It's D's birthday today........45 years old. Whew had a few close misses in making it this far. He has spent the last 3 years pulling all kinds of weird tumours. His birthday card said "The secret to a long life is.........................keep breathing".
The girls and I thought this most appropriate in his case. His first brush with death in 2005 was an extremely rare adrenal tumour (10x10cm) that sent massive amount of adrenaline surging through his body and causing all sorts of chaos...........heart failure, kidney trouble.......... That sort of wiped out from FEB 2005 -AUG2005. He recovered with no real lasting problems. The odd's of getting a "Phaeochromocytoma" are very rare. There are about 5 cases per annum in the USA.
Then the bugger gets diagnosed with an agressive squamous cell carcinoma in his cheek on the 15Dec 2006, after massive surgery and radiation that nearly killed him he is ok. About 20kg lighter and ok, this episode lasted from Dec2006 -May2007. The next 5 years will tell whether he is ok or not. He sees the Oncologist and the Head/Neck surgeon every 6 weeks for the next few years to get inspected for any possible return. Squamous Cell cancers in the mouth are normally associated with a history of smoking..........D has never ever smoked! Not fair huh!
The thing is.......... that life is so unpredictable and you just never know what the next day holds. The most difficult thing to cope with is not allowing yourself to get wary about the future. When lots of unpredictable calamities occur, your brain puts you into "Survival Mode". Planning ahead is impossible.........because your brain has prepared you for the worst scenario's. People tell me they have booked a trip to somewhere about 6 months in advance... and I think "Are you nuts, anything could happen in6 months time!"
We have cried and we have laughed, but we still trucking.............can't keep a good dog down!
So lets hope this year stays boring,uneventful and normal.............I love it!
Si
2 comments:
what an ordeal. D is a lucky fella to have such a wonderful support group at home. i think if i were that sick, i'd want the goofiness of Si and her Babes around. laughter is the best med, no?
i had nothing to do with it
Post a Comment