I caught the cancer

[Wally Fairway 5643]

Tomorrow is the day. 

Mrs Fairway has surgery for her mucosal melanoma, after first being diagnosed in late July, and spending more time in Houston than at home since then, done with immunotherapy, radiation, MRI, CT, and Proton scans it is truth or dare time to see what remains off her nasal tumor. 

This hasn't been a long journey (compared to many others) but it sure is a bumpy, nerve inducing ride. 

[SurlyGator 941]

Thoughts and prayers, Wally.  And not in the sarcastic sense.  Kick it's ass.

[RDCanecutter 26772]

Keytruda appears to be trying to put an -itis on my kidney, so we are pausing it and trying some stuff. I am back on the Lenvima though, so not completely unprotected. My bodily numbers have got the wobbles but not all the way haywire. My Cartoonishly Swollen Feet are down thanks to a diuretic and hellaspensive German compression socks. They are giving me a steroid for something else so I am faux-diabetic again at least for this weekend.

Doc wants me doing more exercise, maybe Yoga. I see it as an excuse to get back up with my old Wing Chun Kung Fu group, which is kinda Yoga-y. I also need to hit some weights because I scrawned out during a past weight decline. It is coming back, but I hope not blobularly.

I want to get a trip into Mexico to search for old books, Baja Hoodies, and other rarities. December is chock-full of shows, and since October they started being G.O.O.D. shows, so can't miss em. But Jan-Feb tend towards bleakness and living-off-the-credit-card anyway. That might be a good time. Currently thinking about flying into Mexico City, stay at small hotel I know near the Zócalo, search books nearby and/or go tour Estudios Churubusco south of town. Then maybe Spanish my way into storing heavy stuff at hotel pending my eventual return, and take off by bus towards Teotihuacan, Tlaxcala (Baja Hoodie Factories), Veracruz (reminds me of our favorite Chanoc movie contra el tigre y el vampiro) then back up via local buses so as to replicate the old passenger train route. I figure keep it less than 3,000 bucks for 10 days or so given my propensity for taco stands, clean $15 dollar hotels, and slow bus travel.

Get that all done and they can't take it from me if 2025 brings some random-slam to the old bod.

Edited November 24 by RDCanecutter

[Hornius Emeritus 12688]

4 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Keytruda appears to be trying to put an -itis on my kidney, so we are pausing it and trying some stuff. I am back on the Lenvima though, so not completely unprotected. My bodily numbers have got the wobbles but not all the way haywire. My Cartoonishly Swollen Feet are down thanks to a diuretic and hellaspensive German compression socks. They are giving me a steroid for something else so I am faux-diabetic again at least for this weekend.

Doc wants me doing more exercise, maybe Yoga. I see it as an excuse to get back up with my old Wing Chun Kung Fu group, which is kinda Yoga-y. I also need to hit some weights because I scrawned out during a past weight decline. It is coming back, but I hope not blobularly.

I want to get a trip into Mexico to search for old books, Baja Hoodies, and other rarities. December is chock-full of shows, and since October they started being G.O.O.D. shows, so can't miss em. But Jan-Feb tend towards bleakness and living-off-the-credit-card anyway. That might be a good time. Currently thinking about flying into Mexico City, stay at small hotel I know near the Zócalo, search books nearby and/or go tour Estudios Churubusco south of town. Then maybe Spanish my way into storing heavy stuff at hotel pending my eventual return, and take off by bus towards Teotihuacan, Tlaxcala (Baja Hoodie Factories), Veracruz (reminds me of our favorite Chanoc movie contra el tigre y el vampiro) then back up via local buses so as to replicate the old passenger train route. I figure keep it less than 3,000 bucks for 10 days or so given my propensity for taco stands, clean $15 dollar hotels, and slow bus travel.

Get that all done and they can't take it from me if 2025 brings some random-slam to the old bod.

Not trying to humblebrag, but for crazy reasons unknown to me, I have two credit cards that, together, amount to 100k of credit.  I pay them off every month, so there's almost always 100k of credit available to me. I've always thought that if I get some bad news vis a vis cancer or some other ailment, I'm going to go to Paris or Bora Bora, check into an expensive hotel, go to the best restaurants, drink and and dance as long and as hard as I can, and then shuffle off this mortal coil, leaving my last bill unpaid.  At least, that's what I think about doing. But then there's this conflicting thought: I've had credit cards for more than 40 years and have never paid a penny of interest on any of them because I pay them off every month. I'd feel bad knowing that I was going to break my streak.  My FICO score didn't just build itself, damnit!

[RDCanecutter 26772]

2 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Not trying to humblebrag, but for crazy reasons unknown to me, I have two credit cards that, together, amount to 100k of credit.  I pay them off every month, so there's almost always 100k of credit available to me. I've always thought that if I get some bad news vis a vis cancer or some other ailment, I'm going to go to Paris or Bora Bora, check into an expensive hotel, go to the best restaurants, drink and and dance as long and as hard as I can, and then shuffle off this mortal coil, leaving my last bill unpaid.  At least, that's what I think about doing. But then there's this conflicting thought: I've had credit cards for more than 40 years and have never paid a penny of interest on any of them because I pay them off every month. I'd feel bad knowing that I was going to break my streak.  My FICO score didn't just build itself, damnit!

Congrats on livin right!

I am not gloom n doom, 1/10 worried about a slip in health, 9/10 just lookin for an excuse to go to Mexico.

[Wally Fairway 5643]

On 11/24/2024 at 9:01 AM, Wally Fairway said:

Tomorrow is the day. 

Mrs Fairway has surgery for her mucosal melanoma, after first being diagnosed in late July, and spending more time in Houston than at home since then, done with immunotherapy, radiation, MRI, CT, and Proton scans it is truth or dare time to see what remains off her nasal tumor. 

This hasn't been a long journey (compared to many others) but it sure is a bumpy, nerve inducing ride. 

Surgery went as well as could be hoped, only went 2 hours (slotted for 10 because plastic surgery could have been required, it wasn't). Now just waiting for biopsy results. 

Thanks to Surly for being here, for the thoughts and prayers, and to all who have helped us make to this point in the journey.

[RDCanecutter 26772]

Things just goin in circles here like a rabbit runnin around a stump.

I forget all the reasons, but Keytruda may have popped my kidney on the lip. So to help heal it, they wanna give me steroids. But steroids make me diabetic. Anyway, it's stable.

Went to see a GP today I was going to in the Days Before Cancer, she looked at my kidney function, said: "It's not that bad," and ordered me some insulin and a glucose meter.

Then I get a text from Oncologist who wants to admit me so they can feed me steroids and insulin at the same time. To which I replied:

No. Please no. Just no. I got shows I already paid to be in, when people spend money, hospitals are cold bright and noisy, and I ain't sick, I can give myself insulin or we can do some outpatient deal don't put me in that cold noisy hospital, and YOU KNOW there'll be some busybody hospital doctor who won't let me go until my jacked-up blood pressure drops to some number it hasn't been in a year DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX and who's gonna feed the animals while I'm freezin in that icy waste tryin to relax my ass to freedom?

So she said maybe not. We'll see. I am supposed to meet her Thursday inside the UAB mega-complex. Need to go online and find blueprints of the interstitials in case it turns into a game of Escape Room.

[Wally Fairway 5643]

RD, I've said for years it's 100x easier to get admitted to a hospital than it is to get released

[RDCanecutter 26772]

10 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

RD, I've said for years it's 100x easier to get admitted to a hospital than it is to get released

Ayup. This might be the first time in this series that I just dig in and refuse.

[Chopper 17411]

I'm posting in case it helps one of you or your loved ones. I have a benign tumor (schwannoma) in the sinus cavernous portion of my brain and have had to get an annual MRI. No symptoms, no changes for 6 or 7 years. It was discovered accidentally. But at the end of last year they picked up some very slow growth and said it was close to my left optic nerve. The recommendation was radiation therapy. I said, sure, what the fuck. I thought it was going to be like a fucking tanning bed, that's how ignorant I was. Holy fuck, did radiation on my brain kick the crap out of me. I wasn't ready for it. There were many days I was so dizzy, off-balance and out of breath that I couldn't walk to the street corner. The off-balance feeling has continued for months - in my head it feels like I'm on a moving train going over bump after bump, or in a boat. It's been miserable. And it's now been more than 6 months since my last dose of radiation. Every doctor I spoke with (oncologists, neurologist, ENT) basically shrugged their shoulders. Dumb Harvard Med-educated cunts. All of 'em. Then on the same day in September 2 different sources, neither of whom are MDs, mentioned Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. I was surprised to learn that Fort Collins has the oldest and one of the few hyperbaric facilities in CO and it's at the hospital about 5 minute drive from my house. I had to ask the goddamn oncologist to refer me in order to get approval from insurance and that went smoothly. Wasn't his idea but he did it. I've had maybe a dozen sessions so far. Approved by insurance. The purpose is to help tissue recover and create new blood vessels. I was speaking with one of the techs today and a lot of men utilize it while trying to recover from the after-effects of radiation to their prostate. (I asked them why it seemed like most of their patients are men. They said it goes in waves, but apparently right now they're dealing with a few prostate issues.) I already feel improvement from my symptoms. They re-tested me on a few physical tests this morning and documented improvement in my speech and balance. I go every morning M to F and lay in a pressurized glass tube for 3 hours. They have a dvd library and I've lately been rewatching the Sopranos every goddamn morning. 

 

Edited December 3 by Chopper

[Hornius Emeritus 12688]

22 minutes ago, Chopper said:

I'm posting in case it helps one of you or your loved ones. I have a benign tumor (schwannoma) in the sinus cavernous portion of my brain and have had to get an annual MRI. No symptoms, no changes for 6 or 7 years. It was discovered accidentally. But at the end of last year they picked up some very slow growth and said it was close to my left optic nerve. The recommendation was radiation therapy. I said, sure, what the fuck. I thought it was going to be like a fucking tanning bed, that's how ignorant I was. Holy fuck, did radiation on my brain kick the crap out of me. I wasn't ready for it. There were many days I was so dizzy, off-balance and out of breath that I couldn't walk to the street corner. The off-balance feeling has continued for months - in my head it feels like I'm on a moving train going over bump after bump, or in a boat. It's been miserable. And it's now been more than 6 months since my last dose of radiation. Every doctor I spoke with (oncologists, neurologist, ENT) basically shrugged their shoulders. Dumb Harvard Med-educated cunts. All of 'em. Then on the same day in September 2 different sources, neither of whom are MDs, mentioned Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. I was surprised to learn that Fort Collins has the oldest and one of the few hyperbaric facilities in CO and it's at the hospital about 5 minute drive from my house. I had to ask the goddamn oncologist to refer me in order to get approval from insurance and that went smoothly. Wasn't his idea but he did it. I've had maybe a dozen sessions so far. Approved by insurance. The purpose is to help tissue recover and create new blood vessels. I was speaking with one of the techs today and a lot of men utilize it while trying to recover from the after-effects of radiation to their prostate. (I asked them why it seemed like most of their patients are men. They said it goes in waves, but apparently right now they're dealing with a few prostate issues.) I already feel improvement from my symptoms. They re-tested me on a few physical tests this morning and documented improvement in my speech and balance. I go every morning M to F and lay in a pressurized glass tube for 3 hours. They have a dvd library and I've lately been rewatching the Sopranos every goddamn morning. 

 

I didn't like the beginning of this post but I love the ending. Good luck to you, Chopper. Heal strong and well.  We've got some upcoming national championships that you need to witness.

[Chopper 17411]

5 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

I didn't like the beginning of this post but I love the ending. Good luck to you, Chopper. Heal strong and well.  We've got some upcoming national championships that you need to witness.

Thank you. I'm enjoying your posts on blue sky.

[Kennythetiger 9524]

19 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Things just goin in circles here like a rabbit runnin around a stump.

I forget all the reasons, but Keytruda may have popped my kidney on the lip. So to help heal it, they wanna give me steroids. But steroids make me diabetic. Anyway, it's stable.

Went to see a GP today I was going to in the Days Before Cancer, she looked at my kidney function, said: "It's not that bad," and ordered me some insulin and a glucose meter.

Then I get a text from Oncologist who wants to admit me so they can feed me steroids and insulin at the same time. To which I replied:

No. Please no. Just no. I got shows I already paid to be in, when people spend money, hospitals are cold bright and noisy, and I ain't sick, I can give myself insulin or we can do some outpatient deal don't put me in that cold noisy hospital, and YOU KNOW there'll be some busybody hospital doctor who won't let me go until my jacked-up blood pressure drops to some number it hasn't been in a year DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX and who's gonna feed the animals while I'm freezin in that icy waste tryin to relax my ass to freedom?

So she said maybe not. We'll see. I am supposed to meet her Thursday inside the UAB mega-complex. Need to go online and find blueprints of the interstitials in case it turns into a game of Escape Room.

She’s fucking up our Mexico plans. 

[hornbri 1486]

I just wanted to post an update on my wife.

Kinda a gut punch today, she had been doing well but the CT Scan today showed new spots in her lungs. Dr. said they couldn’t tell what they were and they need to biopsy. She did get diagnosed with pneumonia last month so we are trying to be hopeful it is lingering infection. 

She was almost through chemo hell and we only had a couple of treatments to go, everything had been going so well. Now everything is on hold while we wait. This fucking sucks. 

[RDCanecutter 26772]

On 12/3/2024 at 7:48 PM, hornbri said:

I just wanted to post an update on my wife.

Kinda a gut punch today, she had been doing well but the CT Scan today showed new spots in her lungs. Dr. said they couldn’t tell what they were and they need to biopsy. She did get diagnosed with pneumonia last month so we are trying to be hopeful it is lingering infection. 

She was almost through chemo hell and we only had a couple of treatments to go, everything had been going so well. Now everything is on hold while we wait. This fucking sucks. 

It's going to be lingering infections. I Have Spoken.

[Sbbruin 22039]

On 12/3/2024 at 5:48 PM, hornbri said:

I just wanted to post an update on my wife.

Kinda a gut punch today, she had been doing well but the CT Scan today showed new spots in her lungs. Dr. said they couldn’t tell what they were and they need to biopsy. She did get diagnosed with pneumonia last month so we are trying to be hopeful it is lingering infection. 

She was almost through chemo hell and we only had a couple of treatments to go, everything had been going so well. Now everything is on hold while we wait. This fucking sucks. 

I had a spot show on my liver in one of my follow up CTs that ended up being benign fatty deposit.  CTs aren't very precise.  Surprised they didn't then call for a PET CT.  That's what they did for me.  Much more accurate, but also way more expensive so that's why they only do them if they see something.

Just realized it was 2 years ago today that I had very life altering, but ultimately life saving, surgery.  Seems like a long time ago, yet like only yesterday.  

Get my 6 month CT a week from today.

Edited December 6 by Sbbruin

[Brisketexan 106287]

17 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

benign fatty deposit

Also my wife's pet name for me.

Tough, but fair.

[Sbbruin 22039]

8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Also my wife's pet name for me.

Tough, but fair.

[RDCanecutter 26772]

Riding on ten units of insulin at the moment. Not much for some of you but for me it's a good reason to tune my guitar in Open G and be like Keith Richards.

[hornbri 1486]

13 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

I had a spot show on my liver in one of my follow up CTs that ended up being benign fatty deposit.  CTs aren't very precise.  Surprised they didn't then call for a PET CT.  That's what they did for me.  Much more accurate, but also way more expensive so that's why they only do them if they see something.

Just realized it was 2 years ago today that I had very life altering, but ultimately life saving, surgery.  Seems like a long time ago, yet like only yesterday.  

Get my 6 month CT a week from today.

Yeah it was a PET CT, she is getting one every couple of months right now, they were ill defined spots right now. But because she is a sarcoma patient any spots that were not on the last scan are worrying, so they just went right to biopsy. I should be grateful the doctors are being careful, and hopefully it’s just residual from the pneumonia that did occur between the scans.

I think this is the first time I am appreciating that life will never be the same for us, there will be scans for the rest of her life and there will be random setbacks, we somehow need to find the strength to live a full life and not be in fear. 

[Shoxthemonkey 1991]

@hornbri You will get through this and you can still live a full life. Not cancer, but my wife and I went through the same realization that life would never be the same back in 1988. She was in a bad car wreck, weeks in ICU and months in rehab from a traumatic brain injury. She was 34 then, she turned 70 yesterday. Nothing has been the same since but we hardly notice the concessions we have made to the past events. We lead a very nice life.  Chin up, be her rock and carry on. You can do this together.

Edited December 6 by Shoxthemonkey

[RDCanecutter 26772]

3 hours ago, Shoxthemonkey said:

@hornbri You will get through this and you can still live a full life. 

There are actually some upsides to catching a whiff of cancer. Think of every bullshit time-wasting obligation you do for people. Get a speck of cancer: "Oh hey. Would love to file the TPS compendium. But I got cancer. Gonna go to the beach and console myself."

What helped me the most mentally when I first got in the treatment, was meeting all the mean old fuckers who'd survived 30 years of Stage 4 back when it was stone knives and voodoo rattles. I saw their never-give-up attitude, I truly believe that was a good part of their survival. I thought "I can be a mean old fucker too, yes, I can easily do that."

[RDCanecutter 26772]

Come for the cancer, stay for the diabetes.

I picked up some agitation in my kidney, maybe from the Keytruda. So we paused that, and doc gave my Prednisone to knock out the -itis.

Except I could barely take it because my sugar would spike, like over 600. Is that bad?

After a dance of wrong insulin, denied insulin, and actual prescribed insulin, I am on my second day of stabbing myself with it in the belly.

Yesterday, fuck-all happened but it wasn't too high anyway so we were good. Took my Pred.

Today, I decided to make the game interesting, so I rolled over to Taco Casa and got the #1 special w/enchilada, taco, rice, beans, and a few chips in case the carbs were too weak.

Went home, it's like 380 sugar, I take 6 units (a tad under recs because I don't want to fish-tail it,) an hour later it's 400-something.

I eat meatballs and my Inner British Army Sergeant says "Wait for it... wait for it..." Shortly after that Mrs. Canecutter cooks more low-carb food, I'm at 330-ish.

Fuggit. Stab 6 more units in Mah Bellih.

Right before midnight, blood sugar drops to 188. S'wut I'm talkin about. Throw down some Prednisone goodness.

So why am I still awake? I've got an entry to the Shart 2024 Thread just waiting to jump slap out my ass but it's cagey, it's waiting for me to get up off the toilet.

[Wally Fairway 5643]

Thanks for the update RD, sorry to hear it, but I needed the laugh. 

 

Came here to post a Mrs Fairway update, biopsies showed melanoma in 3 of 4 slides. So second surgery is early January, we meet with the surgeon next week, but I'm pretty sure the procedure is to increase the bit size from 1/16 inch to 1/4 inch for the nasal rotor router. She is pretty freaked out, I'm thinking/hoping it is like getting clean margins, except more difficult inside the nasal passage; and really hoping it is not in the cartilage, or into the oral structure.