And on we go...

Late this afternoon we got the call from the Doctor's office with the date for the IUA or EUA or whatever that Quadroscopy is called. October 19, 2007. Friday. That will give me a weekend to get my throat back into shape before I have to deal with anyone other than family. Good.

This also gives me the opportunity to go ahead with the ITIL V3 stuff in Calgary on the 15th, 16th and 17th. Well, that is unless they get the PET scan setup for one of those dates...

And the real bonus for the ITIL V3 session is that Farah is the lead on it... I haven't seen her since Vegas at the Pink Elephant conference. It'll be good fun. But the question is, do I tell her if she hasn't already heard? Will it throw her off her stride to know?

Gail won't be travelling with me, as she has reminded me that she must be at home on the 15th because of the election, but she might join me on the next evening. And I'll need to let Kathleen know that I'll be in Calgary. I'm sure that she'd be seriously pissed if I snuck in and out on her this time.

Dad called tonight to let us know that his PSA came up clear. Yay!!! One more for the home team.

The Symptoms -- NasoPharyngeal Carcinoma

I think that it was my uncle who asked me if, now that I know what I know, if I can identify the symptoms that might have helped the doctors find this thing earlier. I don't really know for sure, but here are the signs that I now recognize:

• the lump in my neck (pretty damned obvious, eh? But not necessarily limited to this particular cancer.)
• my sinuses have felt 'full' for most of this spring and summer. On occasion, when I blew my nose really hard, I got a bit of bloody yuck... though this isn't necessarily an indicator. I live in a very dry climate which can account for the crap that I sometimes find in my tissues. It sometimes feels like an effort to breathe normally.
• there have been more low grade sore throats in the top of my throat. I had put this down to speaking too much with out appropriate lubrication (I am a trainer on occasion).
• my right ear has felt like it was a) full of ear wax and b) on the verge of an infection for months.
• my right ear has been secreting a oily, waxy film on occasion.
• my eyesight has gotten 'weird' and much worse... kinda fuzzy at times, with a tendency to blur/double when I go into a daydreaming stare. My reading glasses are now a necessity, and I'm seriously considering getting distance lenses as well.
• I have also been having a bit of an issue with 'gag reflex', which I'm not sure is linked, but I do intend to ask the specialist.

None of these items, with the exception of the lump on my neck, would be enough to send me running to the doctor. I have suffered from nasal allergies for most of my life... it felt a little odd in retrospect, not like I needed serious antihistamines, but just needed a pipe cleaner to scour the sinuses. Same thing with the ear; I just wanted to have it flushed, scraped or something to remove the irritation. The eyes did drive me to an optometrist who gave me reading glasses but didn't notice the other blurries, so I do put that symptom down to the cancer. The sight issues started showing up at about the same time as the lump.

Pathologist's Report--Nasopharyngeal

As promised, here is the basic text of the pathologists report on the needle biopsy of the lump in my neck that precipitated all of this:

Clinical History: Other related clinical data: Right anterior triangle level II-III, 3-cm firm mobile mass, right anterior neck.

Diagnosis:
Right anterior triangle of the neck, aspirate:
Malignant Cells, consistent with metastatic tumor, favour primary Nasapharyngeal Carcinoma.

Microscopic Description:
The specimen is adequate for evaluation of a lymph node in that there are a small number of lymphocytes at the edges of the smears; however, there are also a moderate number of groups of poorly differentiated cells, some of which show suggestion of squamoid differentiation. There are few giant cells. The cytology is consistent with metastatic malignancy, likely nasopharyngeal in origin; however, a lung primary should also be included in the differential diagnosis.

The rest of the document is the health system's gobbledygook...

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; damn!

On Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at about 4:30 pm, Dr. Olson, in a very straightforward, no nonsense manner informed me that a biopsy of a lymph node in my neck reveals that I am harbouring a Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. He was gracious enough to give me a copy of the pathologist's report (which I will try to input at a later time when I have it with me). Good Doctor, that one...

So far we've done the CT scan of the neck and chest, and we have an appointment with a Dr. Williams at the University of Alberta scheduled for Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 11:00 am. We were contacted by Dr. Naiker's (the GP) office yestereday to discover if an MRI had been scheduled yet. I told Susan (gee, I like her!) that we were unaware of an appointment. She is going to order one as soon as possible... we should hear today.

I keep using the 'we' pronoun because this isn't just about me at the moment. Gail, my darling wife, is in this with me. In ways that I can't articulate right now, I think that it is harder on her. But she is my nearly constant companion, my shadow, my lover and best friend. Our daughters are also affected. And my family, and Gail's family, and our friends, and the people I work with... There doesn't seem to be any casual bystanders, well, expect maybe for the neighbours who haven't got a clue as to what's going on...

I had originally intended to play this one very close to my chest and let as few people as possible know for as long as possible. I was dissuaded of this very early on (hours!), and in some ways I'm glad that we have told the number of folks that we have. It should make it easier in the long run.