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Treatment For Cancer
One
doesn’t pay close attention to the nuances of the treatment
for cancer until one need to. It makes sense that unless we
have an unusual penchant for or fascination with reading up on amazing
medical treatments, we don’t take the time to learn of the
problems, the solutions, the symptoms, or the side effects.
Such is the case with my best friend of twenty-nine years.
A clinical nurse specialist specializing in geriatric nursing, my
friend has a wealth of medical and other knowledge that rivals the
minds of MENSA members. But she knew nothing of Cancer or of
the latest treatment for Cancer…until she was diagnosed with
invasive cervical adinocarcinoma. Neither of knew much before
this, save the limited and exaggerated details of the side effects of
chemo and radiation. We now, however, know a bit
more. Today she goes for her first of many treatments, so in
tacky form, I relay the process of one treatment for Cancer as she
experiences it.
Vaness was diagnosed in December of 2005. Immediately, they
took her in for surgery: to remove the offending growths, which were
malignant and threatening to spread to her lymph nodes, surgeons
performed a radical hysterectomy. Next she went in for a PET
scan. A PET scan is a Positron Emission Tomography test done
to verify the diagnoses and to enable further consideration of
treatment for cancer. The PET and other tests revealed the
cancer was in her lymph nodes, reaching as far up as the lungs and
extending down to her vaginal area. A reputable surgeon,
knowing of her case, which is in the 1 to 10 percentile of cases,
called Vaness, suggesting she blow off the standard treatment for
cancer and get the affected lymph nodes removed. (We cannot
have all of our lymph nodes removed, as they run our endocrine,
secretion, and waste and other systems.) Though she was now
getting opposing suggestions/recommendations, she opted for the latter:
on Valentine’s Day, she had a second surgery.
Next came the consultation regarding chemotherapy and
radiation. The doctor, she said, was wonderful, taking two
full hours to explain the pros and cons of chemo and radiation, those
that included statistics on likeliness of each particular side
effect. Compared to what my best friend and I had known
previously, the rates of losing hair, for example, or losing bowel
control, were surprisingly low. In addition, many subsequent
symptoms are psychogenic. That is, they are brought on by the
patient thinking about them coming on. If you think about
vomiting enough, you will vomit.
Yesterday (approximately two months after initial diagnosis), Vaness,
who had had an oncology nurse come to the house to administer an IV
that runs the course of one side of the body—through the
heart, etc.—was sent to the pharmacy for two
medications. Glutamine is thought to boost the immune system
with vitamins that help keep her strong; and Compazine, an anti-emetic,
is used to combat the nausea brought on by the Amaphostine injection(s).
Today, at 9 a. m., Vaness went in for her first treatment of
cancer. She will take chemo, then, on day 1 (for four days in
a row), day 29, and then weekly. At the same time, she will
take palliative radiation treatments five days a week for ten
weeks. Palliative radiation relieves symptoms and
“improves” quality of life, but does not
cure…as there is no “cure”.
These two treatments combined can only last for ten weeks, as they
first will not cure the cancer and as they second can kill
her. Such is the irony: the treatment for cancer is deadly
enough to treat the cancer but deadly enough to kill the cancer
patient. In another respect, however, the mind, friends, and
brilliant medical practitioners have contributed to the miraculous and
rare recovery of a percentage of women who live to tell about the
scare. And that percentage, that number of survivors, grows
every year.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
