[Previous entry: "Cancer Fight - BLOG Beginnings"] [Next entry: "Fun with Chemotherapy"]

03/21/2006: "Back to the Beginning"

Though this is the beginning of my Blog, it is certainly not the beginning of my cancer fight. I will briefly describe what I have gone through to this point. It is not pretty so if you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this post.

On May 2, 2005 I had a colonoscopy. I had noticed blood in my stool a month or so earlier and, in typical manly fashion, figured it would go away. When it didn't, I needed to find a General Practitioner. I was rarely ever sick and didn't have one. He quickly referred me to a Gastrointerologist.

Colonoscopies are only recommended and paid by insurance after you are 50. I still had 5 years to go. Eitherway, I had Stage III Colon Cancer and needed surgery right away to remove the tumor and a section of the colon. The San Ramon Medical Center was able to schedule me the next day. Luckily, they used a Lathroscopic proceedure and I recovered quickly and back at work in a week.

The bad news was the 70% of the lymph nodes in the removed section were cancerous. This gave me a 50/50 chance of making it to 5 years. Thankfully, the PET scan showed no other organs were tumorous. I went through 6 months of chemo, got sick and hospitalized and came out the other side ready to live my life.

In January, just two months out of chemo, a new PET scanned showed the cancer had quickly spread to my lungs, spinal column and abdomin. This was the worst news possible. My Oncologist now gives me about 2 years if I stay on chemo off and on til the end.

If you know me, you know I take this as a challenge. So my goal for this Blog is to keep you posted on the fight.