My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

there. They visited from Valencia, California. Eva and Sara were there, of course, and
Gary's first wife, Margaret Eva,s mother was also was there. We had a nice time and
again, cake was served. Unfortunately, I could not enjoy the cake. On Sunday, we did
video chats, first with Mike and Leanna, Sammie and Eli. Brian was also able to
participate. This was followed by a video chat with my mother in Montreal. My sister Ellie
was there visiting from Edmonton Alberta. Her daughter Cheryl was there with her
newborn baby, whose name is David. He is not named after me. This was my first
chance to see him. I have to say that the innovations in modern electronics are wonderful
for families were separated by so much distance. Here, we were able to share video and
chat with people living in Philadelphia, Vancouver, Montréal, and Edmonton. I can only
imagine what my grandparents on my fathers side who left their families behind in
Russia, and moved to the New World, would think. How they would have loved to have
been able to communicate like this!
I have sufferred from most of the expected symptoms of radiation treatment. The one
which I have managed to avoid is the fatigue described by many. The most distressing of
all the symptoms is the loss of sense of taste. In fact, it is worse than merely the loss of
sense of taste. Everything tastes bad. The way described it to my wife is for her to
imagine that everything she ate tasted like cantaloupe. She hates cantaloupe. The next
distressing symptom is a very dry mouth. In spite of multiple rinses, drinking lots of water,
the dryness continues. This also seems to result in a sore throat, although my throat has
markedly improved since the first week of radiation treatment. A new symptom which I
have developed is some kind of painful lesion in my nose on the right. Dr. Lee, the
radiation oncologist, who was filling in for Dr. John yesterday, thinks it might be a viral
herpes simplex. I have had occasional herpes simplex infections on my lip, and I have
had a similar condition and my nose two or three times in the past 10 years. I will try
treating this with an antiviral ointment. My back pain is resolved almost completely. Last,
but far from least, is the burning in my skin of my neck on the left. I have been applying
aloe vera lotion to this four or five times a day, but I anticipate this getting a lot worse.
This is particularly so as I will receive five electron beam treatments. These treatments
are designed to add radiation to the skin. I asked Dr. Lee what were the chances that my
skin would break down and that I would require skin grafts. He said that it was likely that
my skin would break down, but that it was virtually certain to heal on its own. However,
because this is the original site of tumor, the intense radiation to the skin is required.
On Saturday, I had a long talk with a fellow sufferer of Merkel's carcinoma in Minnesota.
His name is Rich Kessler. He tells me that he is one of the founders of the group. He still
has a non-healing lesion on his leg in the skin as a result of his radiation treatment four
years ago. However I have to say that my discussion with him gave my spirits a big
boost. He has survived eight years with Merkel's. Rich, this message is for you. I read on
one of the other posts on the Merkel site that you can send blood for testing to Dr.
Nghiem's lab.
My bridge game still has not suffered. Playing with Bert, in a game with 15 tables, we had
the best score of all 30 pairs with 212 on a 156 average.
Here are the pictures. You can see the left side of my face is red and pigmented. My
beard on the left is barely growing. The left facial droop appears more pronounced to me.
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer
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