Doctors told Dawn Decker she had allergies. They also attributed her problems
to irritable bowel
syndrome, ulcers, colitis and stress. Some said it was all in her head.
But after the string of diagnoses, the 40-year-old mother of three was
still sick. She had severe
diarrhea, dehydration, stomach cramps, as well as joint and muscle pain she
compared to being
"hit head to toe with a baseball bat."
More than four frustrating years passed before allergists suggested a
blood test for a type of cancer
called carcinoid. In July 2000, she was told she had the rare condition.
In the quiet of her pale-yellow living room, feet curled beneath her in
an overstuffed sofa, Decker
recently recalled hearing the diagnosis.
"The first reaction was, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die,"' she said.
"For years I'd had symptoms. You're just bounced back and forth," she said.
"So, in some ways,
the diagnosis was a relief."
Carcinoid, which only affects about 50,000 people in the United States,
has no cure. (Wendy's
founder Dave Thomas died from the disease in January.) Radiation doesn't
work and chemotherapy
is effective only about one-third of the time.
A decade ago, patients such as Decker with rare diseases might have stayed
in the dark with little
or no support from other sufferers. But upon her diagnosis, she looked to
the Internet for more
information, and found it.
She's not alone. Patients are turning to the Internet in droves to find
information and to set up
online support networks. For those with rare conditions, the online community
- in terms of advice
and resources shared - can be invaluable.
Jannine Cody of San Antonio started the Chromosome 18 Registry in 1990
after her daughter was
diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. She went online with it sometime in
1995.
"You have to become your own resource in a lot of ways," she said, in dealing
with doctors who
have never heard of the chromosomal abnormality, which affects about one
in 40,000 people.
When Decker went online after her diagnosis, she found the National Carcinoid
Foundation*
site and the personal site of Susan Anderson**, a carcinoid patient in Tempe,
Ariz.
Anderson's site chronicles her eight-year search for an accurate diagnosis
and her battles with
carcinoid and breast cancer.
"What I tried to do is put up a page with links and information that I
wished would have been in one
place when I was diagnosed in 1995," Anderson said. "We're glad when people
find it so they
can say, 'Oh, I'm not alone."'
Decker has never met another carcinoid patient in person, but she is trying to change that.
Recently, she contacted 24 carcinoid patients in Texas and established
the South Texas Carcinoid
Fighters. So far, the group meets only in cyberspace, logging on at a set
time to chat and e-mail
one another. "Eventually, we're trying to set up a face-to-face meeting,"
she said.
Cody, who returned to school and received her doctorate in genetics, is
now an associate professor
of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center. Over
the past seven years, she has
shared her experience with people allover the world, particularly through
the Internet and the
group's Web site.
The goal of the Chromosome 18 Registry, said executive director Claudia
Traa, is for people
to return from a diagnosis, type in "chromosome 18" on their computers, and
find information,
advice and support.
The nonprofit group also strives for doctors to refer their patients to the site upon diagnosis.
Decker has become the Texas contact for newly diagnosed carcinoid patients,
and said
reaching out to others has helped her own struggle. "That's the hardest
part of having a rare
cancer -finding support, or the lack of support," she said. "In a way, it's
been a very positive
emotional experience because I get to help others and that helps take your
mind off yourself."
* Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, Inc. http://www.carcinoid.org
** Susan Anderson’s Carcinoid Homepage http://www.carcinoidinfo.info