A GIST was found during an endoscopy exam i had done due to acid reflux. They confirmed its 5cm and im scheduled to have the surgery to remove it. Im sort of nervous about it. Has anyone had any experience with this or knows someone with it?
Just ran across the second of two New York Times opinion pieces under the above title. The first link is the original opinion piece and the second link is reader responses. This is the first time I’ve seen a discussion of what it is like to live with stage four cancer for a very long time…
I got sick last late July/early August, with what was originally thought to be a bleeding ulcer. By the time I took my stubborn self to the ER, for what I thought was a heart attack, come to find out I had been bleeding internally for 3 weeks.
Scans, X-rays, etc.. I was diagnosed with a malignant gist tumor in November of 2025.
By December 17th, I was on 400 mg of Imatnib daily.
When I was diagnosed with my tumor, which is in my third duodenum (Small intestine), it measured 11.5 × 8.4 cm.
First scans after starting Imatinib 12 weeks prior, and my tumor measured 10.4 × 7.7 cm. A shrinkage total of 17.1%
My next scans are the 5th of June.
Now that I've given you a very quick estimate of illness, medication, etc this is my question.
Did you continue to work while dealing with the fatigue, weakness, nausea, etc. If you did continue to work, how long did you continue to work for ?
All of the side effects that come with taking that medicine, are pretty gnarly. And I'm on the lowest dose that can be administered (one pill once a day ).
I've been into this for almost a year, and my body is telling me to stop. I'm at my Wit's end. This is a real struggle for me.