Veni, Vidi, I Caught An Infection

Here's an update as to what has been going on with me the past couple of weeks (sorry it is so long).

I'm still in Houston, currently hooked up to a feeding tube absorbing nutrients sitting in a nice apartment recovering from my second surgery.

Yes I said second surgery - everything was going awesomely: I was recovering super fast, just had my tracheostomy closed up, & was due to have my feeding tube removed on St. Paddy's day.

Then I woke up on the 16th and my face & neck were swollen up like I had a balloon under my skin.

Went in to the hospital ASAP & they realized I had an infection. They readmitted me that night & ordered blood work & a CAT scan.

The CAT scan happened at around 4am that night and after they got the results they scheduled me for another surgery on St. paddy's at around 10am.

It was the Plastic surgeon's show & unfortunately him & my main surgeon were out of town so the plastic surgeon's assistant had to reopen my neck incision in my neck & drain the infection... They warned me I'd have my trach reinserted (but my main surgeon vetoed that over the phone at the last second), drains reinserted, basically back to square one.

Surgery was much rougher than the first one. Including a terrible experience where they started before I was doped up enough: Since there was no trach, they had to run a breathing tube through my nose & into my throat. They were suppossed to get me semi conscious & numb/loopy then insert it. Since I'm a bigger guy the drugs didn't work on me fast enough & I was completely awake & sober when they started. Hose got jammed, started choking, blacked out from the pain.

In the end I survived... Found out I had MRSA (which is not good) and spent 6 days in the hospital hooked up to the strongest antibiotics they had.

Scattered in between all of this are a bunch of painful horror stories of how they Meds would blow out the vein that the IV was in making it unusable & causing my arm to swell up like a balloon (or my foot or shoulder, when they ran out of veins in my arm).

Tried morphine for the first time... Didn't stop the pain in my arm when first IV blew out my vein.

Finally got released a week ago. Found an apartment & moved out of the hotel room into it (it's pretty nice actually).

Am taking some crazy strong antibiotics to (hopefully) completely kill off the infection by my next appointment This Thursday.

Have a partially closed trach hole - which the plastic surgeon won't let heal till the infection is gone (so every day we have to stuff a piece of gauze into the tiny hole in my neck using a stick). Also have two huge surgical drains hanging off my neck/shoulder to hopefully catch any remnants of the infection.

I'm doing better every day, but all this has thrown off everyone's schedule.

Won't know when radiation can start till they are sure more infection.

Also been on this feeding tube for almost a month now (only meant for me to be on it 2 weeks at most) would kill a baby for the chance to eat real food (especially since my meds react poorly with the food).

Slowly regaining my ability to speak normally (tongue would be healed but during the surgery doc added a few extra stitches just to be safe) - tongue fits back completely inside my mouth though - hooray.

Good News & Not Quite So Good News...

So a bunch of things happened today that I want to update everyone on.

First everyone is real impressed with how fast I'm recovering (I'm apparently a prodigy at recovering from trauma).
My tongue is still fairly swollen, but I'm talking surprisingly well (though I have to talk slowly).

They removed my tracheostomy tube today, so I have a cool hole in my neck covered by a heavy duty bandaid & tape.
Thursday they test my swallowing ability (I'm expecting a slew of BJ bits from everyone between now & then) & if all goes according to plan, they'll take my feeding tube out and I can start drinking & eating soft foods.

I finally got my pathology report back. Absolutely zero trace of cancer in the lymph nodes (which is awesome).

Unfortunately there was some slight perineural involvement... What that means is that cancer cells in the tumor had penetrated some nerves in the sample.
This means there is a good chance there might be microscopic traces of cancer cells scattered in random nerves still in my tongue.
Which gives me about an 85% chance of recurrence down the line.

So I'm going to need radiation therapy. The bad news about this is it lengthens my recovery time, the good news is after this treatment I should be golden.

The basic details of my treatment now are this:

In 2-3 weeks (when I would've been heading back to Chicago) they will start radiation treatment. The process will take approximately two months.
After that it will take roughly 2-3 more months to recover from the effects (I assume super powers / cool mutations) of the radiation on me & then I'll be as cancer-free as you can get.

During the treatment I'll be in Texas & then the last couple months of recovery will be spent at home in KY.

So bottom line you'll have to wait a little bit longer for my triumphant return & cancel the celebrations till around August (which happens to be my birthday, which is very fortuitous).

I Survived Surgery!

Thought I would send out a quick update as to how my recovery process
is going (just in case you're not checking my twitter.com/peterrobards
updates).

I got through surgery with no problem. Was woken up 24 hours earlier
than is normal cause I was doing so well & released from ICU in only
24 hours.

Been able to stand & walk since first day & everything is healing fine.

Everyone says so far I'm recovering surprisingly quickly and should be
on track to leave the hospital on Wednesday.

Have even been able to breathe around my trache tube, swallow, and
kind of talk... stuff that they say normally takes weeks.

So far, while I definitely can't say this has been fun (you know
besides the drugs which are awesome - especially mixed), it has gone
better than I thought. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few
terrible moments, but they were mostly due to incompetence. All in all
I'm doing well, getting better every day, and should be out of the
hospital in 3 days (or less).



PS. You have no idea how hard it is to compose a coherent letter on
drugs this strong... Real Hard & time consuming, Yippee!

Peter vs. Cancer

So here's a quick update on Peter Vs. Cancer - I'm killing time at the hotel in Houston before visiting the clinic. Some of this information is mirrored in a earlier post, so sorry for the repeats if anyone has already read that.

First the boring stuff:

I'm heading down to Houston, Texas today which is where I'm going to get treated & recover. This is partly due to the weather being far nicer in Texas versus Chicago and partly because I'm going to be treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (they are the best in the country) by the head (puns hooray) of their Head/Neck surgery department (he's the surgeon doing all the work on me personally).

They are going to perform surgery to remove the tumor on my tongue (catchy) and then rebuild the missing part of my tongue with skin form somewhere else on (hopefully unless it's a she & she's hot) my body. I get to spend a week in the hospital tripping balls on some incredibly powerful drugs watching TV & silently hitting on (I guess more like leering at) nurses.

All the many doctors I've talked to agree that barring some unforeseen disaster (like a nurse killing me for groping her while under the influence of drugs) I should come out of this perfectly fine with a new fashionable accent of my choice (I'm taking bets... Choices include Cockney, Southern, Pirate, Minnesotan, California surfer dude, Irish, Sultry librarian, Really offensive & Stereotypical Japanese & Jamaican).

Fun Facts:

During a CAT scan they inject iodine into your veins (for contrast) - this has a side effect of making you immediately think you're wetting yourself uncontrollably (some nurse's don't warn you of this beforehand).

During a PET scan they inject you with Radioactive Sugar (cause cancer's are basically just grumpy fat kids: they love sugar) which is how these guys most likely got their super powers.

You can pass the fuck out from having blood drawn & other medical tests performed too many times in a week long period... if you do that while in a cancer treatment center - they freak the fuck out (all I needed was a couple juice boxes & rest - I almost found out how a defibrillator feels).

Having a two foot long camera shoved up your nose sucks - Having it done when you already have chronic sinus problems sucks more - Having it done multiple times by multiple doctors of varying skill levels sucks so much I'd almost rather keep the cancer - having it attempted 24 hours after you've flown apparently doesn't work cause everything is swollen and even with wads of cotton soaked in some sort of numbing anesthetic crammed up your nose with forceps you can feel intense pain if tried...

The only direct flights from Louisville, Ky to Houston are on tiny 30 - 50 seat jets that get tossed in the wind like a Frisbee & (at least from my experience) there is a constant thunder storm sitting between these two cities. I'm also more prone to air sickness a few days after major medical exams...

Casinos in southern Indiana are a lot more depressing than casinos in Vegas... There are a lot more pregnant teens smoking, No free booze, Buffet Lines take hours to get through & the food isn't as good, Boring entertainment, Old uncomfortable seats, You wouldn't be surprised to learn 75% of the people have some sort of KKK affiliation, Camo & flannel replace suit & tie as the standard, Very few attractive young people in general & the few who are attractive usually smoke & are often pregnant.

Plus side winning a grand at Black jack makes people treat you like Frank Sinatra...

Also mentioning you have Cancer & are betting $100 on your age (27) at the roulette wheel to see if you're luck comes around & for a sign if you'll love through it causes almost everyone at the table to pile money onto your number & they can't get furious when they lose all their winning when the number hits on 26 (always bet on black)... True Story.

When Life Gives You Cancer...

Get your ass to a specialist ASAP?

So I was diagnosed with Cancer at the beginning of February.

Since then I've been on a whirlwind adventure consulting with top specialists all over the country in order to decide on the best course of treatment for my situation. The upside to this time consuming course of action is that I am going to be treated by the very best in the world. The downside is that I really haven't had enough time to communicate with any concerned friends about what has been happening

(I'd prefer to call everyone individually, but I just don't have the minutes for it & that much talking would certainly irritate the tumor on my tongue so hooray for the internet).

Details:

I have a stage two squamous cell carcinoma located on the side of my tongue.

It does not appear to have spread beyond the primary tumor on my tongue, but there is about a 20% chance there may be microscopic cancer cells in my lymph system that the scans can't pick up (there's always a freaking catch).

So far none of the doctors I've talked to are sure of exactly what caused it to appear in me at such a relative young age. So far tests to identify any of the typical culprits: Excessive Tobacco & Alcohol consumption or a Viral infection from something like HPV have all come back negative (yeah, surprised me too - cause I realize I definitely qualify for at least one of those risk factors).

Apparently there has been a major increase over the past few years in the appearance of oral cancer in young people with a surprising percentage caused by none of the known major risk factors (we're just lucky I suppose).

Treatment:

I'm going to be treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston by the Head (sorry) of their head & neck surgery division. MD Anderson is ranked at the #1 cancer center in the country & my doctor is probably the most experienced guy in the world in regards to this type of cancer.

They will be surgically removing the tumor from my tongue & then working with a plastic surgeon to rebuild my tongue using a skin flap from somewhere else on my body (I just hope it's not a part that grows hair).

Due to the swelling of the tongue after this type of surgery I will need a feeding tube & tracheostomy during my hospital stay.

They also will be performing a neck dissection to remove a few of lymph nodes so that they can test them & make sure the cancer hasn't spread.

If the lymph nodes are clean then I won't even need any radiation or further treatment.

The surgery is scheduled for March 2nd.

Recovery:

After the surgery I'll be spending a week in the hospital in order to let my tongue & neck heal.

I will probably be very bored when I'm not tripping balls on some crazy powerful drugs.

After that if it turns out my lymph nodes are clean they estimate about a 4-6 week recovery time where I'll have to remain in the Houston area, but by the end of that I should be close to being completely healed.

My speech will probably be affected somewhat (especially at first), but as my tongue fully heals it should be as minimal as can be.

If it turns out there are cancer cells in my lymph system the process will stretch out a little bit longer as they are taken care of with radiation - however, every doctor I've talked to agrees that we caught this early enough so that in the long run I should have a full recovery & be perfectly fine.

I have been updating my twitter account http://www.Twitter.com/PeterRobards (yes, now increase my follower count out of pity) through out a lot of this process & have a few more tests Monday & Tuesday before surgery which I will try to update about on there. Also I hope to be able to keep it update it while I'm in the hospital & recovering (though I have no idea how coherent some of my posts might be immediately after surgery - or if I get service in my room).

To all of you who have already expressed your support thank you so much & to those who might be just learning about this now thank you too - I'm looking forward to celebrating my full recovery with you guys asap & turning my huge repertoire of cancer bits into a somewhat lucrative comedy career.

~Peter

PS. I'm typing this while waiting in the airport before I head to Houston, so if there are any spelling or grammatical mistakes, give me a break, it's not my fault it's the cancer's.