The Big “C”

Cancer.  We just learned about neoplasia in pathology — it was pretty interesting.  Cancer cells are like abducted-by-alien cells… I can see why people go into oncology.

Here’s an article from the NYTimes.com about cancer and how some of them actually will vanish without any treatment.  That’s not to encourage the scared-to-go-to-the-doctor-folks that you should just leave them alone and cross your fingers in hopes that it’s one of those tumors. 

“Cancer cells and precancerous cells are so common that nearly everyone by middle age or old age is riddled with them”… that’s a statement from one of the pathologists that they had talked to — kinda ominous and scary.  Just thinking about that makes me feel like I’m essentially on the road to my deteriorating death as we speak… but reality is, I am.  And so is everyone else.  It’s what you do before you get there that matters, right?

Now that Doobie is a middle-aged doberman (turned 6 in June) I’ve gotten really obsessive about getting his annual diagnostics done – bloodwork… he’s constantly on the verge of going hypothyroid but not quite there; echocardiogram – so far so good; 24-hour holter monitor – so far zero VPCs… He’s starting to pop lipomas which aren’t the most attractive, but I’ll most definitely take it over anything that would end in -sarcoma or -carcinoma!  Being a doberman, I feel like I have a lot more to worry about with him too… I know I’m covering the big killer – cardio, but there are other things that get dobes too… kidney & liver stuff.  Sometimes cancer is in there, too.  Oh the stresses of having a dog!

So far, pathology has proven to be my favorite class of this semester.  Can’t wait to get to the congenital deformities!