The America Cancer Society estimates that in 2006 as many as 564,830 Americans will die from cancer, second only to heart disease. In fact, nearly as many Americans will die from cancer in 2006 alone as those who died in all of America's wars combined. A total of 651,008 Americans died in battle from the American Revolution through the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, according to the US Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration.
One in four Americans will be stricken with cancer at some point in life. And, cancer will touch the rest of us as well. Each American alive today has a nearly 100% chance of a close relative such as a mother, father, sister, brother, or grandparent, receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Many of us will experience cancer diagnoses with multiple realtives. My father received the diagnosis in 2001 when his doctor told him he had non-hodgkins lymphoma. He survived rather well under the strain of chemotherapy treatments. But, by early 2005, the cancer had begun to take its' toll on him. The years of living with cancer, his age (76), and my Mom's death on March 19th, 2005 proved to be too much burden. Dad died on July 12th, 2005. At the end I found myself celebrating for him that his suffering had ended. My other close experience with cancer was in December 2003 with Vicki's cancer diagnosis.
Cancer not only affects those with the disease, but everyone else who loves the person with the disease. It changes relationships, it changes plans, it changes hopes and dreams.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Update on Vicki
On Tuesday, May 9th, Vicki met with Dr. Marshall at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center. I’ll fill you in on the results of the visit. But first, I wanted to provide a little background.
Vicki has endured a very difficult spring. We have hospitalized her three times (for about a week each) since March because she has been developing more complications, in some cases related to cancer. In early March Vicki suffered from a blood clot in her left shoulder. This caused significant swelling in her arm and presented a potentially life threatening risk if the blood clot were to break up and block a blood vessel in her lungs. So we admitted her to the hospital and the doctors were able to treat her effectively. This is not uncommon for cancer patients to have problems with blood clots.
In late March Vicki experienced another of her periodic flare-ups of ulcerative colitis. This episode turned out to be particularly stubborn and we admitted her to the hospital again to enable her doctors to bring the ulcerative colitis under control. Then, in April, Vicki developed pneumonia and we admitted her to the hospital a third time for treatment.
Since March Vicki’s abdomen had begun to grow larger. She also began to develop significant pain in her side. After examination by Dr. Marshall last week, he determined that she had a fluid build-up in her abdomen and that they would need to drain it. So last week Georgetown Radiology conducted a paracentesis to drain the fluid from her abdomen. Vicki also had a CT scan at Georgetown last week. She tolerated the treatment well and seemed to be feeling much better over the weekend.
Today, Dr. Marshall provided us with the results of the tests on the fluid and the CT scan. He noted that the fluid contained no cancerous cells – very good news. He also explained that neither the tumor in the liver, the enlarged lymph nodes near the liver, nor the small cancerous lesions on her right lung had grown any measurable amount since February – once again very good news.
So the question remains: what’s causing the fluid build-up in the abdomen and how serious is this? He believes the fluid build-up indicates the liver is functioning less efficiently due to the combination of the cancer – which is apparently blocking a least two major veins (portal and middle hepatic) – and the various treatments she has received over the past couple of years.
We have scheduled another paracentesis at Georgetown for Thursday and we will meet with Dr. Marshall again in a few weeks. Hopefully Vicki will feel well enough following the paracentesis to enjoy the rest of the spring weather here in Washington.
Vicki has endured a very difficult spring. We have hospitalized her three times (for about a week each) since March because she has been developing more complications, in some cases related to cancer. In early March Vicki suffered from a blood clot in her left shoulder. This caused significant swelling in her arm and presented a potentially life threatening risk if the blood clot were to break up and block a blood vessel in her lungs. So we admitted her to the hospital and the doctors were able to treat her effectively. This is not uncommon for cancer patients to have problems with blood clots.
In late March Vicki experienced another of her periodic flare-ups of ulcerative colitis. This episode turned out to be particularly stubborn and we admitted her to the hospital again to enable her doctors to bring the ulcerative colitis under control. Then, in April, Vicki developed pneumonia and we admitted her to the hospital a third time for treatment.
Since March Vicki’s abdomen had begun to grow larger. She also began to develop significant pain in her side. After examination by Dr. Marshall last week, he determined that she had a fluid build-up in her abdomen and that they would need to drain it. So last week Georgetown Radiology conducted a paracentesis to drain the fluid from her abdomen. Vicki also had a CT scan at Georgetown last week. She tolerated the treatment well and seemed to be feeling much better over the weekend.
Today, Dr. Marshall provided us with the results of the tests on the fluid and the CT scan. He noted that the fluid contained no cancerous cells – very good news. He also explained that neither the tumor in the liver, the enlarged lymph nodes near the liver, nor the small cancerous lesions on her right lung had grown any measurable amount since February – once again very good news.
So the question remains: what’s causing the fluid build-up in the abdomen and how serious is this? He believes the fluid build-up indicates the liver is functioning less efficiently due to the combination of the cancer – which is apparently blocking a least two major veins (portal and middle hepatic) – and the various treatments she has received over the past couple of years.
We have scheduled another paracentesis at Georgetown for Thursday and we will meet with Dr. Marshall again in a few weeks. Hopefully Vicki will feel well enough following the paracentesis to enjoy the rest of the spring weather here in Washington.
Welcome to my new blog
Some of you may not be familiar with the term Blog. Blog is a short-hand term for web log. The concept of Blogs has been around on the internet since the early 1990s. Pyra labs' release of its Blogger software in August 1999 triggered an explosion in the use of weblogs. Since 1999, the concept and use of blogs has morphed from a page containing links to new web pages to online threaded discussions, much like an online diary or discussion board. The weblog ushered in the opportunity for the average internet user to begin syndicating opinions and content and posting that content on the public internet.
You now have three easy methods available to obtain up-to-date information regarding our family. You can choose to visit my blog web site regularly by simply adding the URL link to your favorites menu on your browser and visiting regularly. A second option is to use the handy e-mail subsciption window at the bottom right hand corner of my blog. Simply type in your preferred e-mail address and click on the subscribe button. When I post some new information into the blog you will recieve an automatic e-mail notification. Finally, if you would like to use a feedreader to subscribe with RSS feeds, you may click on one of the links - also at the lower right hand corner of the page. If you do not have a feedreader please view the list of links further up the page and download a feedreader from the link I provided.
You will notice the I have already posted a few items, primarily as tests. I will attempt to update this site at least once a week, if possible. Please offer comments and suggestions on the blog site as you feel appropriate. Of course, you can always e-mail us just as before.
You now have three easy methods available to obtain up-to-date information regarding our family. You can choose to visit my blog web site regularly by simply adding the URL link to your favorites menu on your browser and visiting regularly. A second option is to use the handy e-mail subsciption window at the bottom right hand corner of my blog. Simply type in your preferred e-mail address and click on the subscribe button. When I post some new information into the blog you will recieve an automatic e-mail notification. Finally, if you would like to use a feedreader to subscribe with RSS feeds, you may click on one of the links - also at the lower right hand corner of the page. If you do not have a feedreader please view the list of links further up the page and download a feedreader from the link I provided.
You will notice the I have already posted a few items, primarily as tests. I will attempt to update this site at least once a week, if possible. Please offer comments and suggestions on the blog site as you feel appropriate. Of course, you can always e-mail us just as before.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
This is Vicki
This is my wife, Vicki. We snapped this photo of her in front of our house on Easter Sunday, 2004.Three months earlier, on December 23rd, 2003 our lives changed forever. That day Dr. Ron DeMatteo at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan explained to us that he had determined that Vicki has cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer).
Initially, we sought to fight this tumor and seek a cure. I remember the train ride home that evening from New York's Penn Station to Washington, DC we were in a state of shock. But, the next day, Christmas eve, we began to devlop a stategy. Through friends we learned of Dr. John Marshall at Georgetown University Hospital's Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, DC. The next week we attended our first appointment at Lombardi and soon we began treatment, hopeful that we could beat this cancer.
Two and a half years have passed and Vicki has survived a very difficult journey. The many successive battles have led to a very long war, testing our will, our courage, our stamina, and our faith. The challenges most often involve enduring the physical pain and drain of chemoembolizations, endless chemotherapy treatments and computed tomography (CT) scans, and associated side effects. The battle not seen perhaps presents the greater challenge. Grief and anxiety sometimes seem so overwhelming.
In this blog I will relate the many experiences of our battle with cancer over the past few years. I will also provide some periodic updates on how Vicki is doing. At other times I may comment on something completely different because life is much more than cancer.
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