Sunday, November 18, 2007

Cancer, Part 2

If you have stayed with me so far, then you should be up to speed...so I shall continue...

I had my first appointment with Dr. M1. He examined me and looked at all the data and recommended radiation therapy daily for about eight and a half weeks. I didn't know what this entailed, but then he explained it. They will be using some advanced medical systems that are fully computerized to direct the radiation to the specific areas needed to prevent damage to other areas that do not need to be treated.

There are side effects, however. Severe sunburn. Fatigue. Lethargy. The radiation would probably kill one or more of my salivary glands, or at least damage them, causing thick and nasty saliva. My throat would become raw from the radiation. I might lose my hair in select areas.

I'm here to tell you, they aren't kidding.

I went to an appointment with the medical oncologist, Dr. M2. We spoke of the chemotherapy regimen that I was to take. He decided to put me on a new drug that is approved for head and neck cancers called Erbitux. This is a different form of chemo in that it is a drug rather than chemical. You see, with traditional chemotherapy, they load you up with poisons that will hopefully kill the cancer before it kills you. The side effects were that I would get acne. Severe acne. But I won't lose my hair. I immediately said OK, and got on the schedule. I would be taking one dose every Friday afternoon for seven weeks.

One thing that Dr. M2 told me that I found really interesting was that this drug, Erbitux, is what got Martha Stewart in trouble. You may remember back a few years ago, Martha was sent to jail for insider trading of her ImClone stock. Apparently Erbitux had not gotten FDA approval for treatment of something, and she found out and sold her ImClone stock before it took a dive.

My first appointment with Dr. M1 was to get pictures, x-rays and a CAT scan so they could program the computers for proper targeting of the radiation. This entailed fitting me for the mask. What a weird experience that was! They laid me down on a moving table, the same they use for the CAT scan, on a special backboard. In a heated unit, they pulled out a plastic mesh board which they placed directly over my face and attached it to the backboard. It molded to my face and hardened in an instant. This mask would be used in the radiation to make sure everything was aligned properly. They used lasers built in to the walls and ceiling to set the targeting.

So, thus began the adventure. I would go to the office and they would put me on a backboard and attach the mask. It was a little bit disconcerting for the first few times, I felt trapped. But, the device that delivered the radiation was not enclosed like a CAT scanner or MRI, but it was large. It would go around me 360 degrees, stopping occasionally and whirring and buzzing. In about 10 minutes, it was done.

I thought that I strong enough to work through this ordeal, and I did for a while. I would steal away in the early afternoon and go to treatment and come back and finish working. This worked out great for a while.

Then the side effects caught up to me. I fell asleep at work quite often. My friend, Chris, who works at the same company I do (what would I do without him) would cover for me with phone calls and such to take the load off. My boss, Hank, suggested that I take leave, but I thought that I could make it. As time went on, and I started taking heavier and heavier drugs. I decided to take Hank upon his offer.

I did not have enough ETO, or Employee Time Off, to cover the five days before the EPI, or Extended Personal Illness, would kick in. I had almost 400 hours of EPI available. Thankfully, Hank donated me about 27 hours of ETO to get me to the EPI stage. I decided to take off six weeks and Dr. M1 agreed. So, I gathered up my work laptop, so I could keep in touch and monitor some of the projects that were going, and went on leave.

On the first day, my mother insisted that I move back in to her house. I could sleep in the spare bedroom. I would not have my little house, my little sanctuary. It was comfortable, though, and reminded me of the years that I lived there. I still had satellite TV and my iPod, and I could still go wherever I wanted...as if I really cared to.

My throat was raw. My skin was going to break down, and it did. I had severe sunburn symptoms on my neck and face. My throat was raw and I could barely swallow. I could hardly open my mouth. I was constantly tired. The acne was starting to take hold pretty badly...my dad called me a little spotted pup. Hardy, har, har!

I was put on a number of drugs, including an opiate-based pain patch which worked quite well. I was also taking copious amounts of Vicodin for acute pain relief. I felt like House. Cancer patients are in the catbird seat where good drugs are concerned...they will pretty much give you anything you want.

When I started this ordeal, I was 298 pounds. I was definitely not a little guy. Since I had no appetite at all, and I could not taste anything due to damage on my tongue from the radiation, and when I did try to eat it was excruciatingly painful and I usually threw up everything, I started to lose weight rather quickly. Dr. M1 demanded that I have a feeding tube installed into my stomach. After reading about it online and discussing it with my mother, I said "Hell, no!" Dr. M1 was not happy at all, but there was nothing that he could do.

Dr. M2 was less shocked about my weight loss. He said since I was big to start with, and healthy, that it was less of a problem to lose weigh quickly. He said, specifically, "if you weighed 74 pounds soaking wet, then we would have to take measures."

I am now down to 230 pounds. This is a weight loss program that I would not recommend.

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