Twiddles

Hi Trisha,

I hate cancer!! I hate hearing stories like those of my mom, your dad, my husband, and so many thousands of other people right now in the world who are in "the cancer nightmare," as I call it. It isn't fair. It is so weird, for me, to think that both my Mom and now my husband were so far advanced with their cancer before it was discovered that very little could be done for them. How can you be so near death and not have more symptoms? It just blows my mind. And it is scary, too.

With my Mom....well, she was 66 years old. She died exactly one and a half years ago, although it seems like just yesterday. She was one of those people who was meticulous with her health. She watched her diet, had all her routine mammograms, pap smears, blood work, etc. She did everything possible to be healthy. About 4 months before she died she was starting to have a mild indigestion and a little abdominal discomfort. It was nothing major, and she went about her normal business thinking it was just a little indigestion or nothing serious. After a few weeks it became a little more persistent, and she went to the doctor. The doctor told her it sounded like gall bladder symptoms, and they did an ultrasound which showed one gall stone, so they scheduled her to have a minor laporoscopic surgery to remove her gall bladder.

Feb. 23, 2007. She went into surgery thinking when she woke up her troubles would be over. When they did the surgery, though, they found her completely full of cancer, in every organ and all over the place. They didn't even do the surgery...just stitched her up and when she woke up they told her she had very little time left. She was gone just three weeks later. It was so fast, so sad, so heartbreaking. In fact, I am still in shock and disbelief. It was the most horrible thing I've ever been through.

Now, less than 2 years later, we find out my husband has kidney cancer. And just like with my Mom...absolutely no symptoms until it was too late. Dave is 64 years old. In about April of this year we noticed he was losing weight. He wasn't dieting, but he was happy about that because he had wanted to lose a few pounds. But the weight loss continued, fairly quickly, and in 2 months he'd lost 30 pounds! We just figured it was due to stress and his work. He works outside in the heat lots of times. He repairs radio station transmitters, and those transmitter rooms are very hot. Sometimes he'd work all day in there and sweat off several pounds, so we thought little of the weight loss. But then in June he got a bad cold. Sore throat, fever, cough. He went to the doctor and got antibiotics which helped the sore throat and the fever, but the cough wouldn't go away. The cough was so bad he couldn't sleep. Went back to the doctor, and she ordered a chest X-ray. The next day she called and told us Dave was scheduled for a CT scan. The CT scan showed a large tumor in his left kidney, a smaller tumor in his right kidney, tumors in both adrenal glands (on top of the kidneys) and at least 15 different tumors in both lungs. Also the lymph nodes in the chest and lung area are full of cancer. The prognosis is not good. Right now he's on a new drug called Torisel which he gets once a week intravenously. We think it is helping because Dave isn't coughing any more, but the side effects have been horrible. Dave doesn't want to die. He said the side effects are worth it if the Torisel is getting rid of the cancer.

That's why I'm up so early this morning. It's 0540 right now. Dave has his CT scan at 7 o'clock, then we see the doctor at 10 am. to discuss the results, then he has another chemo treatment. It's going to be a long day. I'm so scared. I hope the CT scan gives us some hopeful news. We know his cancer is far advanced, and it is not curable. But Torisel and a few other drugs like it do seem to sometimes slow the progression and give the person a few extra months, in some lucky cases maybe a few years. We're hoping Dave will be one of the lucky few.

Dave's best friend from childhood, Lonnie, died of esophageal cancer 4 months ago. And my uncle in Kansas also died from esophageal cancer. It is a hard road for the poor person to have to go down. And I know how you feel, Trisha, it is so hard to sit back and see our loved ones struggling like this. It is such a helpless feeling. I was just getting over the shock of what my Mom went through when BOOM! Now I'm losing my husband, too. I can't believe that in our day and age there isn't a way for people to get screening early, before the cancer is so far advanced that nothing can be done about it. Seems like a yearly routine CT scan should be done for everyone. That would prevent a lot of this stuff because if the cancer could be caught early then there would be some way to treat it. In your dad's case, my Mom's, and my hubby's....it's too late.

Hang in there, and let us know how you're doing.

Nancy

Please keep us in your prayers.