ER runs, Overdoses, Biopsies & Future Goals

Emergency Department visit on 03.11.2021 & again today, 03.24.2021.  Labs, CT of Chest, Abdomen, & Pelvis.  I also had an BronchoEndoscopy, and am scheduled for a PET scan, MRI, and Endoscopic Ultrasound.

Whew!  That is a lot of testing!  But I am more than ok with it.  I will do my best to explain what we hope to achieve with each test.  Any of you Medical people, feel free to call me out if you think I am off on a particular test.  I only know what I research and question my Oncologist on. 

So first let me go back to the 11th of March.  I took Sonja to the Denver Airport to fly back to Indiana to bring back her Dad’s belongings after his passing.  I must take a moment here to recognize Tom Gunning and what a nice, kind, and funny man he was.  He treated me with respect and welcomed me to the family.  He invited me over when I still lived in Indiana, just to eat a meal and talk.  The world is definitely a bit darker without Tom’s light.  Godspeed Tom, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You will always hold a special place in my heart.

After dropping Sonja off for her flight, I hit a concrete barrier with my Jeep.  Not a great way to start the day, but it gets even worse.  After years of handling my own cancer treatment, including medication, I was taken to the hospital with an overdose.  Yes, I ODed.  I was hesitant to write this on my update because of the negative stygma that goes with the word overdose.  With my cancer getting more aggressive in the past six months, so does the pain caused by cancer.  I wear two 100 microgram Fentanyl patches that get changed out every 72 hours.  The problem is sometimes these patches don’t go on well, or they come off, especially in the shower.  I noticed that I was missing a patch, and after several minutes of searching, I just put on another patch.  Well, the missing patch fell off but reseated itself in my belt line, and was very much still delivering Fentanyl  to my system.  So now I have three patches on..  If you are unfamiliar with Fentanyl,  it is basically lab grade heroin and 100 times stronger.  I remember walking into Target to make some everyday purchases, and the next thing I know, I was in an ambulance speaking with an EMT.  He said I was taking 6 breathes per minute when he hit me with 0.5 ml of Narcan.  Boom!  I was back immediately!  That drug, along with  a Road ID  bracelet,  saved my life!  I can’t imagine how people are living with addiction to this stuff, but if you are, I urge you to get treatment and leave this stuff alone!  It is one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and it is the one called death. 

Back to more positive discussions,  like cancer.  😀  The Bronchio Endoscopy was ordered to get more tissue samples to be biopsied.  These samples will help to determine if there are new treatments available for my cancer. All of this through genetics and DNA. It is a wonderful time to be alive.

Next I will be getting a PET scan and MRI to get a better look at what is going in my Media Stynem and spine.  These additional scans just take a different “slice”  or view of the areas of interest. 
I went to the trouble of copying and pasting the Wikipedia entry on the PET scan.  I would not normally be that lazy,, but I am not as familiar with this procedure as I am the others.. 

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)[1] is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption. Different tracers are used for various imaging purposes, depending on the target process within the body. For example, 18F-FDG is commonly used to detect cancer, NaF-F18 is widely used for detecting bone formation, and oxygen-15 is sometimes used to measure blood flow.

PET is a common imaging technique, a medical scintillography technique used in nuclear medicine. A radiopharmaceutical — a radioisotope attached to a drug — is injected into the body as a tracer. Gamma rays are emitted and detected by gamma cameras to form a three-dimensional image, in a similar way that an X-ray image is captured.

PET scanners can incorporate a CT scanner and are known as PET-CT scanners. PET scan images can be reconstructed using a CT scan performed using one scanner during the same session. 

I have done the same copy and paste with the MRI.  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body.

Most MRI machines are large, tube-shaped magnets. When you lie inside an MRI machine, the magnetic field temporarily realigns water molecules in your body. Radio waves cause these aligned atoms to produce faint signals, which are used to create cross-sectional MRI images — like slices in a loaf of bread.  This, by the way, is the only scan that makes me claustrophobic.   I absolutely hate getting in a tube where I can’t roll over or sit up.  It never used to bother me, but man, it sure does now.  I remember one year working at Duragreen, we broke a pipe and our pump was throwing 600 gallons per minute up in the air!  I let Mr. Williams (Jon’s dad, not our coach) hold me by the feet as I went headfirst into that hole to shut off the water.  No way I would do that today. Side note: Mr. Williams is now an author. His first book, The Quotis Gene is available now on Amazon or Audible. Check it out!

The last test is the Endoscopic Ultrasound.  Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a minimally invasive procedure to assess digestive (gastrointestinal) and lung diseases. A special endoscope uses high-frequency sound waves to produce detailed images of the lining and walls of your digestive tract and chest, nearby organs such as the pancreas and liver, and lymph nodes.  My latest imaging has suggested that I have new tumors in my stomach at the lyphnodes. 

If you have followed  my posts, you can see where the Oncologist’s concern with new growth in the spine, stomach, and enlarging tumors in the chest in the last six months is completely understandable. 

I will reiterate that I am not scared of what is coming, just angry that I can’t focus on my job at Ball, my relationships with Sonja, and riding and building bikes.  I have put off the latter for a long time, so now I am hell bent on building my first bicycle frame as well as the paint and final assembly.   My plan is to time lapse the build with my GoPro 9, and post it to a page & YouTube channel  on www.jukemo.com.   I am also working on another project with Sonja that I desperately want to finish.  It should be really good stuff!

So check in often or set it up where you get a “push notification” when I post new material.  The website/blog should get much busier now.  Also, feel free to contact me if you have a shit diagnosis and don’t know where to turn.  I don’t care if it is cancer or addiction.  I am here to help.  You do not have to face this alone!

Until next time, Just Keep Moving!
KG