Saturday, June 24, 2006
Greeting from
I am R, and my wife is J. Our darling son is S.
In an effort to keep everyone as up-to-date as possible, I have created this blog. I am sorry about the serious theme but what can I say? Lately our world has been turned upside down.
So what happened? Well, about 2-3 months ago, I started getting severe headaches. My family doctor knew “regular” headaches we occasionally get are not “regular” at all. He told me the term “regular headache” is a layperson term and that I had suffered a migraine pattern most of my life. He keyed in on one element of my headaches. ‘Why’, he wondered, ‘did you have a low grade headache off and on all your life only to have them become quite severe lately?’ He determined that something in my body triggered this change, and the “something” worried him greatly (gulp).
Dr L ordered a MRI for my head, and sent me on my way, newly diagnosed with migraines. The next day I got a MRI of my head only. By close of business, Dr. L called me, and requested I see him 0730 the next morning (scared now?) J and I sat numb as he showed us the image of the orbital mass in my left eye socket, wedged between my left eye, optic nerve, sinus and brain. Right then I knew.
I then visited an oculoplastic and reconstruction surgeon (a specialist in eye sockets), who examined me. Doctor M wanted to take a biopsy to determine if my orbital mass was cancerous. The following Monday I went under the knife for the first time in my life. The experience was not that bad. I woke up severely thirsty with an eye patch on my left eye (I better get used to that). On the following Friday, I got the call from Dr. L. As most of us suspected, I had cancer. Strangely, I was relieved to finally know one way or another. The waiting around is the hardest part with matters like this.
Once we knew for sure, Dr M referred me to Dr. H of the Mayo Clinic. Dr. H, along with two other sugeons, is the guy who would remove the tumor and surrounding tissue, and is one of the best in the world at what he does. The Mayo Clinic is not bad, either, and it is in my town. The challenge is getting insurance coverage out of network (looks good so far!) Dr. H ordered a PET scan which scans my entire body to determine if I have cancer anywhere else in my body. We are presently waiting on these results. If I do, that means my tumor has spread from somewhere else, and presents an entirely new “protocol” for treatment, not likely to involve immediate surgery. If my cancer is only in one place, I will have major surgery 7/7/2006.
Let me tell you about it. I will shave my head and beard first, because radiation will be a part of my treatment. Dr. H will cut me from ear to ear and down the left crease of my nose. My face will be peeled back. A section of my skull will be removed and my brain moved around to expose the tumor. The tumor and surrounding tissue will be removed (to include sections of sinus, bone, a sliver of brain and the entire left eye – sorry). Dr H assures me the “brain” portion would be limited to a section of the “sack” which our brain rests within. The challenge is repairing this with my own tissue or something synthetic, so that fluid from my brain does not give me meningitis. Given a successful repair of this sack, I will have no neurological dysfunction.
This is our journey so far. We will keep this blog updated as we are able. Right now I wait for the results of my PET scan, hoping only to lose an eye, beat cancer and live to be 100.
For those of you who do not know me all that well, I suppose you could say I have a strange sense of humor. I can not help but to find odd humor in the possible prosthetic eyes which I could choose from. For example, how about a snow globe? A pure chrome eye? Remember The Terminator? I could get a glowing red light. Perhaps a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, or a shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day. My brother, J, and I think there could be a marketplace for designer prosthetic eyes! Who knows? This could be big.
You think that is sick? Read this variation on a joke my brother and I have loved for years:
There once was a fellow who had an eye shot out in a war. He had an empty eye socket and it looked pretty ugly. He had obvious problems with the ladies and was lonely to the point of distraction.
His best friend told him that he could improve the situation if he would carve a wooden eye and put it in the socket.
He proceeded to carve and paint a very beautiful eye. He put it in and it looked splendid.
His friend told him that he now looked so much better that they should go to a bar to pick up some chicks. While the friend was dancing, the guy with the wood eye was nervous and steadily getting drunk on vodka.
His friend came over and told the wood eyed drunk that there was a girl on the other side of the bar that had been checking him out.
He was very shy but knew that this was his big chance to finally end the terrible loneliness. He went over to her, summoned up all of his courage and asked, "Would you like to dance with me?"
She answered, "Would I!"
Wounded to the quick, he shot back, "Fat ass!"
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