winner70ta
07-26-2011, 11:13 AM
On January 3rd I had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Two days later the doc called back with a little better news in that it was not colon cancer buy it was still a cancer. a lymphoma (large B-cell, non-Hodgekins). To say that it was a shock was an understatement. I had just retired last August and was looking forwards to finally not being on a schedule, seeing the grandkids and messing with the Mustang. I had used up a bunch of sick time before I retired. Not from knowing that anything was wrong with me but there had been a big change in the job structure (hostile takeover by another department) and our mother had suffered a severe stroke at the end of Feb 2010 and was in a nursing home undergoing some rehab. Well, rehab in name which caused all of the siblings stress and grief.
By November some of my interest in cars had definitely fallen off and I was having some issues in the digestive arena. Then I started having some back pain in the leftside, similar to kidney stones jabbing at you, and eventually at night the pain would radiate over to the rightside. My doc for some reason thought it was gas or something inflamed and truthfully he should have had me done a catscan then but he did not. He gave me a steroid which helped for a couple of weeks but the pain came back.
Finally I had a run to the ER which they could not find anything for what brought me there (bloody stool...sorry TMI). That dock suggested that I get scanned.
Back to my family doc who sent me to get scanned just before Christmas. The results saw a thickening in the colon wall. That led to the colonoscopy on Jan 3rd.
I have gone through six rounds of chemo, what they called the R-CHOP for treating lymphoma. The good thing of it was that I was not supposed to get cut open, that they lymphoma would "melt" away. I did undergo three life threatening ordeals as a result of the chemo:
1. After the first treatment I became nutipenic <sp?> where the chemo wiped out most of my white blood cells and I had to be hosptalized for 3 1/2days.
2. After my second treatment I got a blood clot in my right lung. This was the sametime that Serena Williams also had gotten the samething. Being that did not kill me right off they placed me back into the hospital for a day just for observance.
After my third treatment they sent me to the hospital to have a full body scan done, PT scan done. Now I had went through this once when I was diagnosed and was determined that I was at Stage 4 as to how the cancer was affecting me and how it was in my lymph nodes throughout my body. This scan came back and showed that I was clean! The oncologist was almost giddy that I had responded so well to the treatment. Then...
3. I was due to get my 4th treatment but was having some pain and discomfort in my gut. They CT scanned me again to see what was going on but could not see anything. Doc held off on my treatment thankfully. What happened then was on Sunday night\Monday morning of March 28 I got more pysically sick than I had ever been. I was able to get to the car and my wife rushed me to the ER. They x-rayed me and was able to see a perforation in my colon and all of the good stuff was going into my body. That required immediate surgery.
So the surgery that I wanted to avoid happened anyway just under more dire circumstances. What had happened was that where the tumor had attatched itself in my cecum that when it melted away it weakened the area where it had attatched and just like a weak hose it blew out.
So I was able to finish my chemo treatments and all looks great. When the did the surgery they were able to biopsy the piece that was removed where the tumor was and found no living cancer cells. I also had another body scan and was clean.
So as I recoupe and get my strength back (longer process when you are older) I'm beginning to feel like my old self. I have to tell you that your perception of life certainly changes after going through that type of experience. Thank God I have a loving wife and family!
Thanks for reading now go out and have fun.
-Bob
By November some of my interest in cars had definitely fallen off and I was having some issues in the digestive arena. Then I started having some back pain in the leftside, similar to kidney stones jabbing at you, and eventually at night the pain would radiate over to the rightside. My doc for some reason thought it was gas or something inflamed and truthfully he should have had me done a catscan then but he did not. He gave me a steroid which helped for a couple of weeks but the pain came back.
Finally I had a run to the ER which they could not find anything for what brought me there (bloody stool...sorry TMI). That dock suggested that I get scanned.
Back to my family doc who sent me to get scanned just before Christmas. The results saw a thickening in the colon wall. That led to the colonoscopy on Jan 3rd.
I have gone through six rounds of chemo, what they called the R-CHOP for treating lymphoma. The good thing of it was that I was not supposed to get cut open, that they lymphoma would "melt" away. I did undergo three life threatening ordeals as a result of the chemo:
1. After the first treatment I became nutipenic <sp?> where the chemo wiped out most of my white blood cells and I had to be hosptalized for 3 1/2days.
2. After my second treatment I got a blood clot in my right lung. This was the sametime that Serena Williams also had gotten the samething. Being that did not kill me right off they placed me back into the hospital for a day just for observance.
After my third treatment they sent me to the hospital to have a full body scan done, PT scan done. Now I had went through this once when I was diagnosed and was determined that I was at Stage 4 as to how the cancer was affecting me and how it was in my lymph nodes throughout my body. This scan came back and showed that I was clean! The oncologist was almost giddy that I had responded so well to the treatment. Then...
3. I was due to get my 4th treatment but was having some pain and discomfort in my gut. They CT scanned me again to see what was going on but could not see anything. Doc held off on my treatment thankfully. What happened then was on Sunday night\Monday morning of March 28 I got more pysically sick than I had ever been. I was able to get to the car and my wife rushed me to the ER. They x-rayed me and was able to see a perforation in my colon and all of the good stuff was going into my body. That required immediate surgery.
So the surgery that I wanted to avoid happened anyway just under more dire circumstances. What had happened was that where the tumor had attatched itself in my cecum that when it melted away it weakened the area where it had attatched and just like a weak hose it blew out.
So I was able to finish my chemo treatments and all looks great. When the did the surgery they were able to biopsy the piece that was removed where the tumor was and found no living cancer cells. I also had another body scan and was clean.
So as I recoupe and get my strength back (longer process when you are older) I'm beginning to feel like my old self. I have to tell you that your perception of life certainly changes after going through that type of experience. Thank God I have a loving wife and family!
Thanks for reading now go out and have fun.
-Bob