My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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In any event, Dr Flam says I should not take any more Cisplatin and if more chemotherapy is needed, he will switch to Carboplatin, which causes less ototoxicity, but not none. It seems like three possible scenarios depending on the CT scan. 1. Best case, the posterior mediastinal mass is gone and there is no new tumor. The plan for this case is likely radiation treatment to the posterior mediastinum. 2. Most likely. The mass is smaller, or unchanged but there is no new tumor. Continue chemo with Carboplatin. 3. The mass is bigger, or there is new disease. Stop chemo. Look for an experimental protocol. In other news, we had a very nice visit from my brother and sister-in-law from Florida, Jon and Sandy. They took us out for dinner Monday night. The food was good, so I'm told. As good as could be expected, with loss of taste. On Tuesday, we had brunch with them and with Gary, Dana and the three granddaughters. Then Eva stayed over last night. She leaves for 2 weeks of camp on Sunday. I hope to post again tomorrow with my results. Posted by David Shuster at 08:37PM (-07:00) Good News! Thursday, June 23, 2011 My CT scan today shows marked improvement from the previous studies. By comparison, here is the previous axial scan My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer 79
80 Most of the soft tissue in the area on the scan today is the distal esophagus. The coronal images are below. Here is the previous for comparison. This is about as much as I could hope for. I await my visit to Dr Flam next Tuesday at which time I expect him to stop all chemotherapy and we can plan some radiation treatment to the area. The CT scan also shows no evidence of new disease. I don't want to get my hopes up too high as I have been disappointed before, but I am very optimistic. I also saw Richard Weinberg today about my hearing loss. He was very accommodating, squeezing me in between his regular appointments. They did a more complete audiogram on me and I have significant high frequency hearing loss. He says a hearing aid would not help at this time and feels that some additional hearing loss would be worth the price if I need additional Cisplatin. Posted by David Shuster at 05:08PM (-07:00) My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer
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My Battle with MCC My Battle with M
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Contents I Discover a Mass in my Fa
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A Brief break, Then 3-5 Months of C
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Esophageal Dilatation: My Experienc
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I Discover a Mass in my Face Friday
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I Have Surgery Saturday, July 24, 2
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Posted by docshu at 10:54AM (-07:00
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In the absence of a tumor mass to i
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Friday, July 2: I plan to work in t
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I plan to add photographs to this b
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deformity and a facial droop on his
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of taste. I have now completed 11 o
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there. They visited from Valencia,
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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 44 and 45: Posted by docshu at 07:20PM (-08:00
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 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
Page 100 and 101: 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
Page 108 and 109: to a pediatrician, who said that th
Page 110 and 111: PM. I will post again when I get ho
Page 112 and 113: Posted by David Shuster at 09:56AM
Page 114 and 115: obesity and emaciation." One of the
Page 116 and 117: Last night, I had the most sleep I'
Page 118 and 119: done frequently since having the pr
Page 120 and 121: they did help, they didn't help eno
Page 122 and 123: I hope that my dad is well enough t
Page 124 and 125: WBC count 4.5-11.0 K/mcL Platelet 1
Page 126 and 127: It is such great news. There are do
Page 128 and 129: 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
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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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My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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