ENCORE #148! – Man Cancer COMPLETE!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The first part of the following entry appeared in December of 2011, the second half dealing with a follow-up surgery appeared in February of 2012.

So this week I got the news that two good friends of mine have cancer. One has colon cancer and will be undergoing a colECTOMY (ecto = Greek for “to cut out”) during the Christmas season.

The other is twenty-some years younger than me. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had a radical orchiectomy after which…well, we don’t know because they are in the specific diagnosis part of his New Normal. He said he’d let me know because I pray well for biological specifics – I can see the parts of the body that are affected – cancer, breaks, dislocations, flu. I am a great prayer for healing of body parts as well as for restoring the heart and mind.

At any rate, some time ago, my wife asked “Why do so many people have breast cancer?” I marshaled statistics in this post: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-do-so-many-women-have-breast-cancer.html

The research led me to the statistics for other kinds of cancer – lung cancer, Liz’s mom died from this; blood cancer (leukemia), the son of close family friends; brain cancer, an old friend of mine died from this at 30; skin cancer, my sister, brother and sister-in-law have this; there are others with other cancers that I don’t care to enumerate at this time.

Testicular cancer has increased by 60% in the past 25 years. Why? Right now no one knows the answer, it just…has.

A student of mine, after we talked about why my wife’s hair all fell out during chemo. I talked about how the chemicals target fast-growing cancer cells – and kill the fast-growing hair cells “accidentally”. She then went on a rave about how we should make drugs that ONLY target cancer cells…and that got me to thinking.

Are all cancer cells created equal? Or are they egalitarian? Is testicular cancer the same as breast cancer? Brain cancer? Lung cancer? Skin cancer?

Questions – and today…no answers. Just more questions that I’m going to try to answer in the future…

After the initial diagnosis and orchiectomy…

The friend who had a radical orchiectomy faces a second operation next week. The procedure is a real mouthful so to speak because it doesn’t have a “common name”. He will be undergoing a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection or an RPLND – which really doesn’t do anything to make it easier to remember, because the letters might make up the word “ResPLeNDent”, but that’s not helpful and I doubt very much that it’s particularly descriptive of how my old friend will feel AFTER the procedure.

Not even Wikipedia has a simple explanation, so as I am wont to do, let’s see about translating the doctors:

Retro (= behind) Peritoneal (= a sack that lines the area below the lungs and above the bladder that holds the kidneys, liver, parts of the large and small colon, most of the pancreas and the stomach) is surgery that tries to get at and remove abdominal Lymph Nodes. The nodes are outside of the sack that holds all the abdominal organs and lie against the INSIDE part of the spine. Lymph nodes are usually found at “bending points” like knees, ankles, arms, elbows, etc. Humans bend at the waist as well and a node in the abdomen pumps lymph through the body just as the others do. But it is close to the testicles and the nodes are the first to be attacked by cancer cells if they metastasize from there. Testicular cancer spreads in a well-known pattern, and these nodes are a primary landing site during spread of the disease.

During the surgery, doctors need to remove the nodes in order to treat testicular cancer, as well as help establish its exact stage and type, or Dissection. This has been done in the past by surgery so invasive that it required cutting a man open from the bottom of the sternum (middle of the rib cage) to below the belly button! There are dangers in this as well that I prefer not to go into.

But several doctors do the same surgery laparoscopically and while some surgeons consider it “less effective” others suggest that it is less painful, runs fewer risks and joins the ranks of laparoscopic surgeries for repairing knees, shoulders, hernias and prostrates (and at the end of the particularly trying year of 2020, removal and repair of a herniated spinal disk in someone close to me...) It’s more expensive and detractors point out that not “all hospitals” have the capability of doing this, but it is far less incapacitating than the invasive older surgery.

Once the nodes are removed, an oncologist can examine the tissue to determine the extent of spread of the cancer. If no malignant tissue is found, the cancer may be more accurately considered as a stage I cancer, limited to the testicle and the orchiectomy may either be considered the “final solution” or they can follow it with chemotherapy or possibly radiation therapy. The low mortality and relapse rate with this procedure, as compared with the alternative, which is the main reason my old friend has considered this as an alternative to the invasive surgery.

If you have testicular cancer – and any of us with testicles are susceptible. Warning signs are NOT LIMITED TO but may include: a lump or mass in either testicle, any enlargement or swelling of a testicle, a collection of fluid in the scrotum, a dull ache in the lower abdomen, back, or in the groin, a feeling of heaviness in the scrotum, discomfort or pain in a testicle or in the scrotum, enlargement or tenderness of the breasts (yes, you read that correctly...) If you’re worried, go to your doctor! If you’re wondering, try the link below.

Resource: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/testicular-cancer-self-exams-at-home#1
Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…Alzheimer’s #33: The Many Ugly Faces of Dementia

Dad’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s stayed hidden from everyone until I took over the medical administration of my parents in 2015. Once I found out, there was a deafening silence from most of the people I know even though virtually all of them would add, “My _____ had Alzheimer’s…” But there was little help, little beyond people sadly shaking heads. Or horror stories. Lots of those. Even the ones who knew about the disease seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Alzheimer’s Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this part of my blog…

While my dad had a diagnosed case of Alzheimer’s and I tracked his gradual decline based on the 7 stage (I look at them more closely here: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/search?q=seven+stage) system as opposed to the simpler but less descripting 3 stage system, we found that my mom was suffering from something they called “age associated memory impairment” (https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/do-i-have-dementia/differences-between-normal-aging-dementia). As well, she would have vivid dreams and sometimes think they were real, and even have occasional hallucinations.

That was a difficult time which ended with my mom passing three years before my dad did.

Welcome to another round of age associated memory impairment that is sliding into dementia.

According to several sites (see below), there are warning signs of this condition:

• Asking the same question repeatedly
• Having trouble completing simple or routine tasks
• Forgetting words
• Using the wrong word
• Getting lost in familiar places
• Losing everyday items like keys or purses
• Sudden changes in mood
• Loss of interest in hobbies, projects or events

My brother-in-law recently moved into a facility whose specialty is in helping men who have reached this point in their lives.

It’s been difficult to see this happen. At one point, though he was in his forties, he enthusiastically took part in the annual Iron Man race; he built a wooden canoe in his garage; he and his younger brother started a furniture making business and they had and used a massive shop in his back yard; he was a computer programming consultant for a major banking corporation. He had a sharp mind, a razor wit, and kept a small hobby farm where he lived during the summers after he retired.

He is now a shadow of his former self and sometimes forgets his baby sister’s name (my wife). He can barely walk and rarely tries.

I miss the old brother-in-law, but he’s at arm’s length (though we’ve been in-laws for more than thirty years), he’s ten years older than me. So, this has been extremely hard on my wife and she is SO sad to sit and watch her brother fade away – an event whose horror is exacerbated by the fact that we can’t see him because of COVID-19 restrictions.

When she talks to him on the phone, I (of course) hear clearly, and it regularly brings back jarring memories of me dealing with my dad as he descended into Alzheimer’s hell. Those memories are dredged up every time I overhear their conversations.

I hate dementia. I hate Alzheimer’s. My heart goes out to anyone who reads this who is suffering through this hideous time during which our parents/siblings/spouses turn into awful caricatures of their former selves…All you can do is hang on and keep moving forward. Lame advice at its worst, I know.

Resource: https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-dementia, https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/do-i-have-dementia/10-warning-signs-dementia, https://archive.alzheimer.ca/sites/default/files/files/national/core-lit-brochures/10-warning-signs_print-friendly.pdf?_ga=2.104771462.740806038.1606054473-1557823224.1606054473, https://blackbearrehab.com/mental-health/substance-induced-disorders/persisting-dementia/

Image: https://upload.inkspire.org/uploads%2F1503370874800-Alzheimer-disease-patients.jpg

ENCORE #147! – Gilda’s Club and New Directions!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in April of 2018.

I had never heard of Gilda’s Club until a month or so ago.

Then my daughter interviewed there for a position as a sort of “field test” or “pre-internship” in her master’s degree program in art therapy.

According to Wikipedia, “Gilda's Club was founded by Joanna Bull, Radner's cancer psychotherapist along with Radner's widower, Gene Wilder (himself a cancer survivor) and broadcaster Joel Siegel (who died after a long battle with the disease). The first club opened in New York City in 1995, after a long fundraising campaign that included movie trailers featuring Wilder in theaters around the country. The organization took its former name from Radner's comment that cancer gave her "membership to an elite club I'd rather not belong to".”

My first reaction was, “WHERE THE F…WAS THIS PLACE WHEN WE STARTED THE HIDEOUS JOURNEY THROUGH CANCER?”

Yeah, my reaction, in my head, really WAS that strong.

The main reason we didn’t know about it was that it wasn’t here. Gilda’s Club opened here in 2014. We started our journey in March of 2011. We’ll be “celebrating” the fifth anniversary of that date this year.

I confess, I still have bitter (VERY) feelings about the lack of support we got at the beginning. My daughter shared something of the same sense after she started working at Gilda’s Club a few weeks ago. In fact, she mentioned that this experience AS a therapist intern might actually BECOME therapeutic for her. When I was on the GC page, I happened to see this:

Current Social Opportunities Offerings are:

•Coloring Club
•Knits Wits
•Euro Cafe Social 

•Greet & Eat: Male Caregivers Cooking for Guys Who Can’t Cook – w/ Jack’s Caregiver Coalition
•Open Circle Choir Performance

I confess I teared up. What I would have given to have discovered this group five years ago...it wasn’t there for me, and so I created this blog.

It’s still been a lonely slog. I KNOW I have nearly 30,000 hits here over the past five years, yet I still don’t talk to any other “male caregiver” about the journey. Even though one of the men I work with and chat with on occasion is also a “male caregiver”. The atmosphere at work isn’t conducive to talking at depth.

And so I continue on pretty much in silence, except for these blog entries.

Anyway, it’s GOOD to know that others won’t have to go it alone anymore. Gilda’s Club has twenty-something affiliates in places like New York, Chicago, Seattle, Palm Desert, Fort Lauderdale, Davenport, and besides here, another fifteen or so places. If you want a place near you, click on the link below in Resources. If you’re in the Twin Cities, email me and I can give you a little bit of info.

I’d like to try going to GC, but I still haven’t decided if I want to wallow in my bitterness a little longer or maybe find other men willing to talk about being a caregiver of a breast cancer survivor. I’ll keep you posted. 

Resources: http://www.cancersupportcommunity.org/
Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #76: Disguised as a Safe Amino Acid, Cancer Killer Sneaks Into Cancer Cells!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: Hiding a breast cancer killer under something the cancer cells NEED…

In case you don’t remember your ancient history, here’s a brief lesson: The Trojan War between the Greeks and the independent city of Troy had lasted 10-years with the Greeks trying to pound down the walls of Troy. Someone go the idea of building a huge wooden horse then stuffing it with a strike team that included the famous warrior, Odysseus. The Greeks sailed away, and the Trojans figuring it was a sort of peace offering, pulled the horse into their city. At night the Greek got out of the horse, opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army – which had waited over the horizon then sailed back under cover of night. The Trojans, still none the wiser were caught totally by surprise and died under the swords of the Greeks.

Scientists have created a sort of “Trojan Horse” of a treatment for breast cancer. With this treatment, there isn’t even a drug used! It’s a super tiny particle that makes the cancer cell destroy itself. After slipping through the cell’s defenses (the cell doesn’t see the particle, all it sees is an amino acid it needs and can’t get from anywhere else. The particle then kicks off a reaction in the cell as it begins to overproduce an oxygen molecule that causes the cancer cells to self-destruct while remaining harmless to the healthy cells.

Each of those super tiny particles (nanoparticles, if you want to be specific; “nano” is a measurement of these particles that’s thirty THOUSAND times smaller than a single Human hair!) is covered with an amino acid (like you’d find in salon-grade hair products that specifically help provide hair with moisture and strength, as well as repairing surface damage.) that the cell can’t get inside the body – it only comes into the body through foods like meat and dairy products.

The full technical name of this weapon is “Nanoscopic phenylalanine Porous Amino Acid Mimic,” or Nano-pPAAM. The amino acid, then is called Phenylalanine – also the same kind of substance you see warnings about on some diet foods like Splenda, Equal, and NutraSweet: “Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine” Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a dangerous buildup of phenylalanine can develop when a person with PKU eats protein-rich foods, such as milk, cheese, nuts or meat, and even grains such as bread and pasta, or aspartame.

In the case of breast cancer, the phenylalanine is a weapon. Once it’s in the cell, it triggers the reaction described above.

“As a proof of concept [evidence, typically derived from an experiment which demonstrates that a design concept is feasible], the scientists tested the efficacy of Nano-pPAAM in the lab and in mice and found that the nanoparticle killed about 80 per cent of breast, skin, and gastric cancer cells, which is comparable to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs like Cisplatin. Tumour growth in mice with human triple negative breast cancer cells was also significantly reduced compared to control models.”

Right now, there is always a chance that the cancer cells will become resistant to the drug treatment – no matter what it is – in this case, because the particle isn’t any kind of drug (like if you got a sliver in your finger, your body reacts against it, causing a painful infection that has to be treated…but you don’t have any kind of DISEASE…it’s just how your body works when it gets a sliver) the cells can’t “get used to it.”

It’s NOT something that’s a treatment now, but “The scientists are now looking to further refine the design and chemistry of the Nano-pPAAM to make it more precise in targeting specific cancer types and achieve higher therapeutic efficacy. This includes combining their method with other therapies such as immunotherapy which uses the body's immune system to fight cancer.”

It’s definitely something to keep an eye on in the future!

Resources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200923124631.htm
Image: https://www.beltandroad.news/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Trojan-Horse-at-Gelibolu-in-Turky-1000x1000.jpg

ENCORE #146 ! – Benadryl Redux

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in June 2017.

When my wife began her chemotherapy in 2014, we knew she was going in for the most aggressive treatment. The first day, we checked in, and after the nurses “hooked her up”, they added a Benadryl drip.

We all know that Benadryl is supposed to dampen an allergic reaction, but what was it supposed to do during chemo? Here’s what I found: “Diphenhydramine works by blocking the action of histamine, a substance in the body that causes allergy-type symptoms. It has also been found to be slightly effective against the nausea and vomiting that can be caused by chemotherapy and/or help prevent side effects from other anti-nausea medications. 

So, in order to reduce nausea, they gave her Benadryl. Cool.

The effect in HER, however overshadowed any possible lessening of the nausea. Her legs began to wildly spasm – a sort of “SUPER-restless-leg-syndrome” (Which see here: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2017/03/encore-58-dealing-with-restless-limb.html).

So what does this (thankfully!) long-past reaction have to do with today?

Rashes. She’s discovered that she gets hives on her head and chest. It’s a reaction that actually has a name: Sun Allergy (http://www.health.harvard.edu/allergies/sun-allergy-photosensitivity)

Chemo drugs – in fact ANY drug – can cause some form of photosensitivity. “Photosensitivity is an enhanced skin response to ultraviolet radiation (sunlight).  There are three types of photosensitivity reactions phototoxic, photoallergic and UV recall reaction. Phototoxic reactions are common photosensitivity reactions and can be produced in most individuals given a high enough dose of drug and sufficient light exposure. These photosensitivity reactions are usually evident within 5-20 hours of exposure and resembles an exaggerated sunburn (redness, swelling, blistering, weeping and peeling).  The rash is confined to areas exposed to light. Drugs associated with these photosensitivity reactions are dacarbazine, fluorouracil, methotrexate and vinblastine. Photoallergic reactions are less common than phototoxic reactions.  A photoallergic reaction is similar to a phototoxic reaction but the reaction may spread beyond area's exposed to light.  A drug that may have this photosensitivity reaction is flutamide.”

Do we KNOW this is what happened? No. Does it seem possible? Yes. Maybe we can move forward from here, eh – that is, “Just one MORE thing to think about post-cancer!”

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg