I Found Out Too Late - Now I’m in My 6th Year of Chemotherapy
In the late fall of 2002, my wife, two friends and I went on a vacation out east to the historical sites of Williamsburg and Jamestown. We had a wonderful time touring these great sites, took a lot of pictures and learned a lot about the founders of our nation.
We rented a van and I drove from the St. Louis area and back. On the way home I could feel a pain in the left side of my stomach area and didn’t think too much of it. Before Christmas I was beginning to have very sharp pains in that area and knew it was time that I needed to see my doctor.
My family doctor took xrays and then suggested that I needed to have a colonoscopy. I made an appointment with a doctor that other family members had used for this purpose and it was almost a month before he could give me an appointment. During the examination, he couldn’t get the instrument very far up into my colon. I went back to my family doctor for consultation and he suggested that I see a surgeon, he recommended one and I made an appointment. On April of 2003 I underwent exploratory surgery.
The surgeon found that I had a tumor about the size of an orange and it was definitely cancerous. The surgeon did a resection and told me that he to out 18 inches of my colon and he was sure that there was no more cancer in that area. He was concerned that it may have spread elsewhere and he wanted a CT scan from my neck down to see.
On the 25th of April I had a the scan and it was determined that cancer had spread (matastimised) to my lungs, there were thirteen cancer nodules in my left lung and twelve in my right lung. On the thirteenth of May I entered Barnes Hospital in St. Louis for a lung biopsy to make sure that it was cancer. The first biopsy didn’t prove anything and the did a 2nd biopsy on the 22nd of May. They took out one of the nodules and it proved that it was definitely cancerous.
On the 3rd of June I met with my oncologist at the Siteman Cancer Center, located in the BJC Hospital complex in St. Louis, Missouri. On the 10th my wife and I went back to see him for counciling and to make a decision on what course to take as far as treatment. It was decided that the first series of treatments would consist of FOLFOX (oxaliplatin), leucovorin and to go home with a pump with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) for two additional days.
I’m now is my 6th year of chemotherapy treatments, over the years I have been on several treatment schedules using FOLFOX, 5-FU, leucovarin, CPT-11, Avastin, Xeloda and Erbitux. After effects have been sick to the stomach, shocks when touching or drinking anything cold, headaches, lack of sleep, rash, loss of hair, skin sores, and complete loss of skin over the whole body. Treatments are every two weeks for four months then I get a 45 day break. I’ve had at least two dozen CT scans. My treatment vacation ends on July 3rd when I get another CT scan and then treatments start again on the 7th of July.
I’ve been able to maintain a positive attitude and keep my weight up. My encologist told me from the start of treatments that we were on a marathon.
Treatments aren’t the easiest thing to handle but someday they will come up with a cure and I will no longer have to take them. I am now 79 years young and expect to reach at least 90. I truly believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The one thing that I would suggest to everyone, is to get a colonoscopy if you experience any pain in the left part of your stomach. Please don’t put it off, six months would have made a difference for me, I probably wouldn’t have to go through these treatments.
Robert L. French
Tags: cancer articles, cancer research, science, nutrition
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