My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

the skull. When the catheter was in place, I was giving instructions to the technologist as
to how to position the patient. The conversation went as follows.
Me: "It's important that we get the neck in this patient and not so important that we have
the entire brain."
Technologist, after setting up the equipment, “Is this okay?”
Me: “No. I don't care if you cut off the top of the patient's head. Just make sure you get
the neck on”.
Patient: “I care. Don't cut off the top of my head!”
The moral of this little story is: Be careful of what you say, because you don't know who
may be listening.
Posted by David Shuster at 09:49AM (-08:00)
We're Back!!!
Monday, December 19, 2011
We're back from the cruise. I'm going to divide this post into 2 portions. The 1st will deal
with my health status. The 2nd will deal with a description of the cruise and associated
events.
Part 1. My health status.
A few days ago, I was thinking to myself that since I began radiation treatments, I have
never felt better. My cough and shortness of breath have significantly improved. My
exercise tolerance has improved. I even climbed 3 flights of stairs at one point during this
cruise. But peripheral neuropathy has changed little, but I think that the extent of the
neuropathy has decreased in that there is less loss of sensation in the mid-calf level than
there was. Before the cruise, I complained of some pain which appeared to come from
the area one of my right lower ribs. Of course, whenever there is unexplained pain, one
immediately thinks that it may be metastatic disease. However I think that I must've
pulled a muscle while coughing, as the pain has gone away.
At the end of the cruise, on Friday night, I began to have severe heartburn. This became
substantially worse on Saturday and Saturday night. I have had some difficulty explaining
this. It felt like heartburn in that it was a burning pain centered on the lower chest, just like
heartburn that I used to have before I began taking Prilosec. However it did not seem to
be related to acid reflux as I have been on full doses of Prilosec, and the pain seemed to
be at its worst right after and during eating. On about 2 occasions, the pain was so
severe that I was postulating that may have torn the mucosa of the esophagus. Of
course, when this happens, one immediately becomes convinced that there is now
metastatic disease or that the tumor in my lower esophagus has again begun to grow.
However I am now theorizing that this was due to viral infection as I was exposed
significantly during this cruise as I will describe below. In fact, I am feeling significantly
better, and this pain has almost completely gone away.
In summary, I am back to thinking optimistically, that, knock on wood, I'm feeling about as
well as I have ever since I began radiation treatments.
Part 2. The Family Cruise
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer
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