Well, it has been a week since my last treatment, and I am fully in recovery mode. So far, this entire process has been much easier to take than the last time I did all this. About this time five years ago, I was in a fair amount of pain, and not much into doing anything but sleeping with a suitable amount of pain killer drugs on board. This time, I only use the pain meds to sleep and to fight off a mild headache I seem to get easily these days.
It is weird not seeing someone from the medical profession each day. My surgeon told me that many patients go through a form of depression when treatments end. Up to that point, the entire medical system is focused on tracking down the cancer and blasting it to smithereens! (Wow, the spell checker bought that word!) When that focus ends, patients get fearful that the cancer is now able to fight back and regain control. What you need to do instead is have faith in God, and your medical team.
Top team
I have been blessed with an incredible support team. I highly recommend all of these fine folks if you ever need help through cancer!
Surgery: Dr. Peter Scholl
My surgeon has done an outstanding job of finding the cancer cells and removing them. He has been on top of this for over five years now, and I expect to be seeing him for quite some time to come!
This last battle was especially tough. The location of the tumor, right behind my cheek-bone, made it difficult to access, and he had to be especially careful not to wipe out important functionality in my face. He was able to save my left eye and eyelid, something he was worried about. If the bone had been infected, he might have had major issues keeping things together. Thankfully, that was not a problem. He was also afraid I might not be able to blink that eye, but he saved that nerve, Yea!
However, he had to wipe out a major nerve across the middle of my face on the left side. I have virtually no feeling from my nose to my ear extending from right below my left eye to the top lip area. I cannot feel my left nostril which make it important that I blow my nose a lot. Weird! I also seem to have a crooked smile. The muscles that make you grin are not functioning right, so the right side smile goes up, and the left side stays stuck down. I will have to learn to live with that, or not smile that much.
Plastic surgery: Dr. Ned Snyder and Dr. Robert Whitfield
When he was done removing the cancer he could find, he left a lot of "pot-holes" as my plastic surgeons put it, to fill in. The tissue needed for that came from my right leg. I have a long scar running along the top of my thigh where they pulled tissue to fill things in. My favorite "clam" is that tissue folded and stitched into my cheek, and into my mouth covering up the hole made during my first cancer adventure, and expanded a bit this time.
The transplant was large enough to be a concern. They had to establish good blood flow into the tissue in its new location, so I spent six days in Intensive Care to monitor all that. I never got to see that LED light-show from the technology they used to monitor blood and oxygen flow into the tissue, but it amused my wife!
They did a very nice job putting the new tissue in place, although there is so much tissue stuffed into my cheek that it has earned it's own name: Clarance. That "clam" has shrunk somewhat, but it is still the most obvious thing that shows something big happened to my face. It is sort of fun watching kids look at it. Last night at a church meeting, a small boy walked by and could not take his eyes off the clam. He almost walked right into a door staring at it. Poor kid. He had no idea what was going on, but he was not brave enough to ask. Adults pretend not to see anything. Only a few ask anything. It will be interesting seeing how it goes in my classes this Fall.
Radiology: Dr. Tomithy Dzuik
The last stop on my treatment train was Dr. Dzuiks's radiation lab. He took the 3-D images of the entire area where the cancer was found and removed, and constructed a map of the surrounding area where he would eliminate any lingering cells with radiation. This process is actually surprising. It is tedious, but not painful at all. You just sit (lay) there and listen to a series of short buzzing noises and feel nothing. Obviously something is going on, and damage to your body is happening, but most of that heals. Only those area that get hit more than once get destroyed, and the process is precise in where that is.
After the seven-week ordeal, you are left very tired. This time, I had little pain associated with the treatment. That is something to be thankful for! The team of technicians who run the treatment program are fun to work with. As you might suspect from my blog, I had a blast picking on them each day. The head nurse sent me a card to let me know they had the first of what will be two pizza parties with gift cards Cheryl and I gave them on our last treatment day. I hope they all enjoyed it, and I really hope I am not the first to do such a thing for them. They deserve to be thanked for all the hard work they do, as do the other nurses and techs who help out everywhere you go for care. (WE gave another pizza party to the nurses in Intensive Care as well!)
Oncology: Dr. Jerry Fain
Oncology is an interesting area. Dr. Fain is responsible for doing all the blood tests to make sure all my other systems stay working properly while they search out and destroy the cancer. Unfortunately, the kind of cancer I had is not very responsive to chemotherapy, but we did use it the first time. The idea was that it would sensitize the cancer cells and make the radiation more effective. What ended up happening, though, was that I fought nausea and pain quite a bit last time. This time, we skipped the chemo, and focused on radiation. Dr. Fain still watched over my blood work, though.
Family support
Cheryl has been incredible this time, as she was before. If you have a loving companion by your side during an ordeal like this, you are going to get through it in fine shape. My wife has been incredibly strong, stronger than even she suspected she could be, and I know it takes a toll on her doing this. But her love, and support has been a major reason why I am doing as well as I am.
I also have to thank my two sisters for spending over a month with us (two weeks each) through this final radiation process. They helped Cheryl keep things going at home, and drove me to my many medical appointments so Cheryl could keep working without worrying about me driving around while tired from all the treatments.
My cousin, Billy, who lives in Wyoming, spent almost a month with us right at the start. I needed someone to help Cheryl through this, and I really did not want her to have to do this alone. We have friends locally, but Billy made a big difference in our lives during that first month.
Sadly, all our family support has gone back home. We put Connie on the plane this morning, and Cheryl and I are back to doing this alone. We will be fine, but we will really miss all the family.
Friends
I also want to thank all of you who read this blog. There are far more of you that I ever expected. I am especially gratful for those of you from my high-school class who kept in touch during this. I have had many opportunities to revisit my growing up years, and to reflect on how my life has gone, and where I want it to go from here. All of you helped make that happen.
The folks from my work, and from my church have been a great support as well. My sisters both commented on how wonderfully nice all of you have been. You need to remember that they live in the Washington, D.C. area, where folks are a bit more self-centered (politics seems to draw that out in those folks, I suppose).
Final call
All the doctors are quite pleased with the final results, at least so far. I got through the entire process well, and am doing fine in my recovery. All I need to do now is let time do it's magic, and heal from all the work.
May you live a long life, free from the devil that is Cancer. But know that if it finds you, or finds someone you love, you can get through the experience. Keep your friends and family close, trust in God, and keep your spirits up. You will do fine.
It has worked for me!
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