Is it just me?

Hi:

Ive been on this site a couple of months, two months after my mother got diagnosed with mets to the liver. This site has been great with all info and inspiring stories..but and this may sound unusual ...whenever there is an article on a new discovery..it usually ends with like the first human trial will be held in 2 to 5 years..this upsets me for two reasons..first isnt the timeline way too long..second my mother resides in a country (pakistan) where there aren't any clinical trial...is there any way through this website or any other mean to have clinical trials in Pakistan...for the sake of lets say ethnicity biases in responses..unlike here people back home actually think that this is contageous..I just cant bear to see people treat my mother as if she might effect them in some way...WE REALLY NEED TO SPEED UP this process of finding a better treatment or (shudder) cure. Another question I have is:

I have become quite religous in the past two months and for some reason I believe God has answered by prayers and my mother is in fact cured...can this be denial..or do people actually think this way...maybe I should wait for her next tests..anyways just venting my frustrations, sorry for that...again in need of inspiration and answers..Thanks

Shahyan

I was dx. 18 mos. ago with mets to bone, and chest. I have a very strong faith in God that I am healed. I still have symptoms and reports that show the disease is stable, but I just try to keep in my mind that He has healed me. Am I crazy or in denial, I don't know. But it sure beats feeling gloom and doom and that death is at my door. Just keep up your faith and whatever happens it is God's will.

I was just thinking on this yesterday...I woke up in the night in a cold sweat, feeling very hemmed in by this problem. The words of doctors came back to mind..."no cure", "a few years", "death process", "nothing we can do", and so on. I have vacillated for three years between feeling healed and the doom of the medical prognosis. But 'feeling' is not the answer, because as you can see, feelings change with circumstances. I know there is a better answer than just standing in the middle of the road and hoping the next car doesn't hit you...we can wait forever for the political machinery to turn in our favor, but I actively seek God and we have to get serious about this. I have gone thru many phases and one which was really abysmal was where I "tried" to get the attention of God by "doing" things. Somehow I know we receive the things of God, eg. healing for our bodies, through acceptance and not by any works of our own. Thank God, as it is very tiring, much like rolling a stone uphill only to have it roll down again. I am not out to proseletyze to anyone, esp. though I call myself a Christian, I do not have all the answers,

Shahyan,

What I do know is that if our country (Canada), has a technology that can save the life of a person not privie to that technology; it is possible to come here and get treated on humanitiarian grounds.

All the best,
Al

Hi, if it is not God keeping me alive I wish to thank who else it could be. I have preminitions, first time thought I should check my breast and was thinking to myself nothing serious ever happens to me, then a lump, after a miss diagnoses then 13 weeks later it was obvious there was something wrong with me. After surgery and treatment I thought to myself again, they always check my neck when I see the onc, I didn't have an appointment for weeks and there it was a lump in my neck. First of many and many tears. Then I was due for reconstruction surgery and had a lump in my neck this time revealed enlarged thyroid so no surgery, thyroid gave me heart failure I should have died but I didn't, my family was told, I wasn't. Lump in neck was still there after treating thyroid and tests revealed BC lump deep in neck past this one which would not have shown until too late. Treated this same obvious lump with radiation when I started getting sharp pains in head so had more radiation, original lump did not show on CT of ultra sound but you could feel it and see it, relieving onc wanted to know why I wanted an MRI then she said that there was nothing more they could do for me, that was the wrong answer 2 years later and I am still here, many things have just happened and doors opened with thoughts in my head so if not God it has to be a spirit that I have known. The weirdest thing of all is I started my first job at 15 and finished up after many years of working and family at 44 to end up across the road from this job, ending my work career, so I went full circle in my life, definately weird. I could write a book on my experiences, so there is definatley some one or thing writing my destiny, making me aware of what is happening to me so I can be treated befor it is too late.

My prayers are with you and everyone else on this site.

I have also had trouble with my country Australia being 10 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to treatment but I have been lucky I have a brilliant and great onc woring with me.

Love & Hugs Lyn

Dear Shahyan,

There is an organisation called the Breast Cancer International Research Group that organises large international trials involving a wide range of countries. Unfortunately, there aren't any investigators listed in Pakistan. There is no reason I can see why an investigator from Pakistan couldn't join, since Tunisia and India are both listed as having investigator sites. It may be something that Pakistan's leading breast cancer doctors could join.

Also, all of the BCIRG trials seem to have completed enrollment at present. The advantage of having trials in many different countries is that trials can find participants faster, which helps speed up the science but it does mean that trials close quickly.

I think that we are all disappointed by the slowness of cancer research. I am lucky in that my oncologist moves on the results of clinical trials right away, since here in the UK there is always a lag caused by regulation.

Best wishes,

Christine