Keep pushing Jaak. BTW..... Not a radiologist. He is a radiation oncologist. Very different specialities. I was wondering. Were you a smoker?

 

^^ Bacura he answered that on page 11 of this thread....

 

I see it now. I guess wearing a mask is always the way to go. A lot of asbestos workers wore no protection and got lung cancer. It's good that you weren't a smoker....recovery would have been even more difficult. Keep an eye out for that light at the end of the tunnel!

 

Thanks folks. I have a meeting tomorrow with the Chemo Oncologist to find out what they are going to do or what's required of me. It is overwhelming to say the least and I need to get proper information. The worst case does not seem to apply ... I want what the average person goes through. It's bad enough that I have to go every day for about 6 weeks and now they want to add Chemo at the same time. I want to know how it will affect me during the process as well as after. They say that the affects will wear off after 2 weeks of the treatment ending. I hope so as I want to get back into being normal again. The Doc's said it usually takes 6 months before someone goes back to work from the start/operation. I am looking at meeting that goal or maybe before it.

Where they took the bone from under right arm, todays pic:

 

I was a smoker ... NOT anymore. Doc's said it did NOT cause this cancer.

 

I can't believe how well the stitches on your face have healed! When I first saw the pics with the fresh stitches, I though man, that's going to leave a mark, but it barely has!

 

Hang in there Jaack...

Damn feathers, eh. Sleep will now be restorative.

What you have been going through is so personal, thank you for sharing with us....

Lean on your buds as you can and maintain that positive attitude that you carry with you...

One of my favorite quotes...


ATTITUDE
by
Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes”

 

They say it will get smaller again. It is still swollen and may be for the next little while. The eye will get fixed after the radiation is over sometime in May.

 

Thanks. It is personal but .... posting it does help me and hopefully someone else can learn from it. I did not know how this journey was to be ... I'm along for the ride.

 

..okay a picture of your pit ? .. lets reel things back in here a little

 

I'm impressed with how well you're doing too, Jaak!
Although it may feel, now and then, like you're being bested in a battle, your attitude shows that you'll win this particular war. Godspeed!

 

Thanks guys .... I have a lot to think about after todays meeting.

 

What was the meeting about Jaak ?

never mind

k fine .. i went back and read the pit pic post

 

It was the Chemo meeting with the Oncologist. It looks like I start 2 Chemo sessions/days that requires me to stay overnight at PMH and 35 Radiation sessions. The Doc's are very poor on describing the processes and what the average person goes through. They seem to concentrate on the negative aspects which seems to turn one off the treatments. A nice Social Worker called me today from the hospital on a survey they wanted me to take who ended up running me through everything and calming my fears such as losing sight in 1 eye, hearing loss, kidney failure, unable to swallow, tremors etc. It seems I may end up with a very bad sore throat, tired and a possible "sunburn" on my right cheek.

The Canadian Cancer Society has a transport program where I can be driven to the Hospital for treatments 95% of the time if a driver is available. It costs $100 which will make it easy for me to get into treatments especially near the end when I'm fatigued.

 

That is what the opened up (scar) to get two bone grafts to replace the bone removed from my mouth. It is still sore and the missing bone is evident. This makes it very hard to drive a stick and do many tasks. I had two major operations at the same time ... I'm still healing and am sore ...