Hi, I am 17 years old and 18 months off chemo. Didnt originally have any disease in my splein only in neck and chest but recently been having pain in my spleen. Is this normal as I didnt have Cancer in my spleen before? Thanks

Dear Chloe

If I were you I would talk to a parent and see a Medical Oncologist, get a PET-CT scan done and take it from there. (Remember though that a PET-CT scan involves an amount of radio active ingredient being infused).

I am old enough to be your dad and am encouraged to see you are looking for information. For someone who believes and practices that decisions should be based on information, I must say that you are on the right path if you remember information should be carefully balanced to give you a basis for a beneficial decision.

I am sure that Ross, who is the strength of this site, would have some well researched information for you.

Till then let me try to answer your question as best I can from my own experience.
(Each human being is unique and although you know that, it was worth mentioning.)
My last Chemo was 35 months ago.
I too felt aches and pains but was alarmed when it was near my problem area (top of my head!) and thought I was getting it back.
One of the doctors who I trusted and respected (a well known Neuro-Surgeon in his own country) told me that it would be normal for a recovering patient to link any unusual pain to the disease they had just overcome. He went on to say that such thoughts and fears would not be helpful to a full recovery. He reminded me that my body had been subjected to highly toxic medication (I received 6 Cycles of R-CHOP) and that I was bound to feel unusual things.

I was reminded of the Desiderata where it says “Many fears are born of imaginings”.

So there was nothing more I could do about the pains but I stopped imagining and wiped from my mind any fear of the disease coming back.
As you may know, when you want to forget something you can’t.
That is because you are thinking about forgetting it and therefore thinking about it!
The only way is to replace those thoughts by focusing on something else.
Something interesting and worthwhile.
I did this by focusing my attention on what I could do to help strengthen my immune system (which would also help me to be ready to fight another day if necessary).

With the help of the medical community and others I got the information I needed to adjust my lifestyle to ensure my immune system stayed strong
a) through eating, drinking, resting and exercising appropriately.
b) by avoiding known or suspected causes for damage to our cells that may tip them into a cancer.

I kept my immune system strong and by the time of my PET-CT scan (I had one done 18 months after the last Chemo) it showed no signs of recurrence. Thank God for the opportunities I had had to practise the right things and the valuable information I received from many sources.

I hope and pray that you will continue to keep well and that you will find out you are okay.
Please inform a parent or guardian about what you are feeling and it would be wise to let them see this message as well.

Take care Chloe

God bless
Felix

Dear Chloe

I am keeping well thanks.
I share your joy at the news. (I trust it was a PET-CT scan and not a CT scan only).

As you know I advised you not to imagine things but to find out. Of course you understand that I did not mean that you should ignore what your body is telling you.
Never do that. Always try to find out so you can take appropriate and timely action.

One thing towards the effort would be to journal how you treat your system (food, fluid, rest, exercise,etc.)
It would help you track what helps and what doesn't to get you feeling better and staying that way. Remember, you are unique. In time you will learn to make the necessary adjustments.

There are certain foods and fluids that add acidity to the body. Your goal should be to keep your body pH alkaline. (Disease is said to thrive in an acidic environment).
In some parts of the world they refer to an intake as heaty (acidic) or cooling (alkaline).
While we cannot avoid a heaty contribution from some types of food/fluid we can always balance the intake by adding something cooling. This was routinely done at each meal by ancient cultures of Persia, India and the like. The practice survives in mostly rural parts of these regions.

It is important to be mindful of any other medical concerns (I hope you don't have) in any plan that you make.

In the absence of other complications, raisins, spinach and dates will help keep your haemaglobin levels up. Haemaglobin is supposed to take oxygen to cellular level. Cancer, we are told, doesn't get along with Oxygen. Doing light exercises would be beneficial.

At this stage you should be giving your system the benefit of at least 4litres of fluids per day. Water as well as appropriate fruit. Yes appropriate to your situation at a given time depending on what nutrients you are trying to give your system and remembering the heaty/cooling principle. The desired end effect being a cumulative intake that has a "cooling" effect on the system.

Underlying causes are many. Prominent man made ones are wireless devices that use electromagnetic radiation. I don't use a cell phone any more but that is another long story but very much connected to what I suspect got me ill.

Click my username and you will know how to contact me if you wish. Always keep a parent informed. My advice is free.

Take care Chloe

God bless
Felix

Well actually it was only a normal CT not a PET one? Should they have done a PET one?
I live in the UK you see and there is only 4 places in the UK with pet scanners apparently! I do live really close to one but iv only ever had two: 1 before my treatment and one after? Hmm.
The food advice is really helpful that you've given me, iv told my mum to buy some more spinach (not very keen on dates):)

Once again, hope you are well + will keep parents informed :)

Chloe

Chloe:
I don't think you need to be concerned about the fact that they looked at your spleen only by way of a CT scan, and I'll explain why: You didn't have any prior splenic involvement, so there's not a lot of reason to worry that you would have it now. A CT scan would show tumor activity if there was any. Granted it wouldn't show cancerous activity, meaning cancer cells in action if they were small in number - a PET scan would because it looks for metabolic action in cells, and cancer cells devour glucose at a higher clip than healthy cells.

My point is that in the unlikely event that there's some cancerous activity in your spleen but a CT scan showed the spleen to otherwise be in good shape, then it's really really hard to imagine cancer cells in such small numbers causing you spleen pain. Does this make sense?

If not, what I'm trying to say is that there are other reasons why your spleen might be hurting, but cancer recurrence doesn't seem like it could be one of them. If they didn't notice an enlargement of your spleen in the CT scan, and they didn't notice any tumorous growths on it, then you should be good.

Ross

Dear Chloe

No cause for worry.
I can only go by my own experience and hence the mention of PET-CT. I am on “watch” and have been recommended to undergo PET-CT scans periodically, with the intervals increasing with time.

One of the Medical Oncologists I consulted told me not to bother with CT scans but to go for the PET-CT to help check for any recurrence. (Now that was particularly for the purpose of detecting cancer and not to check on a particular organ for some other complaint.)

To expand a bit on what Ross has mentioned, while a CT scan provides a detailed picture of the internal anatomy apparently revealing the location, size and shape of abnormal cancerous growths (anatomical aspects), the highly sensitive PET scan supposedly detects the metabolic signal of actively growing cancer cells (metabolic aspects).
The combined PET/CT scan, I was told, would be more accurate than a PET scan and a CT scan alone. Alone, each imaging test is said to have particular benefits and limitations but when the results of PET and CT scans are "fused" together, the combined image is claimed to provide information on cancer location and metabolism.

Having said that, I must acknowledge the sound analysis above, made by Ross, which will take any worry you may have still had about your spleen. [He is going to run the doctors out of business (joke)].
The scan came clean, so keep smiling.

I get a blood test (including LDH) done every three to four months (not advocating that you do too).
I tend to generally stray with respect to cholesterol levels but manage to bring it back to normal by adjusting food and exercise alone. This is one aspect of my efforts to stay healthy.

"Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land." My dad used to often quote this to us. I guess I never connected it with diet and exercise. Yes Chloe, watch your daily input of food/fluid/rest/exercise and you will know how to strike a balance and grow into a strong adult with ample health and vigor.

Keep well Chloe
Felix

Thank you both Felix and Ross, your explanations have been both really reassuring for me. I suppose I'm just going to try and lead a healthy lifestyle as said and hopefully it should sort me out!
If I get any more problems with it I'l get them to take another look but I'm sure I'm just panicking.

Hope you are both well,

Chloe :)