Dell Fields Update
Dear Friends and Family,
It has been a long time since I have written an update. I
was reminded of this recently when I saw Judy Mammon and she said my updates
are “few and far between.”
Basically there has been not much new to say. My cancer fight continues.
In February I had another thermal ablation of my liver tumor. This is my third.
This is the procedure to remove the tumor from my liver by burning it out.
Twice before it was done with radio frequencys (RFA)
and this time it was done with microwave technology (no, they didn’t
stick me a huge microwave oven!).
CEA which is a marker of my cancer level has dropped
dramatically since the ablation. So my oncologist decided now would be a good
time to use a strong chemotherapy, the idea being my cancer is at a low point,
let’s hit it hard with chemo to see if we can “knock it out”
altogether. So….
Last Friday I went to the hospital to take my infusion of Erbitux. After about ten minutes of Erbitux
I noticed that I was having a difficult time
breathing. Soon I was REALLY having trouble breathing. When the nurse saw this
she stopped the Erbitux and infused Demerol into my
system. Soon I was able to breath, what a relief. The nurse offered to
pre-medicate me with another medicine and try the Erbitux
again. I thought for a moment and said, “What the heck, let’s go
for it.” As the nurse was pre-medicating me (a procedure designed to
prevent the breathing side effect) I started to have chills. It started slowly
but soon escalated to a point where my entire body was shaking. I shook for
about an hour. This will go down as a low point in my memoirs. Needless to say
I can not take Erbitux. I am disappointed because I
had high hopes for it. Also, this is one of the few times I have actually felt
like I have cancer. I know this is an odd statement but I have continued to do
everything I always have done. Cancer, actually the medications, has slowed me
down but not stopped me. I don’t wake up each day thinking I have cancer.
I wake up thinking the same things all of you do; job, family, fun, etc.
thoughts. I am still overweight so to look at me you would not even know I am
sick. But last Friday I was definitely a cancer patient.
My oncologist, who joined me as soon as she could in the
chemo room, talked to me about trying another strong drug called Avasten. There has been a fair amount of success with this
drug although there have been patients who have had blood clots and cardio
problems related to Avasten. I will receive my first
infusion of Avasten tomorrow, Friday.
On a little lighter side, we heard of a rabbi from
On Friday Dr. Bobolis told me the
only area cancer could be found was the liver. No tumors were found in any
other areas. At first I was disappointed that the scan showed a liver tumor but
then I realized it could have been worse and we could ablate the liver tumor.
So I was relatively happy with the results.
The Rabbi asked to see me one more time. Again he said
prayers and actually waved his hands around my mid-section. Very
strange. He then said the cancer would go out to sea in July. Next he
told me I owed payment to God. I’m thinking, “Ya,
right it’s pay up time.” He said I owed
God smiles. I must smile more. I’m thinking that’s a fair price to
pay.
Of course, I tend to be more science oriented and am
skeptical of a “healer”. Perhaps because of this I will not receive
the benefits of the Rabbi’s blessing. I have always heard people who have
strong beliefs in such things can achieve miraculous results. I’m just
not one of those people. On the other hand I had great fun and actually felt
better emotionally after meeting Rabbi Zion.
I hope all is well with you all. Please take care of
yourselves.
Dell
wendell
"dell" fields | 1804 whimbrel ct. | rocklin, ca 95765 |
http://www.dellfields.com