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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sometimes having a slow cancer is like living in a Dish Network commercial

My family members and friends have my best interest in mind, but sometimes the information they forward to me is a bit scary, and I end up feeling like the middle guy in the 2013 Dish Network commercial, where he wants to hide under the bed to stay safe.

Just when I think I have a handle on how many different things can happen with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, fresh news knocks me out of my librarian objectivity and I end up silently yelling in my head just like the Dish Network guy yells out loud. I felt that way when I had been having a sore leg recently and coincidentally received a message that included this latest case study on ACC of the leg http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=24072374. If I had been truly concerned, I would have contacted my wonderful family physician (because she takes care of my whole being) or friendly neighborhood head/neck surgeon (because he is familiar with my cancer path, though not necessarily the anatomical body part in the research article), and asked if I needed to be evaluated. Then I would have used my library's consumer health information service to request information on any diagnoses that I might receive (since I am too close to the situation to look up my own information - I really need an unbiased, objective eye to judge what information would apply to my conditions). If you find the need to locate consumer health information services near you, please use the links on the right side of this blog to help you out, or contact me and I will get you in touch with expert librarians in your area.

Don't hide under the bed. You need to know. Please use a medical or public library and ask a librarian to help you search for information on all topics of health. They can help you locate information to take to your health care provider team for discussions that will lead to decisions about your and your family members' care.

A sidebar - the case study I link to above has a line in the abstract that says: "There is no literature to date that discusses its incidence in the lower extremity."They should have had a librarian on their team - I located this article from 2002 with just a basic search: Cylindroma of the leg http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=11910240 . (Cylindroma is the old term for Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. Other terms used in the research literature for this condition, according to the Medical Subject Heading for Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma:

  • Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma
  • Adenoid Cystic Carcinomas
  • Carcinomas, Adenoid Cystic
  • Cystic Carcinoma, Adenoid
  • Cystic Carcinomas, Adenoid
  • Adenocystic Carcinoma
  • Adenocystic Carcinomas
  • Carcinoma, Adenocystic
  • Carcinomas, Adenocystic
  • Cylindroma
  • Cylindromas

1 comment:

AliMoonGoddess said...

Interesting. I didn't realize all the other names til your post. Leave it to a Librarian to know. :)

Hoping you are feeling better with no aches & pains at all.

 
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