Mesothelioma Cancer

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I was on amiltriptyline for 4 years from the age of nine & have taken other tricyclics as well as SSRI’s for most of my adult life. About 5 years ago, I was also put on Seroquel because of intrusive thoughts that I was dead already. I take Effexor at present along with medications for several other long-term conditions.
I did some digging & found out there’s research evidence that tricyclics, SSRI’s & atypical anti-psychotics like Seroquel raise the chances of developing diabetes. Unfortunately, I’ve taken antidepressants all my life & can’t live without them. My mother took antidepressants for many years, eventually ending up on Seroxat which really worked for her. She developed type 2 diabetes in her mid-sixties & died of pancreatic cancer within 5 years.
I’m beginning to show diabetic symptoms (flopping over when I sit up or lay down in bed, room spinning, spacey, sweet tasting urine) but need to know if they’ll take my Effexor off me & what they’ll replace it with, before I take it any further.
Is there anyone out there with either medical expertise or who has personal experience of what clinically depressed diabetics end up on.
I’m a forty two year old woman.

A very close friend of mine actually shes my ex and were trying to work things out. Her uncle who is her godfather and she is really close to him has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. From what I understand the odds of survival are not good at all for this. I don’t know what I can do or say to help her. Does anyone have any tips? She is not religious at all so turning to god will not help her. If anyone can give me the tools to help her through this bad time it would be greatly appreciated.

Even though for years now i’ve suffered with anxiety and depression my mother was recently diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and now I feel like i’m suffering from horrible hypochondria. I’ll start shaking one day for one reason or another and an hour later i’m convinced I have some horrible degenerative disease. Or I feel a bump on my head and i’m convinced its a tumor. The feelings are so intense that I feel like i’m going crazy. Is this normal for me to be feeling this after what I found out?
Should I see a psychiatrist? If so, what kind of medication will they want to put me on?

Unfortunately these types of cancer in the early stages of the disease have no symptoms. By the time a patient begins to have symptoms than the cancer is quite advanced. In general, the only way to diagnose these diseases is visually – you can feel or see the advanced tumors – lymph nodes are swollen – blood test looks abnormal – belly fills with fluid (ascites) – body retains fluid (edema) – loss of weight (the tumors take on their own blood supply and require alot of energy) – vague or acute pain (tumors may start to invade tissue or block organs causing pain) – nausea – feeling of malaise – many of the symptoms will lead the doctor to order some diagnostic imaging such as a Cat Scan or MRI. These scans may show tumors or a mass . . but there is still no way of knowing if it is cancer. The only way that any of these cancers can be diagnosed appropriately is with a biopsy of the suspected lesion or lymph node.
My son has a rare abdominal sarcoma that had metastasized into the lympthatic system. They were able to obtain a biopsy from the lymph node and identify his cancer in that manner.

While it’s possible to have two different tumors at once, it sounds likely as if a tumor in the pancreas spread to the liver, a common place for pancreatic cancer to go.
If this is correct, then unfortunately it is not currently considered curable and can be aggressive. Often these tumors can cause pain, nausea, poor appetite and sometimes jaundice (yellowish skin tone). Chemotherapy and radiation can sometimes help but still many die soon after diagnosis if it has spread to the liver (metastatic, or stage IV).
Patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer live a median of 2-3 months – that means 50% will live more than time, though. Hospice can be very helpful, as can the medical oncologist. The most important thing for your uncle is symptom relief, quality of life and the support and love of his family. I wish you and your uncle the best.