I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

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BriefCasey795
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I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by BriefCasey795 »

So, if there are any veteran members of CI that still go on here that need a quick reminder, this is "Red", or, well, better known as "Red Chao" when I first joined almost a decade ago.

Not posting this in General's "Users who disappear" because I'm pretty sure what I'm about to talk about would likely derail the thread. Right, time to cut to the chase.

I was diagnosed with leukemia on May 14th, 2017.

Now needless to say, I lived. Otherwise, I wouldn't be posting this right now. Also, I really don't want to cram the first half of a lengthy explanation into a forum post,so I'll let this Journal Entry I've kept on my dA ever since the day it was posted do the talking.
https://briefcasey795.deviantart.com/jo ... -691821739

Since that journal was first posted back in July, I think I've got some explaining to do on what happened since then, and I'll gladly do so, so here's my cancer status from August to now. I do have to warn that a long explanation's ahead. I hope some parts of my explanation aspect are site-safe as well. Otherwise, I'll adjust the explanation accordingly if the mods tell me to.
Spoiler:
While I had some time to relax other than to do a routine procedure that required me to be bed-ridden most of the time every week in July, it wasn't until August where I had to be admitted to a hospital again for a bone marrow transplant. The story behind that is that my doctor recommended it to me sometime after I was first discharged in June since it has a much higher chance of making sure the cancer does not return as opposed to chemotherapy alone.

I don't know if anyone knows someone who had to fight a cancer that has the option of being treated via a bone marrow transplant, but let me say that it is no walk in the park. There's the risk of some nasty side effects present from receiving a transplant, some even potentially fatal. However, this was mitigated because earlier that month, my brother tested to see how his bone marrow matched up with mine, and it was a very good match, which was why the process was recommended to me. It definitely sounded scary as I did my research on what's done, but I went through with it knowing that it's to ensure the highest chances of the cancer never coming back.

I had to do endure so many things, before and after the transplant itself after being admitted. First of all, radiation therapy was one of the things part of the process, and it wasn't fun because it made me vomit and itch horrendously. After that, I was given high dosage chemotherapy, and the next thing I knew, my taste buds were badly messed up, it was hard for me to find something to eat that didn't either leave a bad aftertaste or taste like complete garbage from the get-go. This time my hair did fall out, and it's still regrowing as of today, along with my taste buds recovering.

I think after receiving my brother's cells was the most stressful part of my stay, because even though the engraftment was great, I was hit with a side effect that badly messed up my GI tract, causing my bowels to get weak and push out nothing but liquefied stools, so badly that sometimes it would happen without me realizing it, but one thing for sure was that I ended up going a lot more than usual, and that included the middle of the night, screwing up my sleep schedule for sure, and while the transplant was done in August, that side effect alone was why I was kept in for much longer than everyone expected. I wasn't discharged until November as a result of that. The stress started to become hard to deal with late September, and needless to say I missed quite a few things that happened in October, and I was very bummed out about that, and afraid I might have had to miss Thanksgiving as well. What didn't help was that at the time, I was given different treatments in attempt to improve the condition of my bowels, and they barely did anything. I ended up feeling frustrated and scared, and honestly I think it did a number on my tolerance to annoying things as a result, because I started to notice I became a bit more irritable than usual.

That finally came to an end in November when just when they were about to switch to another treatment regimen until at the last minute, my stools finally started to show improvement, and after some time of making sure they stayed that way with the current regimen, I was finally discharged, just in time for Thanksgiving as well, which I felt relieved and grateful for. What really helped was that on top of that, a few days before my release, I underwent a bone marrow biopsy to check on how I was doing post transplant, and results showed there was still no sign of leukemia cells. Anyway, I was sent home with some medicine to take every day, and things have been going well and improving ever since.
So there's the story so far. Sorry if the medical lingo is hard to understand, you just get to know the names of some things and procedures when you've been a recovering cancer patient for so long.

Now, the reason why I didn't let people know about this until now is well, I simply forgot since people I know in CI are at the back of my mind since I don't go on here as much as I used to. (Since I intially left because I felt I was no longer welcome here because I thought people wouldn't let go of the kind of idiot I was a decade ago. Then again, that was in 2012, and even then, my middle school self was also pretty dumb and naive.) As the first half of my explanation suggests, me doing GMod stuff on Youtube and such introduced me to a new circle of friends, which were my closest online ones along with my real life friends and family, and I pretty much focused on those the most when it came to keeping in touch with them. Not to mention four of my real life friends (gf included) had my back and visited often.

I just so happened to remember this place, since, well, not only is it the first suggestion that comes up when I type c into my computer's address bar, but I've been thinking about games I remember playing when I was younger as of late, and today I remembered the Chao Gardens, thus this place.

If I did remember to let people here know about half a year ago though, If I haven't already, I probably would have said something apologizing to anyone who still might hold a grudge against me for the dumb, annoying buffoon I was a decade ago in case I didn't make it. Even so, I'm still not proud of the kind of person I was at the time at all. In fact I need to find a new thread to avidly post in, since the thread I posted in the most is still that one where I unceremoniously lost to a certain someone in an online Pokemon battle. I honestly would want to bury the hatchet if I had the chance. That said, that apology would still hold up anyway, since if I didn't say it already in the past, it's there now. I can assure you I am a changed man.

Anyway, I guess this is just to say I still exist, but had to endure cancer. I'll try to visit more often since I still have fond memories of the Chao Garden stuff.
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by Mamkute »

Hey BriefCasey/Red/Red Chao.

I mostly missed your time online, joining right around your time of leaving or so. I didn't experience any of your younger antics, but I am pretty sure just about everyone understands that middle school days are full of cringey moments by everyone, ever. I know I am not too proud of who I was 10 years ago, and 10 years from now I may not be proud of who I am now (I hope not, but eh, the best I can do is hope.) And people here realize that a lot of what happened in the old days of CI is full of cringe on all sides.

Anyway, thanks for sharing that. I am very glad you are okay and that things are looking up. And I am very sorry that you went through all of that. I got sort of squimish reading through your descriptions, but I am glad you shared it. And thanks for thinking of us. I am bad at finding more to say.
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by Nano »

My aunt had cancer, and while I don't know the specifics of what she went through, I do know it's one of the hardest and scariest things to go through in your life. I'm very VERY glad everything turned out alright for you minus some leakage, and I wanna thank you a ton for sharing your story. Regardless of your past, I still think you're a great dude and I'm glad you took the time to come out and speak to us about this.

If you don't mind me asking, how are things going now? Any lingering fears or effects that persist or are you more out of sight out of mind?
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by BriefCasey795 »

Nano wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:25 pm If you don't mind me asking, how are things going now? Any lingering fears or effects that persist or are you more out of sight out of mind?
My health has been improving, for one thing, though I'm still cautious about some of the things I eat since I don't wanna trigger something bad in my bowels. Though I'm a bit reluctant to try some foods/snacks as of now since my screwed up taste buds at the time of my stay and when I first got discharged drastically changed my taste for some foods, but now it's stabilizing, I just need to muster up the courage to try again.

On another note, I pretty much have been taking sanitation a lot more seriously since the medicine I'm currently taking can cause my immune system to fluctuate a little, but even that's been improving. I'm just waiting until I get the all clear from my doctor to go near my pet birds again, since I really do miss handling them, and that's so far the only big thing I'm currently barred out of as of now.

As for fears, naturally, there's the possibility of the cancer coming back, but of course I hope that's not the case.
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by ShadriaFan »

We never interacted before, but I'm really glad to hear that recovery is going well! Cancer is very scary, very stressful, and makes the patient and their family's lives a lot more worrying and troubling than usual. Hopefully nothing goes wrong with your transplants and may the cancer never come back :')
In 2014 I lost my grandmother (who raised me as a mother-figure in my life, to the point I called her mom since I was able to speak) to lung cancer. She was a stubborn woman and when doctors noticed a spot in her lungs around 2008, she refused to have it inspected thinking it was emphysema-she smoked since she was a teen. When it was diagnosed, the cancer was stage 3 and she passed away with stage 4. Last year I lost a uncle to brain cancer, he was a dairy farmer and was around a lot of dangerous chemicals for years.
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BriefCasey795
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by BriefCasey795 »

I'm so sorry to hear that.

Anyway, I think I did see you around a few times before in the past. Back to the main matter, that's kind of why I get scared whenever something feels wrong and it exacerbates, since you never know what could be wrong until the doctors do their thing. Since as mentioned in the dA journal that explains half of the thing, first I was tiring out and bruising more easily, then I couldn't sleep well without hearing a pounding noise from the back of my head or something, and the last straw was my vision becoming blurry for several minutes every morning. I will say that considering what it turned out to be, it's scary to think I could have died if I hadn't gotten myself checked when I did.
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by Mooncow »

Hey Red, it's really good to see you back, and even better to hear about you winning your battles with cancer and still well enough to come back and share a post with us all.
You're a very well known member and it's warming to know you still have fond enough thoughts of the website to visit again.

It takes a lot of strength to go through the battle you have, and you should be very proud of what you have done. There are countless people without the strength to fight cancer and many more who succumb to it even with the strength. Great to know you're OK and I personally wish you all the best with the rest of your recovery.

Thank's for reaching out to us all and all your contributions to the forum in the best. Best wishes~
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Re: I think I forgot to mention something I should have mentioned here half a year ago.

Post by eblu »

He might not have won against BUSHNAK

But not even cancer can beat Red
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