My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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Posted by docshu at 07:20PM (-08:00) PET/CT Images Annotated. Musings Saturday, December 04, 2010 Axial CT see arrows Coronal CT see arrows My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer 43
44 PET Scan I apologize to those people who looked at the images from my previous post and had no idea what I was talking about. Thanks to Mark Alson who pointed out that not everybody can interpret these images. I am reposting images from my CT scan with arrows to show the tumor mass. I am also posting a single image from my pet scan showing the tumor mass. On that image, the mass lights up and is black in the picture while everything else is a relative gray or white.The pet scan image shows a very high level of metabolic activity indicating a very high likelihood of malignancy. On the other images, the tumor mass is visible and is new. While I have no proof by biopsy, the odds are overwhelming that this all represents a recurrence of my Merkel cell carcinoma. After discussions with Dr. Flam, Dr. Nghiem, Dr. John, and Dr. Parvathaneni and also with Dr Bhatia, the oncologist I visited at University of Washington, I have elected to proceed with the experimental treatment recommended. I think that there is little to lose, as it is highly likely that having chemotherapy and more aggressive radiation therapy will probably not be very effective. It is very likely that there are microscopic collections of tumor cells elsewhere in my body with the ability to rapidly grow as this mass did. While this would suggest that chemotherapy may be effective, Dr. Nghiem feels that the negative effect of chemotherapy on my immune system will allow those tumor cells not killed by chemotherapy to kill me. So how do I feel being in this situation? It is highly likely that I will succumb to this disease. I may not have very much time left. Yet, I feel fine physically. Mentally,it is very difficult. Like a song running through your head, thoughts of my condition, my treatment, and dealing with advancing illness and my ultimate demise are always in the forefront. I can't stop thinking about it. And yet, I am able to function quite well in day-to-day activities. I am continuing to work, play bridge,read, enjoy television shows, and particularly enjoy the love and support of my family. Under the circumstances, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with the entire Shuster clan including Judy, my three sons, Gary, Brian and Michael, Gary's wife, Dana, Michael's wife, Leanna, and are five grandchildren, all together for the first time. We were very concerned as to what we're going to tell our nine-year-old granddaughter, Eva. She was becoming very upset as she sensed that there was something wrong and nobody was telling her anything. She was concerned that there was something wrong with her, and was very relieved to learn the truth. Thanksgiving has not been a good time for her, as her maternal grandmother died on Thanksgiving day. Since learning the truth about me, she has been very loving and supportive. So the question is, what should I do with my time that I have left. I do not plan to retreat into a world of gloom and self-pity. I have committed myself to spend some time working this month as long as I do not have substantial side effects from the radiation treatment. I think that I will continue to stick with my plan of working three afternoons per week beginning in January and additional time if needed at Kaiser. If I am feeling well, I would like to take a one-week cruise perhaps in the beginning of February. However I will only My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer
Page 1 and 2: My Battle with MCC My Battle with M
Page 4 and 5: Contents I Discover a Mass in my Fa
Page 6 and 7: A Brief break, Then 3-5 Months of C
Page 8 and 9: Esophageal Dilatation: My Experienc
Page 10 and 11: I Discover a Mass in my Face Friday
Page 12 and 13: I Have Surgery Saturday, July 24, 2
Page 14 and 15: Posted by docshu at 10:54AM (-07:00
Page 16 and 17: In the absence of a tumor mass to i
Page 18 and 19: Friday, July 2: I plan to work in t
Page 20 and 21: I plan to add photographs to this b
Page 22 and 23: deformity and a facial droop on his
Page 24 and 25: of taste. I have now completed 11 o
Page 26 and 27: there. They visited from Valencia,
Page 28 and 29: SARA, age 3, The Kissing Doctor Wha
Page 30 and 31: Hooray. I passed!!! Friday, August
Page 32 and 33: survives. Posted by docshu at 08:49
Page 34 and 35: Below is a photo of our dog, Rocky
Page 36 and 37: Not Much New Thursday, September 16
Page 38 and 39: Posted by docshu at 05:09PM (-07:00
Page 40 and 41: That's Jon on my right and Robert o
Page 42 and 43: Nghiem in Seattle on November 30. U
Page 46 and 47: ook last-minute, as I have canceled
Page 48 and 49: Sandy, and from my sister Ellie, wi
Page 50 and 51: out. I do not have a definite date
Page 52 and 53: old. We had a very nice visit with
Page 54 and 55: I continue to work, although my sch
Page 56 and 57: Surgery Wednesday 10:00 AM Monday,
Page 58 and 59: do very much. On the other hand, I
Page 60 and 61: circumference. What that all means
Page 62 and 63: Montreal and on my return, have a p
Page 64 and 65: Here is a photo of Alex and yours t
Page 66 and 67: The bad news is that the experiment
Page 68 and 69: This is the best photo I could find
Page 70 and 71: the symptom gets worse. The generic
Page 72 and 73: DNA present in ~80% MCC tumors MCPy
Page 74 and 75: Rocky woke us up this morning with
Page 76 and 77: =Bingo!=we were the next ones seate
Page 78 and 79: My colon feels like It wants to blo
Page 80 and 81: In any event, Dr Flam says I should
Page 82 and 83: No More Chemo (for now) Tuesday, Ju
Page 84 and 85: The Plan is Finalized Tuesday, July
Page 86 and 87: Not a Good Day Today, + Real Estate
Page 88 and 89: was down. I had no appetite. No foo
Page 90 and 91: my lower esophagus. An experimental
Page 92 and 93: Here is the rant. My appointment wa
Page 94 and 95:
peripheral neuropathy is unchanged.
Page 96 and 97:
have stopped the zinc. I am also ha
Page 98 and 99:
Axial CT Image Here, we see a large
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I'm Back! Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Page 102 and 103:
My brother Jon Shuster arrived Thur
Page 104 and 105:
sessions, and for the first time si
Page 106 and 107:
the skull. When the catheter was in
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to a pediatrician, who said that th
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PM. I will post again when I get ho
Page 112 and 113:
Posted by David Shuster at 09:56AM
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obesity and emaciation." One of the
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Last night, I had the most sleep I'
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done frequently since having the pr
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they did help, they didn't help eno
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I hope that my dad is well enough t
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WBC count 4.5-11.0 K/mcL Platelet 1
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It is such great news. There are do
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so he can sleep. 2:00 Dana takes Be
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Cicero says of the Sword of Damocle
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evealed Staph Aureus, but not the a
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Fresno Imaging Center Medical Group
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Obituary Saturday, April 21, 2012 T
Page 138 and 139:
manner of other names, as my dad di
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Eva had asked that I tell him she l
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document the final part of that tra
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Subject: docdave back at hospital T
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We got word that the ER doctor want
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used it), some stuff for my mom, an
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your brain and body work. As the ox
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who seemed competent and caring. Th
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in a voice I'd never heard her use
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In facing death, dad decided to tru
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157
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My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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