My medical situation revolves around the follow:
- Age
- Cancers
- Heart
- Back
Age
This category is relatively simple... as we get older, on average, our bodies tend to lose their physical abilities... this can be offset by exercise but even that only slows down the process... at 75 years of age, my physical abilities have become curtailed to a large extent by my age, even though I exercise regularly, eat healthy, quit smoking cigarettes 35 years old, don't drink alcohol, or use drugs. Eating healthy is no red meat, fish, chicken, turkey, lamb, fish, beans, and veges. My fish intake is typically tuna, cod, and salmon, flounder, and orange ruffy.
Cancers
As you may or may not recall, I am in my 15 year of fighting non-Hodgskin's Lymphoma and in my 11 year of fighting Melanoma. I have experienced surgery, radiation, chemo infusions, immunotherapy infusions, and am currently taking pills that alter the cancer cell's protein so that it cannot reproduce.
My treatments have included the following:
- Rituxan
- Triandra
- Cytoxin
- Fludara
- Opdivo
- Yervoy
- Imbruvica - pill - $1,000/month out of pocket
- Calquence - pill - $700/month out of pocket
I get infusion of drugs every four weeks and a CT Scan every 3 months and if something serious is detected, there is a follow-up PET Scan.
My Lymphoma is considered SLL and is treated in the same manner as CLL is treated which is Leukemia... it sound odd, but that is what my Oncologist has been telling me.
All my chemo has damaged my Thyroid and has left me anemic, a platelet count under 100,000, and a very low white blood cell count. I am constantly fatigued and have to force myself to exercise (walking), diarrhea, shortness of breath, all sorts of surface of the skin carcinomas, and frequent nausea.
My last CT Scan (this month) showed an increase in Lymphoma of about 1 cm in two areas which is why my pill meds were immediately changed from Imbruvica to Calquence.
Heart
About 15 years ago I had a heart attack while walking on the treadmill. It was serious enough that the doctors wanted to do a triple bypass. My LAD was blocked 100% and the other 2 arteries on the left side were both blocked 90%. Because I was so damn healthy, my body created its own bypass with dozens of arteries it had created. I got my arteries cleaned out at NY Presbyterian Hospital in NYC and today, my stents are still pristene as a result of an angioplasty 6 months ago ordered by my Cardiologist. My eating and exercise has helped. My cholesterol both good and bad combined is 84.
Back
Seven month ago, I had lower back surgery to fuse together L2-L3-L4-L5-S1. I felt hardly any pain the next day and took no pain killers. However, the last 7 months, I have been walking 5 out of 7 days to help me learn to walk again. I am much better but my walking seems forced and not natural and I have a really hard time trying to walk fast. I am told that it may take another 12 months before I am completely restored but that will never be like I was. My movements and bending will be restricted. I still cannot put on my socks because I cannot bend that far over, so when I walk, I walk without socks.
I was born with an excellent body and I have always treate my body with respect regarding my exercise and eating habits. However, my body is not just being tested but it being gradually taken away from me. The fact that I have endured all of this and can still do more than most males my age can, impresses the hell out of me...
My goal is to live longer than my mother did. She passed away just shy of her 96 birthday.
I've got a little more to do with my body for me to get there by losing another 15-20 pounds. I have already lost 30 of the 50 pounds that all my steroids had put on me. These last 20 are not so easy.
Well now... there you have it... consider yourself caught up with MY HEALTH... Not arrogant nor egotistical... just wanting to share what is going on with me, so that you might learn something from my experiences...
TAKE CARE AND KEEP THE FAITH...
No comments:
Post a Comment