The Big C...

I know I haven’t written in a while...

The whole "hearing-my-voice" thing instead seemed to take off - and we’ve stuck with it...

But there is a reason this time... important to me - and it probably should be to you. Not necessarily for the same reasons, but important nonetheless...

The Big C...

My dad was diagnosed with colon cancer a few months ago...

He was having problems with his stomach that he thought were more related to angina or something like that. Turns out- it wasn’t that way at all...

A year ago he was diagnosed with anemia. Doctors treated the anemia, but ((and, from this moment on, is strictly opinion without a whole lot of basis in fact)) failed to follow up or dig a little deeper into what could be the genesis of the problem.

His stomach ailments got worse and, then, when he went back to the doctors they asked a simple question.

"When was the last time you had a colonoscopy?"

His answer was "never."

The physician looking him over strongly suggested one, and they found a tumor the size of a softball in his intestines. 17 days later, he was operated on. The tumor was removed. They took out half of his intestines, more than two-dozen lymph nodes and one of two cysts near his tailbone.

And Thursday was his first day of 6 months of chemotherapy.

He asked, at the time of the operation, how long it would take for a tumor to grow to that size. The physicians told him "ten years." I would have, personally, taken 9 years of growth, and a little personal responsibility from a doctor instead of 10 years and a substantial operation.

But that’s in the past... I can still be hot about it as a pre-cursor for behavioral patterns. But the tumor was pulled, and that’s one of the important things here.

It’s not the first time I’ve been through chemo with someone I love, and it won’t be the last. I have experience in an area that I don’t want, and wished I didn’t need.

We were supposed to show up at 6:30 in the morning. The session was scheduled for six hours or so. But the people at his hospital have a different schedule for their own work hours. The Radiology/Oncology Infusion Room wasn’t set to open until 8. It’s good to know that hospital operational consistency is consistent throughout the country.

My dad had a chemo port installed under his right collar bone about ten days ago, which made the process a little easier. The inserting of the needle isn’t, really, for the squeamish. I’ve known people who have had to have it done through veins in their arm. Nurses have been known to misfire and create chemo burns, which are worse than 3rd Degree, that evolve from the inside out. Think of the inside of your arm being on fire, and you can’t do anything about it. That’s a chemo burn.

After a consultation with his personal Oncologist, he went to sleep and the nurses did their thing for most of the morning. I went back home, worked out, watched some soaps, and waited for the six hours to wrap up. But it really doesn’t wrap up after that.

He had a take-home test.

dot...dot...dot...

They gave him a fanny pack with more chemotherapy medicine in it. He had to wear it for 48 hours as the last segment of the "First Time." He had to get used to wearing it, sleeping with it, and showering with it.

The medicine they gave him ((insert irony here)) - 5-FU...

So, the moral here...?

Simple- get tested...

I’m, admittedly, a few years away from my first scheduled test. So, I know it’s on my list of things to do down the line.

And I’m not just telling guys to get tested on colon cancer. Get everything squared away- regular check-ups, learn your family history, know how things may progress on both sides of the family.

And the irony in my family...?

My dad is going through what his father went through later in his life. My aunt is going through the possible pre-cursors of heart disease that felled their mother.

He’s moved through the first par in one piece, and that’s a good thing.

But there aren’t good things that happen all the time.

And that’s what next time is all about...

Play it safe, everyone...I’ll talk to you soon...

--Jon Nelson