My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

sessions, and for the first time since I came to Fresno in 1976, I won the Presidents
Trophy for winning the most masterpoints. Thanks to my partners, Bert Rettner and Mark
Stern.
So how am I doing? I feel pretty good these days, but my shortness of breath has not
improved. The worst symptom of this is inability to speak very long without coughing. This
bothers me most when working, as I spend all the time dictating reports into Dragon 10
Medical. The software does a good job of ignoring my coughing. I am using cough drops
and taking cough syrup at night, and have few symptoms when not speaking.
My neuropathy has not changed.
I will see Dr. Flam next Tuesday and will discuss possible treatment with corticosteroids.
Posted by David Shuster at 07:25PM (-07:00)
Not Much New, So I Tell the Story of Sadie
Cohen
Sunday, November 20, 2011
It has been a while since I posted to this blog. That is because there has not been much
change. I did visit Dr. Flam on November 9. My labs were unchanged, and my chest Xray
showed little change. because of continuing cough and shortness of breath, he
ordered a CT scan of my chest. That was done on Nov 10. I looked at the images but do
not have them to post. I would describe the findings using a term I coined. "Mixed
Change". That is, somewhat better in the right upper lung annd somewhat worse in the
right lower lung and the same on the left. No change was seen in my posterior
mediastinum, the site of the only known tumor, which I hope is totally inactive. No liver
metastases are seen. I will get the full report when I see Dr. Flam on Wednesday. I still
have shortness of breath and a cough, The cough responds well to
Hydrocodone/homatropine cough syrop. It allows me to dictate reports with little
interruptions for a coughing break. Drug Info
This is a narcotic with potential for addiction. Apparently the Homatropine is added to
stop people from taking too much at a time. It also helps me sleep all night as the
homatropine prevents bladder spasm. Constipation is a side effect but so far has not
been too much of a problem. My other symptoms are stable. Dry mouth, arm and leg
numbness and hearing loss have not changed and are not too debilitating.
I have been working half days at Kaiser and even worked a full day at Sierra Imaging.
I was taking Vitamin B Complex, tablets from CVS. On my CT scan, I could see the
tablets intact in my colon. Needless to say, they could not be very effective in treating
peripheral neuropathy.
We have an addition to the family, sort of. Our oldest granddaughter Eva has a baby
(half) brother born yesterday to her mother and stepfather.
Since I have no more news, I will tell the story of a patient from my internship who I will
call Sadie Cohen.
Sadie was an elderly Jewish diabetic being treated for an ulcer in her foot, with the hope
of preventing an amputation. She had Alzheimer's disease and was in pain She would lie
in bed constantly moaning oy-oy-oy-oy-oy as only an old Jewish lady could. It was my job
to keep her IV running and she would be constantly pulling at it until she dislodged it.
There were no ports or PICC lines back then. They were calling me at all times to restart
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