Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/12/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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. >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information