Good News Update!

It has been 5 years since I was diagnosed with stage III edinocarcinoma in my ethmoid sinus. At the time, I had suffered from a stuffy nose in just one nostril for about a year. I had gone to my GP several times before his substitute referred me to a specialist -within 5 minutes of that office visit. The specialist did an MRI, found a polyp, but did not see the cancer until he removed the polyp. The tumor was removed with the polyp. I had no idea what to do, but found this forum, which was very helpful, checked every Dr. Google, which was very frightening/very poor cure rates and very high recurrence rates... So, here I am paying back what I gained from this forum.

Upon diagnosis, my doctors said they had never seen this particular problem and told me I could choose my treatment because they had no case studies to base a successful treatment pathway upon. The tumor was already mostly removed with some remaining next to the very thin bone separating my ethmoid sinus from the brain. So, I could opt for any combination of surgery, chemo, and radiation. The details:

* I was 57 and in fantastic shape due to regular weight training & cardio.

* It took at least 1 month to find the doctors I needed. The lead doctor (radiation oncologist) was fantastic and helped me find an equally fantastic medical oncologist.

* I chose to try radiation + chemo first and if that didn't work, then surgery and more radiation + chemo. Because I was in good shape, both oncologists agreed and hit me with the largest doses possible.

 

* I worked from home for UnitedHealthcare, took treatments before starting workdays, never missed a day of work due to treatments, and didn't tell them I was sick until the day I left their employment.  ;-) 

* The tumor shrank; no additional surgery was needed! Treatment lasted about 7 weeks (if I remember correctly). I was left with severe tinnitus, which has since mostly faded. My eyebrows never fully grew back (not a problem -I'll never have the one-eyebrow look again!) Fatigue was pretty bad at first and I'm still not what I used to be...

* Quarterly checkups followed. 2nd PET scan showed a bad lymph node and doctor recommended removing all the nodes on that side of my neck. I agreed to have the one that showed up bad to be removed. It was removed, tested negative, that was done.

* Quarterly checkups continued; all good.

* It's the end of October, my "Cure" date is January 9, and I expect good news (knock wood) on that date. I'm told checkups will continue but drop to bi-annual.

* I'm back to "pretty good" physical shape (can do 15 pullups again) and fatigue + mood are greatly reduced with regular exercise. I need and take NO medications. None.

* I don't think about the "C" word very often now; only around checkup time and when I catch a stuffy nose! I won't and never did acknowledge I had the "C" word -preferring to call it a really bad cold. 

That's it / Bob's 'yer uncle!