[Leica] health

[steve.barbour at gmail.com (Steve Barbour)]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote:
> 
>> Since everyone regards LUG as family and reports their health issues, I'll
>> throw mine in. This won't be real short, because the details are
>> interesting.
>> 
>> In 2001, my PSA jumped and I had the uncomfortable needle biopsy via
>> ass-hole. Of nine needles, one picked up a couple of millimeters of malign
>> cells which were pronounced to be aggressive. I then had many sessions of
>> what is misnamed "Intensity modulated radiation therapy". Actually what
>> happens is the source of the radiation rotates in a vertical plane around
>> the patient and during the rotation, the shape of the beam is modulated by
>> a diaphragm of tungsten fingers so as to always concentrate the radiation
>> on the desired site. One time, I was really scared because the treatment
>> was delated due to a computer crash, and when I asked what the computer
>> program was housed in, they said Windows 2000.
>> 
>> Every year since, my PSA was checked and my prostate poked by the
>> radiation oncologist.
>> 
>> A couple of months ago, I felt a sore muscle in my left thigh; I just
>> thought it was a pulled muscle, and Naproxen relieved it. But just one 
>> day,
>> it was so sever that I was limping, so I thought it would be a good idea 
>> to
>> go to my primary care quack and check it out. When she pulled my leg
>> outward, I yelled "ouch" and she ordered a hip X-ray to be done on my way
>> out.
>> 
>> By the time I got home, there was a frightful message on my answering
>> machine. I was to go asap to the Stanford Hospital site in a neighboring
>> city (Redwood City) where an appointment had been set up for a CAT scan.
>> Then I was to drive straight to the Main Hospital at Stanford (Palo Alto)
>> and see the same radiation oncologist. Also they were setting up an
>> appointment, probably for the next day, for a radioactive bone scan.
>> 
>> The radiation oncologist showed me the X-rays and Cat scans on his
>> computer screen. First there was a large lesion on my left femur. Then
>> there was a bunch of little dots in my lungs that were not there two years
>> ago. I said I was appalled. He said he was appalled. He then opined that 
>> my
>> hip was about to break, that he checked that an orthopedic surgeon was
>> available on or immediately after the weekend, and that the quickest way 
>> to
>> get admitted to the hospital was via the emergency room. He had his
>> resident wheel me there.
>> 
>> Well, on the way in, the rent-a-cop confiscated my Swiss army knife, and
>> when it was apparent with a packed ER that I'd be there for a while, I got
>> around to phoning my wife. They were so packed that I had to wait until
>> there was a free bed.
>> 
>> After the routine things, mainly a blood draw, an orthopedic guy showed
>> up. He said that there was no danger of a fracture, that I should go home
>> and have a normal weekend, and that an appointment had been made to see an
>> orthopedic surgeon on the following Tuesday. I guess it was probably 
>> thirty
>> years since the radiation oncologist had learned to interpret that sort of
>> X-ray.
>> 
>> On that day, my wife went along for moral support. Interestingly enough,
>> all three of us in the room had something in common: doctorates from the
>> University of Chicago, mine in physics, Lee's in biochemistry, and the
>> surgeon whatever real doctors get. The latter spent most of the forty-five
>> minutes teaching me how to read the X-ray, primarily why it showed that
>> there was no current risk of a fracture. When I inquired about either
>> surgical support of the bone or just drilling to get a sample for a 
>> biopsy,
>> he said that the risks outweighed the benefits. He said it was probably
>> metastatic prostate cancer, slow-growing, and tending to deposit bone. 
>> Next
>> appointment in a month with immediately preceding X-ray to assess fracture
>> risk.
>> 
>> I finally got to see a medical oncologist. She indicated that this kind of
>> cancer without PSA rising is very rare, but does happen. She felt that we
>> had to know what we were dealing with, and if the surgeon reported that
>> there was no way to get a sample with a needle, she was going to make the
>> assumption that those dots on my lungs were not an infection residue but
>> were the same tumor, and one of them was very accessible to a cat scan
>> guided needle.
>> 
>> I'm waiting for that and will keep you posted. I'll be 93 in June. I doubt
>> that I'll make 100.
>> 
>> Herb



hi Herb....I admit at first blush this doesn't seem good. Please don't make 
any assumptions like others have.  Opinions are like assholes, everybody has 
one....  What you need rather urgently is a tissue diagnosis, not an 
assumption. Whether from the lung, or from the leg you likely need a biopsy 
with full evaluation (actually the leg at first glance sounds like a safe 
productive source)  so that you and the doctors know for sure exactly what 
is going on, then the right things can be done.

I wish you the very best my friend, all good luck...


Steve