Cancer updates
Jun. 16th, 2006 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneTwo of my friends have cancer right now: Kris, with breast cancer, and Jim, with colon cancer. Jim went into the hospital today and presumably has had the operation already. Kris has responded quite well to chemo, though she has had some adverse reactions to the drugs and they've had to change them a couple of times.
Jim sent the following email out yesterday and I wanted to post it: (phone numbers redacted)
I will be going into the hospital tomorrow for my colorectal resection surgery. I will be there approximately 5 to 10 days. Should anyone wish to contact me in the hospital, I will be out of it Friday, though you can call Ken or my sister Lisa to get information about my condition. I will be in ICU and they don't let phones into ICU on Friday. Either Saturday or Sunday they will move me to a normal room.
Should the surgery go well, I should be able to see people by Sunday or Monday. If it doesn't, well, it's been a heck of a ride, and I've had a heck of a lot of fun, and I have enjoyed knowing all of you greatly.
In the long run, my lifestyle will be changed by this surgery. They tell you it isn't going to be, but it will. I will have faced disaster squarely and, for the most part, I hope unblinking. The concept of our own mortality is a tough one to get your mind around, but it is not impossible to deal with. The concept of our body's inherent frailty, where something the size of a large marble can change your life forever, well, that's just something you have to embrace and get along with.
All of us over the next few years are going to have to deal with some sort of irritating medical reality. Some of us already have. Whether its just an overproduction of some sort of enzyme, heart problems, hypertension, diabetes, or the BIG C, we will all have to think about things that in our youth would have been unthinkable.
My advice is, don't despare, just Deal With It. Denial is not a survival technique. Dealing with it is. Take your meds, follow your diets, pay attention to your doctors, and SURVIVE. The world would be a much worse place without any of us in it. We represent all that is good about the human race. It's our duty to live and enrich the lives around us in whatever way we can.
Well, enough maudlin sentimentality. I'll be looking forward to hearing from some of you while I'm sitting bored eating hospital food and being poked and prodded and tested and all the other indignities hospitals inflict on patients.
As the Vulcans are reputed to say, Live long and prosper.
Jim has been amazing through this, at least publicly. He's really kept his spirits up, and that's a lot of the battle. If you let cancer beat you emotionally, it'll probably beat you physically. He was fortunate in that his tumor was caught fairly early and had not yet spread. It responded well to treatment, and through chemo and radiation therapies, it has shrunk to 25% of its original size. He's got about as much lined up in his favor, but there are still significant risks when it comes to any surgery, and you never know.
I spoke with him last night. He's still putting up a pretty brave face, but he's also rattled. He's never had surgery before (I've been under the knife seven times, not counting wisdom teeth extraction) and he wasn't happy, but it was truly a case of "do this or die."
I pray he'll still be around for me to see him when I'm back in Phoenix next month. I've lost too many friends over the last couple of years, I don't want to go to another funeral any time soon.
Jim sent the following email out yesterday and I wanted to post it: (phone numbers redacted)
I will be going into the hospital tomorrow for my colorectal resection surgery. I will be there approximately 5 to 10 days. Should anyone wish to contact me in the hospital, I will be out of it Friday, though you can call Ken or my sister Lisa to get information about my condition. I will be in ICU and they don't let phones into ICU on Friday. Either Saturday or Sunday they will move me to a normal room.
Should the surgery go well, I should be able to see people by Sunday or Monday. If it doesn't, well, it's been a heck of a ride, and I've had a heck of a lot of fun, and I have enjoyed knowing all of you greatly.
In the long run, my lifestyle will be changed by this surgery. They tell you it isn't going to be, but it will. I will have faced disaster squarely and, for the most part, I hope unblinking. The concept of our own mortality is a tough one to get your mind around, but it is not impossible to deal with. The concept of our body's inherent frailty, where something the size of a large marble can change your life forever, well, that's just something you have to embrace and get along with.
All of us over the next few years are going to have to deal with some sort of irritating medical reality. Some of us already have. Whether its just an overproduction of some sort of enzyme, heart problems, hypertension, diabetes, or the BIG C, we will all have to think about things that in our youth would have been unthinkable.
My advice is, don't despare, just Deal With It. Denial is not a survival technique. Dealing with it is. Take your meds, follow your diets, pay attention to your doctors, and SURVIVE. The world would be a much worse place without any of us in it. We represent all that is good about the human race. It's our duty to live and enrich the lives around us in whatever way we can.
Well, enough maudlin sentimentality. I'll be looking forward to hearing from some of you while I'm sitting bored eating hospital food and being poked and prodded and tested and all the other indignities hospitals inflict on patients.
As the Vulcans are reputed to say, Live long and prosper.
Jim has been amazing through this, at least publicly. He's really kept his spirits up, and that's a lot of the battle. If you let cancer beat you emotionally, it'll probably beat you physically. He was fortunate in that his tumor was caught fairly early and had not yet spread. It responded well to treatment, and through chemo and radiation therapies, it has shrunk to 25% of its original size. He's got about as much lined up in his favor, but there are still significant risks when it comes to any surgery, and you never know.
I spoke with him last night. He's still putting up a pretty brave face, but he's also rattled. He's never had surgery before (I've been under the knife seven times, not counting wisdom teeth extraction) and he wasn't happy, but it was truly a case of "do this or die."
I pray he'll still be around for me to see him when I'm back in Phoenix next month. I've lost too many friends over the last couple of years, I don't want to go to another funeral any time soon.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-17 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-17 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-17 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-17 07:42 pm (UTC)My attitude is to live forever or die trying. So far, it's working.
I spoke to Ken Jones @ 7 pm
Date: 2006-06-17 04:42 am (UTC)Re: I spoke to Ken Jones @ 7 pm
Date: 2006-06-17 06:06 am (UTC)