One of the things that people tell me when they find out I have Cancer is that I do not look sick. I am so lucky to be in this position, so far into this not visibly ill. You see the cancer patient who is ravaged by Chemo, the disease with all it brings along. Often a patient is so filled with Chemo & other meds that the needed treatments cause so many shit side effects their general condition is rough. Appearance is often the first to go, losing hair weight and muscle tone. This is a result of what is called systematic therapy, IV Chemotherapy, Radiation and who knows what else. Dr #1 started me on Carpolplatin mixed with some other nasty stuff in bag, he was not very optimistic about my future. It was an instant road to feeling very bad.

When a person finds out they have Cancer it’s not like you can ever forget when you heard it first. Some people get the news from the family Doc. Some believe it or not hear it from a receptionist reading back results. Yet others must hear like a movie where the Dr. calls you in with the family and everyone sits on the edge of the chair, while Doc say we will do everything we can the team is in place fear not!

My experience was quite different almost humorous for sure surreal, it was week two of my extended hospital stay with a bacterial infection from kidney stones that have been plaguing me for months prior. A sharp attending physician ordered a biopsy of a troublesome spot on my Liver, when I asked him what he thought it was prior to the biopsy he said no idea. This lead to the slippery slope of Ok what is the worst case, he says Cancer but there are hundreds of things between a spot and Cancer. So I get the biopsy from a German Dr. with square glasses playing classic rock (fool in the rain played) while he took a really long tool that captured a piece of the spot. You’re awake for that deal, ultrasound and a big claw like needle thing the classic rock, German Doc low lighting strange but painless.

The time when you know things are wrong is when tests take too long to come back.* The Dr said that biopsy results take two days, mine took six. So now on my third week in the hospital around six o’clock is when we get the news. The details are just as surreal as the rest of this ride, that story is for another day. What is important to this is how after four and a half years with Stage 4 Liver Cancer how I still look decent and function daily. It is due to the treatments I receive, a resection, Sirs Microspheres or Y90, Chemoembolization and mostly Oral Chemo as opposed to a systematic regiment of Chemo and or radiation. My luck is strange, on the one side I have Liver Cancer the other is I function very well for a long term Cancer patient.

So in this part of Scott Vs Liver Cancer, Scott’s winning on several fronts: Outlived the original Diagnosis, still on my feet with more hair than ever. I have the energy to do life.

Scott Vs Liver Cancer

5/11/12

Thanks so much

Scott