The Most Unpleasant Side Effects

…Still Slightly Better Than Being Dead

I routinely complain about the side effects from my surgery, radiation, and medications. But the fact is I am more than willing to endure the fatigue, weight gain, strange growths, hot flashes, and pain – as long as I can stay vertical or at least above ground. Surviving trumps lots of other stuff; no matter what others may tell you.

Time, research, and improved medications are resulting in fewer side effects – or so I’m told by highly educated medical practitioners. At the present time I’m still alive and more or less able to lead a normal life. Normal for an old duffer anyway... And I can use my current side effects as an excuse to avoid working in the garden and cleaning out the gutters (please don’t tell my wife).

I’m betting that all my elderly friends who bemoan the strange side effects they’re coping with wouldn’t trade those side effects for a pine box – just yet. Senior life, living with incurable diseases, and normal wear and tear requires choices and compromises – and a little hell-raising if you’re lucky. I am.

axman

A Morbid Curiosity with the Latest Cancer Research

…as if it made any difference

I subscribe to several email and Blog programs that send daily updates on all sorts of cancer research – and I read them all. Then there are the medical journal reports, Cancer Center articles, and anecdotal information. Reading all this stuff probably doesn’t make me even a little bit healthier. Even if there is a miracle cure in there someplace I’d probably get hopelessly confused by the medical gobbledygook.

All the headlines accentuate the positive: Mice with Prostate Cancer Treated with XTZ666 Live 27% Longer than Control Group, or New Chemo Cocktail Shows Promise, or Exploitation Drugs Ltd to Unveil Revolutionary Prostate Drug! As good as these headlines sound there isn’t any real information in there.

If I had not read any of those articles or studies nothing in my life would be much different – except for knowing a lot more about cancer ridden mice. I wonder if someone notifies the next-of-kin mouse.

So should we all read everything we can find – fact or fiction – about our particular disease? Will it help? Nobody knows.

I will likely continue my obsessive search for cancer information – I guess it’s in my nature. You, on the other hand, may be emotionally healthier than I am and able to resist the urge.

axman

Sometimes a Lumpy Boob is Just a Lumpy Boob…

The word boob is used here to denote an enlarged male breast and not the affectionate term my wife sometimes uses when referring to me.

My mammogram/manogram is now history. I discussed the basics along with my cartoon idea of the process in my October 10 Blog entry. I was right on – except the Mammo-Monster was smaller and slightly more innocent looking – and it didn’t talk to me.
The X-Ray Tech, Lisa (an altered name to protect the innocent and keep me from being sued), was calm, quiet, and gentle. Thank you! The process was slightly uncomfortable and required me to stand in some awkward positions but was much less traumatic than I had expected.
Some of my fellow patients in the Women’s Imaging Center waiting room may have been slightly surprised when the nurse called me in and left my wife sitting calmly and wishing me good luck.
Post-Gram I was visited by the Radiology Doc (and his lovely Intern) who explained, as he poked and probed, that I was cancer free – for now, but at increased risk from the hormones. The lovely young Intern seemed a bit uncomfortable as she was directed to check out my lumps (I’d use the word fondle but I may be fantasizing).
So now it’s back to worrying about prostate cancer and letting my breasts bounce where they may.
axman