My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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He gives me the wonderful news that I can go home. I will be able to leave the hospital
about 48 hours after my surgery.
Here are a few other things that I did not mention above,
I was given two intradermal injections of Lovenox in the abdominal wall. I believe that
this is a drug designed to reduce the incidence of thrombophlebitis and pulmonary
embolism.
I received another intravenous iron infusion.
I had to wear a device that goes around the foot that regularly is inflated and deflated,
also designed to reduce the incidence of pulmonary embolism. This device kept coming
off of my feet, and I discarded it.
A hybrid stock/slipper was also given to me to be worn. It kept coming up, and it was not
much fun reaching down to my foot to put it back on.
The intravenous device which was being used had a loud, shrill alarm system which
would go off when the device detected increased resistance to flow, or when the volume
of fluid remaining became low. Somehow, the nurses did not pay attention to this alarm,
and frequently I would have to use the nurse call button. I would then place the
microphone of the call button up to the alarm to let them know that the alarm was going
off.
I was in room 322 of Clovis Community Hospital. I have to give kudos to the nursing staff
and all of those people who helped take care of me during the two days that I spent in
room 322 following surgery. I rarely had to wait any significant amount of time after calling
the nurses. They went out of my way to be helpful and to answer all of my concerns.
Whenever complaints I expressed above, I do not have any complaint about the nursing
care that I was given.
Late Friday morning, I leave the hospital. I have to say that there is no place like home.
However, I developed an unexpected complication of back spasms. These are relieved
quite well with a heating pad which I alternate from my left upper abdomen to my lower
back. I continue to be successful passing gas, but have not had a significant bowel
movement.
Two quiet days have passed. My abdominal pain has substantially decreased. However
there is still a small amount of residual discomfort in the left upper abdomen particularly
on coughing. I have returned to a relatively light diet.
I continue to use the breathing device. I now quite easily get the marker up to the 2500
level.
Today, we were visited by our friends, Ray and Andrea Schwartz. Our dog, Rocky was
visited by their dog, Joey, a full size poodle. They have been very encouraging to me.
Many years ago, Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer and was given only a short
period of time to live. She is a shining example of what can happen when you stand up
and fight your disease. I plan to emulate her example.
Posted by David Shuster at 05:04PM (-07:00)
I have my Pathology Report
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The tumor is reported in a two page dissertation describing the specimen grossly and
microscopic with multiple special stains.The bottom line is that the lesion is an ulcerated
and necrotic focus of metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, extending through the bowel wall
and involving the serosal surface. The small bowel margins are clear. 6 lymph nodes in
the mesentary have no Merkel involvement.There is no involvement of mesenteric fat.
The entire specimen measures 10.5 cm in length and up to 4.5 cm in diameter. The
tumor is described as ulcerating and fungating involving 85% of the small bowel
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer