New Colon Cancer Survival Rates

Or, Why I need to Stay off the Internet...
The American Joint Committee on Cancer recently revised its cancer staging system. There used to be four stages: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Now, there are seven stages: 1, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c, and 4. A new study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports colon cancer survival rates for each of these seven stages.

According to the study, entitled "Colon Cancer Survival Rates With the New American Joint Committee on Cancer Sixth Edition Staging,"
five-year survival rates for colon cancer are as follows:

-Stage 1: 93%
-Stage 2a: 85%
-Stage 2b: 72%
-Stage 3a: 83%
-Stage 3b: 64%
-Stage 3c: 44%
-Stage 4: 8%

Why I HATE The Assholes at the Helm

Poll: Iraqis back attacks on U.S. troops
About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country...

Bittersweet Boom
The Rush For Oil Floods Wyoming With Jobs, But Is It Also Spoiling The Land?
...Owning a split estate didn't much concern Wyoming ranchers until the current oil boom. "Many landowners didn't even know they owned split estates--until the oilman showed up at their door," says Morrison, who lives in the mineral-rich Powder River Basin in the north. Two years ago, two energy companies notified her friend Steve Adami of their intent to drill on his 5,000 acres in Buffalo. When he refused, they simply "bonded on"--the energy companies' practice of posting a bond required by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), after which they can legally exercise their leased mineral rights. The size of the bond posted for use of 1,280 acres: $2,176, of which Adami has not seen a penny. "To get the money, I have to sue," says Adami, 51, whose ancestors were Wyoming sharecroppers. "That won't even cover my attorney's fees." He seethes at the 16 wells and miles of trenches that render a large parcel of his land unsuitable for grazing his 180 head of cattle....
The bureau, a division of the Department of the Interior, leases the rights by auction to such energy producers as BP America and Anadarko. But state officials say the agency is handing out leases too quickly, favoring the interests of oil and gas companies over those of citizens. (Many point out that Halliburton--former employer of native son Dick Cheney--is a major player in oil-field services.) Urged by the Bush Administration, the bureau approved four times as many applications to drill on public lands in five Western states in fiscal 2004 as it did five years earlier...

I'm pissed today and didn't know where to post. I won't get into it here so I'll attack another fav of mine, Mr Ruin the Planet - Bush. I feel so unsafe with having that jerk calling the shots. the world is such an unsaafe place thanks to him. And it's all about the OIL. So enough for now, I need to get to work.

Update...

Here's the story. My scan appears ok. There had been some spots on lungs that they are not sure what they are. It may be scar tissue, it may not be. Since my toe is still a problem, they have decided to give me two weeks off (for good behaviour) then resume treatment every two weeks instead of every week. The chemo can become ineffective after a while so they (Onc) feel that lowering my doseage and skipping a week and still getting scans every two months is the best way to go at this point. I don't really see things changing much for the future. I think this is going to be something I will have to manage from now on. My hope is that I will continue to ride the crest of the wave of cancer research and stay ahead of it.
So that's the scoop.

Somehow I knew this was going to be the story. I was talking with Dana about this and I said that I know I didn't will this to happen, but I certainly called it. I knew I'd get near the end of treatment and they'd go "Well...there seems to be something we don't really know what it is so we have to continue treatment...blah, blah, blah" This happened last year after the liver was worked on. There were some spots on my my lungs back then that were probably nothing but... So after I stoped chemo for a few weeks, they found out that the spots were indeed something (tumors) and I started the year plus treatment of that issue. So is the glass half full or half empty? I think it's a glass of piss personally. I don't see an end in sight, I feel I will be in treatment managing this condition forever. Surprising, I'm not as bummed as I figured I would be. I guess I'm just thrilled I won't be throwing up on my birthday this week. Two weeks off may not sound like much, but when you've been dealing with this shit for over 2 1/2 years it IS a big deal. I won't have cramps for two weeks and maybe my foot might get better so I can put it in a shoe. Well, I doubt that will happen but maybe it will get a bit better. I had to cut the toe area out of a pair of sneakers so I can cut the lawn. I had been cramming my foot into a sneaker but I couldn't take the pain of that anymore so I cut the shoe.

Anyway, the thing with cancer is that it is really never over. Once you have it, you're fucked. It is always in the back of your mind that it will resurface even if they give you the clean bill of health. Some lesser cancers caught early may give you the ability to be cured. I'm really fucking lucky to be here now. If I followed my first Doctor's advice, I'm sure I'd be dead by now. I just really hope that at some point, I can be off treatment for an extended amount of time and sort of have a normal life and not be doing the chemo and have all of these issues anymore.

Following Boo's Lead...

I'm spent. I'm way too stressed as of late to do much blogging. The chemo's got me going nuts and my toe problems and splitting skin are a pain. I'm probably going to post my results on Monday, then I may take my final two months off from blogging. Maybe I'll just post pictures on Flickr or maybe the other blog, but I may even shut that down too. I really think I've run out of things to say at this point. The stresses of my daily life are mounting as is my daily intake of meds. Usually when I say this, I wind up blogging even more and looking like a nut.

Thanks everyone for your support

Two Years Ago

Two years ago today, I had my first surgery to start to remove the cancer from my body. It started around 5 pm, and went until something like 2 am. They took out a small piece of my colon, 60% of my liver, my gallbadder, lymph nodes and they installed my hepatic pump. I felt like I was hit by a Mack Truck. Today I had a CT scan. I see my Oncologist on Monday and if things go as planned I hope to hear that I only have 8 treatments to go then I can stop.

Not as Bad as I feared (so far)

So here I am at work yesterday. My friend Karen took this picture with my digital camera. She's teaching a course on Digital Photography at a local college. She's quite the photog, and of course, I'm the ultimate subject. So I cut my hair short and I think it scared the rest of it and it seems to have slowed down with falling out. Time will tell but it's not as bad as I thought it might be. Dana says I look like a coach :-)
(or was it a couch?)
I don't know why I'm joking, I'm in so much pain now with stomach cramps. Thank GOD I'm able to take some FML (Family Medical Leave) days this week. It was very good news that this was an option for me. OK, back to being miserable. I just took two percocets, a xanax and a phenobarbital. Guess what? Still hurting. They did a MAJOR toe job on me Monday too. It's not been well for about 10 months or so. The drug, erbitux, that I am on has something to do with epidermal growth factors or some shit. What the bottom line is that I have developed an ingrown toenail which would normally be a piece of cake to fix. This, however, gets stuck in a vicious cycle where it keeps getting infected and the skin keeps growing back under the nail. We are trying a different approach by taping a Q-tip on the edge of the nail to keep that skin away from the nail. The complication came when the Doctor had to numb the area via a needle. Now mind you, the skin there is so sensitive to the touch anyway, so having a needle stuck in it was so fucking incredible, it was a new level of pain. the worst part was that I had to sit there an wait for them to come back in to do the procedure. I still can't believe how much it hurt at the time. The good news is that it seems to be a little better. I also have to do yet another round of anti-biotics. At least this should all clear up when I'm done with the chemo in about 12 more weeks.
So that's the story.

Oh Happy Day