Please notice the “tree of life” in the photo of ANNIE and the rose . Enough said!!
Cancer. Many people post their various concerns of cancer. We’ve all seen them, “Please cut and paste on your blog to help people to become more aware of cancer”. What follows is a cautionary tale. My wife, Annie, had mild asthma, allergies and post-nasal drip; many people do. It was no big deal, until it wasn’t. Cough associated with these conditions is normal, until it wasn’t. Following intensifying of my wife’s cough for about nine months, she finally experienced shortness of breath. A visit to our GP revealed that her pulse ox (% of oxygen in her blood) was 84-86% (normal 94-100%). An immediate visit to the local ED resulted in the contrast CAT scans you see included in this post (normal images of the lungs appear dark due to the amount of air which does not provide an image when bombarded with X-rays). The ER physician was trying to rule out pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the pulmonary artery or branch thereof in the lung). What was discovered was something altogether different. A temporary diagnosis of possible tuberculosis was considered. Bronchial washing and biopsies were negative. Thoracotomy (cutting through the chest wall to take samples of lung tissue) conducted a few weeks later, provided the diagnosis: mucinous invasive non-small cell adenocarcinoma.”a rare type of lung cancer (4-10% occurrence). Basically the cells that secrete mucous used to trap particulate matter in the lungs had been genetically turned on (mutation) to rapidly divide and secrete copious amounts of mucous (read drowning in your own mucous). Her first chemo treatment a few weeks later almost killed her. Because her cancer was so widespread, the inflammation caused by the cancer was so great that her breathing was compromised to an almost deadly level. She received ungodly amounts of oxygen and massive amounts of cortisone which put her into a diabetic state for which she required insulin injections following every meal for the rest of her shortened life. Three weeks in the ICU, 2 weeks on an oncology floor, 3 weeks in a PT unit to try to get her strong enough for more chemo treatments (for which she was deemed too weak) and 7 days in hospice resulting in passing this last Thursday at the age of 70; about 11 weeks after diagnosis). I mentioned that this was a cautionary tale, well here goes: never take any exaggerated symptom for granted. If you experience elevated symptomatology, Google your symptoms., talk to your physician …do anything but wait. I worked in the medical field for 50 years, my wife for about 30 and the above still happened. Annie was the love of my life; I knew her for 53 years. We were best friends and were married for 27 years. She had the warmest smile, and everybody who knew her loved her. I am beyond devastated and filled with a profound sorrow. Please do your best to not let this happen to you. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time to read this post. If it saves one life it was worth the time it took for you to read this. Thank you for your patie
