July 2, 2009

I have just stepped onto the threshhold of my second bout with cancer and my family and many friends want to know the details.  I thought this blog could substitute for individual emails and letters, at least it is worth a try.

background:  My first bout came a year ago, in July 2008 I was diagnosed with lung cancer.  I entered immediately into treatment, which consisted of both chemo (epitome and cisplaten)and radiation.  I was very lucky; I never felt any nausea nor pain.  In Feb. I was declared cancer-free, in remission.  I'd have a scan every 3 months.

But the coughing, which led to the discovery of the cancer, remained.  I was sent to a lung specialist who  declared I had extreme emphysema.  I went from cancer free to invalid in the space of one week.

My life has been taken over by the emphysema.  I have a nebulizer, which I use 4 x a day, and an oxygen concentrator, with clear tubing snaking across the ceilings of the house to the bedroom, and another run to the livingroom couch.  I can have oxygen where ever I go.  When I leave the house I carry a portable oxygen tank with me.  This has not been life as I lived it before the cancer, although the coughing is slightly diminished.

In May I had my 3 month "look-see" scan and, alas, it showed the cancer had migrated - to the hip, to the liver and to the pectoral muscle.  I went immediately into treatment again - my fear was that it might migrate to the brain.  The purpose of this latest round of chemo was to keep it at bay, and away from the brain.  At the same time a brain scan was ordered, and it showed a small lesion (8mm) in the posterior of the left ventricle.  

Now I am really frightened.  I can fight the other cancers, and keep my self hood.  But in the brain, the seat of my ego and personality?  I don't think so.  

We have temporarily suspended the chemo, and I have elected to have brain surgery, using focussed radiation, at AGH in Pittsburgh. 

I talked with my friend Bob, who in real life is a psychiatrist, and knows more about the brain than anyone else I know.   He says that in that location it will not damage my personality.  He praises the team at AGH, even sent his daughter there several years ago to have a skin cancer removed.  You can't get a better  recommendation than that.  I am reasonably assured that they will get the cancer, and nothing else.  I will have a consultation with them next week, and will "report" what I learn on this blog.