The Strange Cancer Vocabulary -by Joe

One of the many things you're not prepared for after diagnosis is the medical terminology used in cancer treatment.  As if cancer wasn't scary enough, all these big and bizarre terms & phrases get thrown at you:

neutropenia, monoclonals, stem cells, receptors, her2, fsh, papillary, psa, hematopoietic, epithelial, ionizing, lymphatic, oncogene, platelets, metastatic, staging, hematuria, apheresis, thrombocytopenia, infusion, ductal, germ cell, pluripotent, fibroid, nodules, mass, p.e.t., c.t., mri.. ARGH!

On the lighter side, here's a look at some of the really strange terms:

1. Flush - (do it to an I.V., not a commode!)
2. Void - (huh? oh..urinate!)
3. Power Port - (where Superman lands? no, a 'permanent' access under the skin for labwork & chemo)
4. Emesis - (Superman's arch enemy? ..actually, it's throwing up)
5. Code - (something geeks write? nope. a cardiac or respiratory arrest)
6. S.O.B. - (an insult?? hahaha, it's shortness of breath)

It took me years to learn all the terms necessary to order an espresso drink. This is worse!

Hopefully, you'll never have to learn this language.

As always, thanks so much for your support & compassion,
Joe