Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/12/25

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Subject: [Leica] health
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 07:01:41 +0100
References: <Y04E1p00907g8Sg0104Fz2> <549CAE74.1080002@cox.net>

This exchange really puts things in perspective for me. All the best to both 
Herbert and Ken. You guys are strong.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman

Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/

Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator

YNWA













On 26 Dec 2014, at 01:40, Ken Carney <kcarney1 at cox.net> wrote:

> Herbert,
> 
> Hang in there.  I am 20 years younger and have had surgery now for kidney 
> cancer, colon cancer and pancreatic cancer.  Actually, the pancreas 
> surgery last year showed renal cell carcinoma there, no doubt having met 
> there from the kidney cancer 15 years earlier.  I am advised it is 
> possible that there is still RCC somewhere, but that there is no effective 
> therapy (chemo).  So, I do what I always do and take things a day at a 
> time.  I truly hope you get better news and have the best possible 
> outcome.  Unpleasant stuff, this.
> 
> Ken
> Whose mother-in-law has survived more bullets than I can count and is 
> having her 100th birthday party Sunday.  We got her a Samsung Galaxy 
> tablet and extended warranty.
> 
> On 12/25/2014 6:04 PM, Herbert Kanner wrote:
>> Since everyone regards LUG as family and reports their health issues, 
>> I?ll throw mine in. This won?t be real short, because the details are 
>> interesting.
>> 
>> In 2001, my PSA jumped and I had the uncomfortable needle biopsy via 
>> ass-hole. Of nine needles, one picked up a couple of millimeters of 
>> malign cells which were pronounced to be aggressive. I then had many 
>> sessions of what is misnamed ?Intensity modulated radiation therapy?. 
>> Actually what happens is the source of the radiation rotates in a 
>> vertical plane around the patient and during the rotation, the shape of 
>> the beam is modulated by a diaphragm of tungsten fingers so as to always 
>> concentrate the radiation on the desired site. One time, I was really 
>> scared because the treatment was delated due to a computer crash, and 
>> when I asked what the computer program was housed in, they said Windows 
>> 2000.
>> 
>> Every year since, my PSA was checked and my prostate poked by the 
>> radiation oncologist.
>> 
>> A couple of months ago, I felt a sore muscle in my left thigh; I just 
>> thought it was a pulled muscle, and Naproxen relieved it. But just one 
>> day, it was so sever that I was limping, so I thought it would be a good 
>> idea to go to my primary care quack and check it out. When she pulled my 
>> leg outward, I yelled ?ouch? and she ordered a hip X-ray to be done on my 
>> way out.
>> 
>> By the time I got home, there was a frightful message on my answering 
>> machine. I was to go asap to the Stanford Hospital site in a neighboring 
>> city (Redwood City) where an appointment had been set up for a CAT scan. 
>> Then I was to drive straight to the Main Hospital at Stanford (Palo Alto) 
>> and see the same radiation oncologist. Also they were setting up an 
>> appointment, probably for the next day, for a radioactive bone scan.
>> 
>> The radiation oncologist showed me the X-rays and Cat scans on his 
>> computer screen. First there was a large lesion on my left femur. Then 
>> there was a bunch of little dots in my lungs that were not there two 
>> years ago. I said I was appalled. He said he was appalled. He then opined 
>> that my hip was about to break, that he checked that an orthopedic 
>> surgeon was available on or immediately after the weekend, and that the 
>> quickest way to get admitted to the hospital was via the emergency room. 
>> He had his resident wheel me there.
>> 
>> Well, on the way in, the rent-a-cop confiscated my Swiss army knife, and 
>> when it was apparent with a packed ER that I?d be there for a while, I 
>> got around to phoning my wife. They were so packed that I had to wait 
>> until there was a free bed.
>> 
>> After the routine things, mainly a blood draw, an orthopedic guy showed 
>> up. He said that there was no danger of a fracture, that I should go home 
>> and have a normal weekend, and that an appointment had been made to see 
>> an orthopedic surgeon on the following Tuesday. I guess it was probably 
>> thirty years since the radiation oncologist had learned to interpret that 
>> sort of X-ray.
>> 
>> On that day, my wife went along for moral support. Interestingly enough, 
>> all three of us in the room had something in common: doctorates from the 
>> University of Chicago, mine in physics, Lee?s in biochemistry, and the 
>> surgeon whatever real doctors get. The latter spent most of the 
>> forty-five minutes teaching me how to read the X-ray, primarily why it 
>> showed that there was no current risk of a fracture. When I inquired 
>> about either surgical support of the bone or just drilling to get a 
>> sample for a biopsy, he said that the risks outweighed the benefits. He 
>> said it was probably metastatic prostate cancer, slow-growing, and 
>> tending to deposit bone. Next appointment in a month with immediately 
>> preceding X-ray to assess fracture risk.
>> 
>> I finally got to see a medical oncologist. She indicated that this kind 
>> of cancer without PSA rising is very rare, but does happen. She felt that 
>> we had to know what we were dealing with, and if the surgeon reported 
>> that there was no way to get a sample with a needle, she was going to 
>> make the assumption that those dots on my lungs were not an infection 
>> residue but were the same tumor, and one of them was very accessible to a 
>> cat scan guided needle.
>> 
>> I?m waiting for that and will keep you posted. I?ll be 93 in June. I 
>> doubt that I?ll make 100.
>> 
>> Herb
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Herbert Kanner
>> kanner at acm.org
>> 650-326-8204
>> 
>> Question authority and the authorities will question you.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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In reply to: Message from kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney) ([Leica] health)