Posted by David Poncelow Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:12:57 GMT | 1 comment
I changed the name of this page after going through some of my insurance paperwork. I came across this gem and couldn’t resist- it’s just too well suited. Here’s an image of the ‘explanation of benefits’. The amusing part is the reason they rejected the claim.
Posted by David Poncelow Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:26:57 GMT | 2 comments
I’ve been really bad about writing here over the last couple of months, for a couple different reasons. I find that I have a hard time writing about something for public consumption that I don’t quite understand yet, and I’ve had quite a bit of processing to do.
As of Monday I’m done with radiation, (and I’m quite happy to be done). I’m doing OK, though it’s a bit painful as my skin renews itself. Luckily my skin held up quite well, and it’s only been the last few days that I’ve had any problems.
Posted by David Poncelow Sat, 27 Jan 2007 01:14:27 GMT | 2 comments
I received my last treatment of Taxol yesterday. It went well, and it’s such a relief to have that part of all of this over with. It was a pretty easy treatment… the Taxol always seems like such a long time, as it goes in over three hours. That plus the visit with the oncologist, the blood test beforehand, and all of the pre-medications makes it stretch out interminably. I sat in the treatment room with a rather nice and enjoyable (and talkative!) guy this time.
The nurses were all so sweet, too- they brought me a piece of cake with a candle in it and sang ‘happy last treatment to you’ to me. I know that I’ve gone on about how well taken care of I’ve felt at Swedish, but I really have been cared for by some remarkable people.
Posted by David Poncelow Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:09:18 GMT | 5 comments
I got back from my New York trip on Saturday night- it went better than I could have hoped. This last round of chemo has been the best yet. It started with my blood counts: we had known since I started chemo that there was a possibility that I would be too prone to infection to be able to risk the plane trip. My oncologist recommended that we continue to plan for the trip, but understand that we might have to cancel at the last minute. It all hinged on my white blood cell counts. They came back in the midrange of normal. That’s not something I would have expected.
Posted by David Poncelow Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:57:40 GMT | 3 comments
Well, I shaved off my hair and my beard a couple nights ago. I was just looking too much like Bill the Cat to keep going on that way- every morning in the shower more and more hair was coming out, leaving unsightly bald patches.
Posted by David Poncelow Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:45:15 GMT | 6 comments
I’ve been thinking a lot about statistics this past week. This cancer I’ve got is pretty uncommon, so I keep digging to try to find how uncommon it is, how unlikely that I ended up with this. The best I’ve found so far came from a study that my surgeon gave me a copy of. It’s a thirty year study, covering around 400,000 breast cancer cases. Of those, about 2000 are men, 22 under 35.
I also keep looking for statistics on my ‘chances’. I’ve found everywhere from 67% to 85% for my cancer and my stage. I’ve found graphs, charts, and mortality data. I’ve read many, many reports and study abstracts, and I’ve distilled it all down to what that data means to me.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Posted by David Poncelow Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:23:39 GMT | 3 comments
OK, so here’s the full deal. Early Friday morning (early being 8ish) I had a CT scan done on my chest and liver. The CT machine looked like a big futuristic donut with a bed that fit inside - I laid down on the table and the technician made me comfortable and started an I.V. Once that was going she called Jim from nuclear medicine over to give me the radiation tracer for the bone scan I would get later.
Posted by David Poncelow Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:11:00 GMT | no comments
I finally got my lymph tube out today- this makes me very happy! I’ll be able to take the bandage covering the hole off tomorrow morning- that will be the first time I’m bandage and accoutrement free since the surgery. Stretching out the arm is going well, and everything is starting to feel more normal. Where my nipple used to be now feels something like a limb does when it falls asleep, just a little numb and foreign, not sore or painful. The skin on the inside of my arm is still over-sensitive to being touched, but that’s also improving. Overall I’m quite happy with my progress! Now I’m about ready for the next steps- I’ll find out what exactly those will be on Thursday.
Posted by David Poncelow Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:29:00 GMT | no comments
I had another appointment with my surgeon on Friday- not much new information this time around. I got my bandages off- they were these rather cool plastic bandages that pretty much just looked like package tape over the incisions. I figured that since they were designed to stay together for over a week there must be some special way of removing them, a solvent that made them float off, something of that sort. Not so much. Dr. Garnett simply said ‘sorry’ and ripped them off. It didn’t really hurt, but the low-tech technique did make me laugh! Overall I’m healing as well as can be expected. The scar looks to be very minimal and the difference between sides won’t be too noticible from the front or the side- it’s most noticible from the top as I see it, which few other people will notice. I got some new bandages that I thought were pretty nifty- an adhesive was painted onto the wounds and then some tape was applied. Eventually the adhesive will dissolve in the shower and the tape will just start falling off. I’m constantly impressed by the nifty ideas and gadgets that I’m encountering.
Posted by David Poncelow Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:45:00 GMT | no comments
Well, I got through surgery yesterday and am home now. I’m feeling pretty good, no real pain to speak of. I’m still pretty drugged, not too sure how much sense I’m actually making. I did end up losing the lymph nodes- I guess they were involved. Now I’ve got a plastic grenade-shaped container hooked up to a tube going into my side that’s draining off the lymph fluids and blood from the surgery. I don’t know a whole lot at the moment, and I keep seeming to forget what I do know! I’m sure my mind will be clearer tomorrow, and I should have the full results back from the surgery at the beginning of next week.
And now, perhaps another movie!
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