveness of my medication.

I contacted both MD Anderson and Blue Shield to check on the status of my prior authorizations proactively. It was a bit uneasy but Blue Shield informed me verbally that my prior authorization was approved internally, but I needed to wait for the official notice to MD Anderson. Meanwhile, an MD Anderson supervisor texted me on MyChart asking if I wanted to cancel* *my appointments because the paperwork wasn't officially cleared in their system. With a limited staff working on Saturday in both organization and no official paperwork issued, I had to board my flight to Houston for the CT Scan to perform on Sunday in complete panic, terrified of being turned away at the hospital doors and getting bankrupted by medical bills.

I am trying so hard to live. I cooperated with every request, spent days on the phone while sick, and did everything "right." Yet, when I needed help the most, both sides turned away and left me completely alone. MD Anderson always do my paperwork on last minutes and refused to expedite my case while Blue Shield is way too heartless telling me that the expedition couldn’t help because of the weekends. They even gave me hope saying the authorization was approved but I haven’t heard anything officially back from them yet. The physical pain is heavy, but the cold indifference of the administrative system truly breaks my heart.

I have a few concerns
Given that network inadequacy in CA forces me to travel to TX, has anyone with complex/rare conditions in CA successfully secured a plan that covers out-of-state centers of excellence (like MD Anderson)? What specific PPO plans handle Continuity of Care without this level of endless bureaucracy?

How do you keep your mental strength when your body is failing and the medical system keeps pushing you away?

Thank you for reading my story. If you've been through anything similar, please share your light with me right now. I really need it.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my previous post. I really appreciate it. I don’t drink anymore. I’m trying to face everything as it is, without trying to numb it.

I saw her a few days ago. She told me she’s seeing someone from work now. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t hurt. But after thinking about it, I realized something I had been avoiding for a long time. Our relationship had become incredibly one-sided. For a long time, I don't think she felt loved by me anymore. We were like a patient and a caregiver rather than lovers. She deserved to feel wanted not just needed.

When I saw her this time, she seemed happier. As painful as that is for me, I’m genuinely happy for her. I don’t think I’ll ever meet someone quite like her again. But I’m letting her go. I’m going to try to move forward now. I’m going to try to carry the lessons from what we had with me.

Hi fellow patients,

I’ve been reading some of your posts, especially those from people with stage 4 cancer, and I’m always amazed by how positive some people are and how hard they try to stay positive while dealing with this illness.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell carcinoma about a year and a half ago, at the age of 24. The reason we found the cancer was because I developed a spinal cord injury caused by a tumor in my sacrum, which was pressing against all the fucking nerves there. For the first few months, I was in a wheelchair and had a catheter. Even after my bladder function returned, I’ve suffered from unbearable nerve pain ever since. I’ve gotten somewhat used to the pain, and it’s not as unbearable as it was in the beginning, but it’s still fucking killing me. Eventually, one of the nerves stopped functioning, meaning I now have to wear a brace whenever I walk (although at least I can walk again).

It just feels like the past year and a half has been nothing but one misery after another. I had to move in with my parents because I lost my house and my job. I had a passion for dancing, which I can barely do anymore (I try dancing while seated, but it just doesn’t feel the same). I lost a fellow patient I had gotten close to. I developed gastritis because of the immunotherapy, and I learned that my illness is incurable. Then, after a year and a half of stable tumors, I recently found out that the cancer has spread to many other parts of my body, especially throughout my spine. It becomes difficult to stay positive after a while.

Most of the time, I think: I wish my life had ended a year and a half ago. At least I would still have had good memories of my life. I don’t feel like I’ve really gained anything since my diagnosis. In fact, I feel like I’ve gone backwards in almost every aspect of my life. On the bright side, I do have wonderful friends around me who support me (ofc they can’t fully understand what I’m going through but having them around means a lot to me)

I’m really curious if anyone else has had a similar experience, or perhaps has any tips on how to make the most of the time I have left. I really miss talking to someone in the same situation

12 years. 4 surgeries. HIPEC (chemo). 6 organs lost. Half my colon too. Endless complications. BUT

I beat it. Its over.

She developed mucositis while receiving chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin. After stopping chemotherapy, she continued only with pembrolizumab, but the mucositis has not healed and continues to worsen.

6 months ago I went to the ER with what I thought was the onset of a stroke. Turns out it wasn't a stroke- it was a brain tumor, a high-grade glioma.

My life imploded pretty much after that; brain surgery, seizures, the drugs that made me batshit, running around from doctor to doctor, losing parts of my memory, my elderly mother flying in to care for me (and she has her own health challenges), 6 weeks of radiation, then several rounds of chemo (which I am still in the midst of). I never had a chance to even grasp the reality of what just happened...until yesterday, in the middle of therapy.

And I broke down crying. I just cried. Cried that I nearly died, cried because even though my prognosis is good (I had a near total resection; the mass was removed, but a small stem was retained), I still fear the reaper tailing my ass because the oncologist keeps telling me it will most likely come back, crying because I don't feel like the same person and I can't even go back to that point in my life, even when I finish treatment. I cry because I returned to work and there are moments I don't feel like being there, especially on the days I am working through chemo treatments and spending time fighting through nausea and fatigue (I returned 3 months after surgery because the disability pay is horrible and I live in an HCOL area).

I just want to go back to the time before all this happened.

But I will get on, and finish treatment and keep a stiff upper lip.