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 A blog of no uncertain musings. What goes on in my mind is often a source of wonder to me. |
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My mind and my life are wonderous things ... as are yours, I'm sure. I have more slips of paper and pages of notebooks with musings and thoughts than I really know what to do with. Someone, actually several someones, have suggested I start a blog ... or a journal as a means of focusing some of this mental energy. To be honest, I don't even know what the difference between a 'journal' and 'blog' is--or if there even is a difference. Read on, my friends, and you can judge for yourself whether it even matters. And so....  I'm JACE. Yep ... that's me! And somewhere in all my writings my last name may be posted. But I'll just leave it at Jace for right now. I'm 70 years old and heading full tilt to 71. It's strange that while I'm going through some rather serious medical issues, I still consider myself to be in the prime of my life--pretty good shape physically AND mentally, though I don't run for competition anymore  . I love to ... dang, if I put this stuff here, I won't have anything for my blog.Guess you just have to be patient until such stuff leaks out.  Perhaps 2025, having embraced my retirement, will see more participation in my journaling efforts. Well, one can hope.... |
| NOTE: I’ve purposely omitted the names of the doctors undertaking my care for privacy reasons. Taking yesterday’s blog entry in conjunction with this and tomorrow’s entries, I hope to complete a snapshot of my fight against a foe trying to take control of my body. I sometimes wonder if cancer is mindless, operating without active knowledge. Or, if it is an evil entity eminently designed to destroy. Surely, I can see no benefit to it. The fact is I had no symptoms that are associated with Renal Cell Carcinoma. My surgeon essentially explained that some things can’t be explained. A small consolation to me. He added that this type of cancer is one when caught early, which he said it was, is eminently survivable. I asked him how long the tumor had been growing. He said that such a tumor would grow about one to one and a half centimeters per year. ‘Holy shit,’ I thought. 'That's early?' I had a tumor the size of a small fist attached to my right kidney potentially encasing the inferior vena cava (IVC), a major pathway for blood from the kidney to the heart. It must have been growing for years--at least five. The word ‘complications’ screamed at me as he spoke about the operation. Scans did not fully show the extent the tumor had invaded my body. In fact, it wasn’t until the first incisions were made that the surgeon, through robotic eyes, was able to see the true scope of what lay ahead. The tumor did, in fact, extend down along the IVC. Additionally, a cancerous lymph node was attached to the IVC. Both items required special care. The IVC is a large vein that carries deoxygenated blood from the lower and middle regions of the body to the right atrium of the heart where it is reoxygenated and sent forth. Sounds simple, huh? It must have been. My surgeon removed the errant lymph node from the IVC along with the tumor and right kidney, which was unable to be saved, all of which was sent to pathology for testing. Today, I have the next phase of my cancer treatment--a three-week post-surgery checkup. This checkup is not really about the surgery per se. This meeting is with the Oncology Dept. to determine what happens next with my treatment. I still have an upcoming meeting with the Urology Dept at six-weeks. Remember: Oncology deals with the medical side of my cancer; Urology takes care of the surgical side. The management of cancer is really nothing but a series of phases. I use the term management because cancer is a complex issue, rarely, if any, treated one time for a cure. My journey has included a number of phases. I suppose other people’s journeys will be different. I wrote about those phases before I penned the intro above. After reading what I had written, I felt some kind of intro was needed. Since I know my attention span is limited and I have a hard time reading very long dissertations at one sitting, I’m projecting that onto you and will post the phases tomorrow. Besides, I have a two-hour drive to my Oncology appointment. |
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