Does our health have to really go south in order to get serious screening?
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Your primary doctor will make the decisions of all your medical needs. I chose a young doctor early on, he knows my medical history and he also knows the best specialists. As he said, the same that treat his parents.
A CT scan (that we normal people call cat scan) looks at soft tissues. It can pick up tumors.
But the gold standard for spotting cancer is the PET scan.
You avoid carbs before the test, then are given radioactive sugar (I forget, either a drink or IV)
Cancer tumors love sugar and will suck the radioactive syrup right down.
When they do the scan, any tumors glow with the radioactivity.
I'm pretty sure you could find a doctor to prescribe a PET scan. But your insurance is going to want really good reasons for it, or they aren't going to pay. My insurance paid their share; my share was $5000. But I got a twofer; it found two kinds of cancer--the one we suspected, and another we didn't. (Both are now gone, and I am NED.)
I'm cutting out my tobacco use for good now. Haven't had a drink in 14 months.
The tobacco was making me sick I think - the withdrawal off of it was just grotesque. Definitely longer than liquor withdrawal. I thought I was going insane.
Ugh.
Now next up is I'd like to eliminate sugar from my diet - or limit it far more or to a day or two every week or month.
Good for you!
My father used to say if he couldn't smoke or drink, then life wouldn't be worth living . The only time he ever stopped either was when he was essentially living in VA hospitals for a couple of years. They sent him to hospitals in at least 3 states for different operations and treatment. He smoked 4 packs of unfiltered cigarettes and drank either probably close to a fifth of vodka or at least a six pack of beer a day for almost 35 years. Both Cirrhosis and Chronic Emphysema were listed on his death certificate. In the last year of his life he couldn't walk a city block without stopping to rest. I've tried to live my life in an opposite manner in that way. I've never been a smoker, and, except in college, I've never been more than a very light social drinker...who evolved into not drinking at all. Not even a glass of wine in the last 11 years.
My father used to say if he couldn't smoke or drink, then life wouldn't be worth living . The only time he ever stopped either was when he was essentially living in VA hospitals for a couple of years. They sent him to hospitals in at least 3 states for different operations and treatment. He smoked 4 packs of unfiltered cigarettes and drank either probably close to a fifth of vodka or at least a six pack of beer a day for almost 35 years. Both Cirrhosis and Chronic Emphysema were listed on his death certificate. In the last year of his life he couldn't walk a city block without stopping to rest. I've tried to live my life in an opposite manner in that way. I've never been a smoker, and, except in college, I've never been more than a very light social drinker...who evolved into not drinking at all. Not even a glass of wine in the last 11 years.
Never smoked. I was a dipper/chewer/smokeless user. In my late 30s now and grew up in neigh or hood where probably 2/3 of my childhood friends grew up to be smokers. I tried to learn how to smoke but by the grace of God I never could learn how to inhale cigarette smoke.
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Good for you!
. The only time he ever stopped either was when he was essentially living in VA hospitals for a couple of years. They sent him to hospitals in at least 3 states for different operations and treatment. He smoked 4 packs of unfiltered cigarettes and drank either probably close to a fifth of vodka or at least a six pack of beer a day for almost 35 years. Both Cirrhosis and Chronic Emphysema were listed on his death certificate. In the last year of his life he couldn't walk a city block without stopping to rest. I've tried to live my life in an opposite manner in that way. I've never been a smoker, and, except in college, I've never been more than a very light social drinker...who evolved into not drinking at all. Not even a glass of wine in the last 11 years.
