Category: cancer

cancer, Effects of stroke, Heart and Stroke, Moving through the world, My Cancer JourneyLeave a comment

Self medicating and unilateral changes to dosages=dumb move

rbspecht

I was told recently about a woman who had tried to ween herself off her anti-depressants without consulting her doctor.  There were consequences.  She slipped back into a dark hole from which it took her a long time to find her way back into the light.  She resumed taking her meds, and then discussed it with her physician.  Her physician was kind, but blunt.  If you were a diabetic would you decide that you felt well enough to discontinue taking your insulin?  Some forms of depression are the same.  You don’t discontinue something that is working to restore and maintain … Continue reading Self medicating and unilateral changes to dosages=dumb move

cancer, Moving through the worldLeave a comment

Swimming Upstream…?

rbspecht

Today it feels like I’m swimming upstream, moving against the current of my life, fighting just to stay in place and not appearing to be making any headway  on my journey.  My retirement plans, my writing and my painting are all on hold. My darling wife has had an odd cardiac incident;  Takotsubo Syndrome, also known as ‘broken heart syndrome’.  There will be more on this in a new post. I have developed an abscess on the right side of my neck.  My ontological head and neck surgeon had a look, did a needle biopsy and ordered a CT scan.  … Continue reading Swimming Upstream…?

Akabutu's Mouthwash, cancer, cisplatin, hiccups, oropharyngeal, vomitingLeave a comment

White Noise…

rbspecht

Sometimes a bit of white noise in the background is more comforting than silence. I haven’t written in a week, through a week that had promised all sorts of challenge. I’m sure that some of you who check in regularly may be concerned. Don’t be. All things are moving forward nicely… little to no problems. The major challenge is that a change to the anti-nausea drugs is making me very lethargic… down right sleepy, really. I am not sick. I am not spewing everywhere and everything as I did last time. We even seemed to have gotten the hiccups under … Continue reading White Noise…

Adaptic, cancer, forearm flap, mucking gloves, radial artery, skin graphLeave a comment

Forearm Flap Healing Well

rbspecht

Here are another couple of shots of my forearm skin graft over the area the surgeons took the flap of skin to rebuild the back of my throat (and part of my tongue?). As you can see, it is healing extremely well. In fact, if it weren’t for the need to protect the newly healed area from being damaged by clothing and general, everyday activity, it probably doesn’t need the bandages anymore. As it is in an area that is subjected to incidental contact with way too many things, we are continuing to cover it. Tight to the skin is … Continue reading Forearm Flap Healing Well

cancer, David Williams, full disclosure, mandibular swing, My Cancer Journey, oropharyngeal, projectile vomitingLeave a comment

Now it gets scary… BOO!

rbspecht

So now we know.So now we know more than enough.So now we know too much.So now we know that we don’t know enough.My surgeon actually does seem to be on top of things… and does seem to give a damn about what’s going on.Sunday afternoon, October 28, 2007, while I was hanging about at the local mall, waiting for Gail to finish her purchase of some mysterious Lancome product (mostly so she could get the free gift), Dr. Williams called on my cell phone. Respecting the fact that I was in a public place, he offered to call me back … Continue reading Now it gets scary… BOO!

cancer, delays, primary tumourLeave a comment

Oops! We can’t find it!

rbspecht

Yesterday (October 2, 2007), we met with our surgeon/oncologist for the first time. During the meeting a number of things came up, or went up, as the case may be. What went up was an endoscope up my nose so that he could have a quick look around for the tumour, which isn’t showing up on the CT scan. And he couldn’t see it. Basically what it means is that they can’t seem to find the primary tumour easily.The next step will to do an ‘IUA‘, or investigation under anaesthesia (how DO you spell it?) so that they can probe … Continue reading Oops! We can’t find it!