@Right_in_Virginia @EdJames @Victoria33 @Freya @Bigun @SZonian @Cyber Liberty @roamer_1 @Sanguine @truth_seeker @RoosGirl
@DCPatriot @To-Whose-Benefit? @BassWrangler @Lando Lincoln @mountaineer
@Elderberry @GT Hawk
@berdie @Sighlass @ApplewoodUPDATE!
Ok,after going here,going there,and being spoken to in a foreign language spoken by medicos,here is the run down.
1: I have two forms of Stage 4 lymphatic cancer. They are so closely related that they are treated the same way,so I just get the one treatment.
2: Docs say killing it won't be a problem. They say they can almost always kill it with chemo,and if chemo doesn't do the trick,they have a pill that does. If chemo is the light approach and the pill is kept in reserve,I am guessing those are the pills least stolen in every pharmacy everywhere.
Also,I guess "Stage 4 Cancer" doesn't imply what it used to imply,so don't freak out if those words are ever whispered in your ear.
3: Symptoms:
I guess the biggest one was retaining fluid and blowing up like a blowfish. I was retaining so much water in my stomach I could actually hear it slosh around as I hit bumps while driving. For some reason every non-specialist MD I talked with about this for years ignored it. Come to find out,retaining fluid is the key sign you have cancer in your lymph glands.
Early on my feet and legs got swollen,and my stomach got flooded,but once again,the GP docs ignored it. When my left leg got so big it burst open and stared leaking water,all the VA wanted to do was give me fluid pills,and when that didn't work,they wanted to amputate my leg. Now you know why I went to see non-VA doctors.
What caused me to realize I had some sort of problem was when I was gasping for breath,and falling down out in the yard because I had ran out of breath from walking from my house to my truck. Imagine my shock when I went to the ER and they drained 2 QUARTS of fluid out of my right lung. That's right,2 quarts. I was literally drowning in my own fluids.
After having my right lung drained 3 times in a month,I was referred to a doctor "that will fix your problem". Not mention of what the problem was. I am GUESSING that doc knew I had cancer,but he wasn't a cancer doc and didn't want to get sued for a false alarm.
The cancer doc visited me in the ER ahead of the appointment after I checked in due to not being able to breath. She told me she thought she knew what was wrong and that it was "fixable",and to come see her when I got out of the hospital.
Meahwhile,I had another little drama going on that caused some confusion. Irregular heartbeat. My heart was sometimes dropping down to 20 beats per minute. Was in the hospital a couple of times for 3-4 days,and it beat just fine. Finally the heart surgeon just taped a portable heart monitor to my chest that monitored my heart 24/7 for 3 weeks. At the end of 3 weeks I took it off and mailed it to them,and they gave the heart doc the results. The first thing he said to me when I went to see him a few days later was "You are going into the hospital tomorrow to get a Pacemaker Implant. The cancer can wait because if you don't do this now you might not live long enough to get it treated". So,into a hospital in a nearby state I went to have the Pacemaker installed,a bone marrow sample taken from my hip,and for my right lung to get drained once again.
Right up to this point,my lung had been drained of fluid 3 times with no cancer cells found in the fluid,but this time there was. So I guess that technically I now have lung cancer,too. Come to find out the "nodes" in my lung the docs had been refereeing to were lymphatic cancer nodes,and THAT is how my lung was flooding with water. It had been driving me nuts trying to figure out where the hell the water was coming from. Now I know.
4: Waited a week for my Pacemaker surgery to heal up a little,and went into the hospital to have a "port" installed in my left shoulder to take the chemo. I am one of those lucky souls who doesn't have to take radiation treatments.
Had to wait for this to heal before we could start the chemo,but it is healed now and my chemo starts on Monday. I have it pretty easy. I get chemo on Monday and Tuesday once a month for 6 months. At month 3 the doc starts running more tests to see how well I am responding to the chemo. I get the full-strengh chemo on Monday,and on Tuesday they give me a mix that doesn't take as long and that addresses some other issues as well as the cancer.
BIG NEWS!!!!!!!
I have been told they have the chemo mix down now for lymphatic cancer to the point where about half the cancer cells in your body are killed after the first chemo period,and you immediately start to feel better as the swelling and fluid levels start to fall.
How freaking GREAT is that??????
Of course the treatment has to continue,and since there is less to kill,the progress will be less dramatic. The chemo treatment itself has me sitting in a big,comfortable recliner chair and reading a book,looking at movies or whatever on a tablet,or maybe just napping out. It lasts 5+ hours,so it's ok to snack,and they provide the snacks. I can get up and walk around,and go to the restroom if needed. My horror visions of being strapped flat to a hard table with tubes running in and out of me was wildly off-base.
AFAIK,I won't have anything new to report until some time down the road I am declared cancer-free,so I am hoping this will be my last post here on this subject until that time.
I will,of course respond to any posts here on this thread directed to me,and answer then to the best of my ability.
I want to thank you all for your concern and suggestions,and if any of you are having similar problems and need some advise,please PM me and I will do my best to answer them.
BTW,I want to thank Victoria33 for helping me find this thread today so I could post the update. I spent a couple of hours looking for it yesterday with no luck at all.
