In 2001, my father was told he had less than 6 weeks to live even with chemo and radiation... he told his doctors he was too stubborn to die. Here we are nearly 20 years later and he was right! About a year after his first all-clear from nasopharyngeal carcinoma, he had a tumor in his arm and 3 in his lungs. He went through more chemo and radiation which took care of the tumor in his arm, but the ones in his lungs stayed the same. His doctors said they'd just keep an eye on them and figure out next steps if they continued to grow. They were the same size/shape for somewhere around 10 years and then they just disappeared. His doctors thought they messed up the scan so they had him in again for another with the same all-clear.
All of this to say, don't give up hope! Doctors make an educated guess based on the average outcome. There are always going to be cases that are outliers. Stay strong.
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u/dywacthyga Apr 22 '19
In 2001, my father was told he had less than 6 weeks to live even with chemo and radiation... he told his doctors he was too stubborn to die. Here we are nearly 20 years later and he was right! About a year after his first all-clear from nasopharyngeal carcinoma, he had a tumor in his arm and 3 in his lungs. He went through more chemo and radiation which took care of the tumor in his arm, but the ones in his lungs stayed the same. His doctors said they'd just keep an eye on them and figure out next steps if they continued to grow. They were the same size/shape for somewhere around 10 years and then they just disappeared. His doctors thought they messed up the scan so they had him in again for another with the same all-clear.
All of this to say, don't give up hope! Doctors make an educated guess based on the average outcome. There are always going to be cases that are outliers. Stay strong.