the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, would you turn to Facebook for medical advice? It’s the last place some of us would think to go for medical advice but a New Zealand woman says it was the advice from a Facebook friend she’s never met that saved her life. After undergoing months of surgery and radiation therapy for throat cancer, Diana Craig thought she was in the clear. However a routine follow-up with her doctor in May showed that the cancer had returned. Her team of specialists in New Zealand, where she lives, gave her only six to 24 months to live.
Desperate Craig sought answers and a second opinion, so she turned to an unlikely source , Facebook.
There she connected with Dr. Sajjad Iqbal, a retired pediatrician who lives nearly 9,000 miles away in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The two had met in a Facebook group for head and neck cancer support.
According to WPIX news , Dr. Iqbal remembered “I said the first recommendation is change your oncologist,” Dr.Iqbal it turns out is a cancer survivor himself, diagnosed with salivary gland cancer in 2002. He was told he had about two years to live. Instead of making a bucket list, Dr. Iqbal managed his own care, a journey he documented in his book “Swimming Upstream” and he’s defied the odds.
Iqbal says ,”I think the biggest mistake people make, is that they hear the word cancer and they are half dead already,” After months of recommending tests and treatment for his new Facebook friend that she says her doctor’s initially scuffed at, Craig learned about a month ago that she’s cancer free.The pair finally met face to face for the time this week in New Jersey and they’re now telling their story in an effort to inspire other patients on the brink of giving up.”You have to have hope but you have to be determined to take over your own health and your be your own best advocate.”