xhac (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} xhac) wrote,@ 2007-10-27 16:27:00 |
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What I'm doing
Hey! It seems blogging is useful again, even if it's just to spread news.
For those that don't already know my present situation, I'll give a generous introduction:
Around June 2006 I was decided I'll become a marathon runner or something and started doing some lame laps around the municipal track or along the beach at Loutraki, carefully measured in googleearth to keep perfect records. Some time after that, say August 2006 I started to have some nuisance pains on my right hip which of course were attributed to the "let it burn" aspect of training. It was a few months after that, following an embarrassing round of rafting that I couldn't even step on my leg and decided to go to a doctor. Of course the doctor, after having me do some x-rays and CTs diagnosed it as what all his other previous appointments had, which was that herniated disc in my back was pushing on a nerve that goes down my foot. Very very common and very very annoying. As a result, I got me some pills and prescription for physiotherapy. The pills I took but the physio I skipped (which is just as well).
Anyway. The pain grew gradually stronger and stronger until one day, around January 2007 I couldn't get out of bed. My doctor, plus another one I got for a second opinion, suggested more of the above. Only instead of pills I was shooting shots up my butt and laying really still, or there would be pain. Actually I had mastered a regime where I was laying down for 20 minutes and then standing up for 10 because the pain hated too much stillness. It came a day that I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks, except if you call sleeping on your toes with crutches sleeping.
After a few weeks of this, and seeing that my situation was getting worse we decided to go to a hospital. Three hospitals toy be precise. It was an orthopedic one, a kind of neurological one and guess in which one did I end up: a cancer one. Turns out what was causing the pain was a huge tumor on my right pelvis which, wasn't really happy about having injections of anti-inflamatory drugs being done twice a day to it.
That was January and as much as that was ages ago, it feels like it was only last week. Hospital time sure flies. I had my opiates and my "too much to put on our report" morphine to keep the pain away, along with too much chemo, if comparing to other folks there is any tell. The diagnosis was osteosarcoma on the pelvis, which is a nasty thing, kind of resilient to chemo and all too frequently involved in limb amputation.
Well I did my chemo and I also did something called a bone marrow transplant where they get and keep stem cells of your blood, then they zap you with some pretty devastating meds and in order to recover you need those stem cells that they took earlier. All very cutting edge and all (although probably two decades ago).
While I was doing all these, the big treasure at the end of the rainbow was that some time the tumor might be ready to be removed by surgery, preferably abroad. The greek surgeon we visited in order to have permission to go out (and have the insurance pick up the bill) told us that he could give no such permission, as he has proudly performed many amputations where the fellow lived to tell the tale. That was a distressing time for me as you might understand, but my very resilient parents finally convinced him he should let us go.
So right now I'm in a bed at my aunt's house at Boston Massachusetts writing you about the past and something about the future.
The hospital I'm treated at is Mass General Hospital which I guess is very respected and all. The first doctor I saw, as well as every other doctor I saw told me "this doesn't look like an osteosarcoma". After a new biopsy (big needle in butt taking samples) this was confirmed and it seems that I am suffering from a Ewing's sarcoma which is, I guesss, a close cousin of my previous diagnosis. This is just as well because the doctors here had pretty much told me that if it's osteosarcoma we probably have to amputate the leg (you see the tumor is now tangled in some blood vessels that are too critical for the leg so the leg must go). Being Ewing's we have an opportunity to shrink the tumor down further using new chemo and radiation therapy (Ewing but not osteo is kink of sensitive to radiation). This way, they say, there is a chance to save the leg. Don't you just love doctor speak.
My feelings about the whole situation: I can't say I've come to terms to loosing a leg just quite yet. Sometimes I think I am but the next moment something shudders inside me at the thought. I almost laugh at myself at when my hair fell out and was kind of upset about it. All in all I think I've been a pretty good sport and haven't gone into drama mode (yet). At least that's what the nurses tell me.
Anyway, I had my first chemo in Boston on Tuesday which went pretty well. I was pretty much sleeping from then on. Today I think I'm better. I think I'll go to my _600 channel IPTV with PVR and pausing live tv_ TV. Internet is on the room upstairs though and I'm too lazy to go there with my crutches.
Anyways. Take care. I only check my gmail account (that's where lj comments go).
Hey! It seems blogging is useful again, even if it's just to spread news.
For those that don't already know my present situation, I'll give a generous introduction:
Around June 2006 I was decided I'll become a marathon runner or something and started doing some lame laps around the municipal track or along the beach at Loutraki, carefully measured in googleearth to keep perfect records. Some time after that, say August 2006 I started to have some nuisance pains on my right hip which of course were attributed to the "let it burn" aspect of training. It was a few months after that, following an embarrassing round of rafting that I couldn't even step on my leg and decided to go to a doctor. Of course the doctor, after having me do some x-rays and CTs diagnosed it as what all his other previous appointments had, which was that herniated disc in my back was pushing on a nerve that goes down my foot. Very very common and very very annoying. As a result, I got me some pills and prescription for physiotherapy. The pills I took but the physio I skipped (which is just as well).
Anyway. The pain grew gradually stronger and stronger until one day, around January 2007 I couldn't get out of bed. My doctor, plus another one I got for a second opinion, suggested more of the above. Only instead of pills I was shooting shots up my butt and laying really still, or there would be pain. Actually I had mastered a regime where I was laying down for 20 minutes and then standing up for 10 because the pain hated too much stillness. It came a day that I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks, except if you call sleeping on your toes with crutches sleeping.
After a few weeks of this, and seeing that my situation was getting worse we decided to go to a hospital. Three hospitals toy be precise. It was an orthopedic one, a kind of neurological one and guess in which one did I end up: a cancer one. Turns out what was causing the pain was a huge tumor on my right pelvis which, wasn't really happy about having injections of anti-inflamatory drugs being done twice a day to it.
That was January and as much as that was ages ago, it feels like it was only last week. Hospital time sure flies. I had my opiates and my "too much to put on our report" morphine to keep the pain away, along with too much chemo, if comparing to other folks there is any tell. The diagnosis was osteosarcoma on the pelvis, which is a nasty thing, kind of resilient to chemo and all too frequently involved in limb amputation.
Well I did my chemo and I also did something called a bone marrow transplant where they get and keep stem cells of your blood, then they zap you with some pretty devastating meds and in order to recover you need those stem cells that they took earlier. All very cutting edge and all (although probably two decades ago).
While I was doing all these, the big treasure at the end of the rainbow was that some time the tumor might be ready to be removed by surgery, preferably abroad. The greek surgeon we visited in order to have permission to go out (and have the insurance pick up the bill) told us that he could give no such permission, as he has proudly performed many amputations where the fellow lived to tell the tale. That was a distressing time for me as you might understand, but my very resilient parents finally convinced him he should let us go.
So right now I'm in a bed at my aunt's house at Boston Massachusetts writing you about the past and something about the future.
The hospital I'm treated at is Mass General Hospital which I guess is very respected and all. The first doctor I saw, as well as every other doctor I saw told me "this doesn't look like an osteosarcoma". After a new biopsy (big needle in butt taking samples) this was confirmed and it seems that I am suffering from a Ewing's sarcoma which is, I guesss, a close cousin of my previous diagnosis. This is just as well because the doctors here had pretty much told me that if it's osteosarcoma we probably have to amputate the leg (you see the tumor is now tangled in some blood vessels that are too critical for the leg so the leg must go). Being Ewing's we have an opportunity to shrink the tumor down further using new chemo and radiation therapy (Ewing but not osteo is kink of sensitive to radiation). This way, they say, there is a chance to save the leg. Don't you just love doctor speak.
My feelings about the whole situation: I can't say I've come to terms to loosing a leg just quite yet. Sometimes I think I am but the next moment something shudders inside me at the thought. I almost laugh at myself at when my hair fell out and was kind of upset about it. All in all I think I've been a pretty good sport and haven't gone into drama mode (yet). At least that's what the nurses tell me.
Anyway, I had my first chemo in Boston on Tuesday which went pretty well. I was pretty much sleeping from then on. Today I think I'm better. I think I'll go to my _600 channel IPTV with PVR and pausing live tv_ TV. Internet is on the room upstairs though and I'm too lazy to go there with my crutches.
Anyways. Take care. I only check my gmail account (that's where lj comments go).
