cancer patient diary - blog lymphoma patient

Section 134 Entry 0001. Date: 2005 March 22 Tuesday.
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My context (some details below) is that I am seriously ill and low on stamina following the abrupt collapse of my health at the end of December 2004.

My response to this has been in part a writerly one, and I have decided that, regardless of how much or how little strength I have, I should try to pull together a number of projects, all of which are not too far from the completion stage, and get them out into the world as print on demand books.

This year.

The projects I have in mind are BAMBOO HORSES, which is a murder novel with fantasy elements; a collection of poems with the title ARC OF LIGHT; a short story collection to be called THE SUCCUBUS AND OTHER ANIMALS, and a memoir of my ongoing medical experience, which I plan to call CANCER PATIENT.

Regarding the medical experience, I am being treated for what one might call (to hit the big cymbals for the maximum amount of drama) brain cancer. Or, to get more technical, for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (large B-cell type) of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

Lymph is a clear fluid which naturally flows in the body and fights infection. Lymphoma is a cancer of that fluid. The good news is that lymphoma is generally painless, and has been in my case.

The bad news was that at one stage the lymphoma resulted in swelling of the brain which caused partial paralysis of the left side of my body, but I'm glad to say that, once my doctors got treatment underway, an oral steroid called dexamethasone swiftly reversed the paralysis symptoms, and has been keeping them away ever since.

I'm now into my third month as a steroid user (how time flies!) and the side effects (for me) seem to be insomnia, irritation and a little bit of bleeding (the occasional unprovoked nosebleed and, once, some unprovoked bleeding under the skin of an elbow.)

For the most part, I'm staying with my parents in Devonport, near Auckland, New Zealand. Treatment, which, as indicated above, began in December, has so far included a brain biopsy and a vitrectomy of the left eye.

The vitrectomy, done under local anaesthetic, involved taking the jelly out of the eye and replacing it with fluid. The eye still functions afterwards. Actually, both eyes are messed up pretty badly as a result of the cancer.

Apart from these sample-gathering operations (the brain biopsy and the vitrectomy), I've had three chemotherapy sessions involving being admitted to Auckland Hospital, each time for five or more days at a stretch. The plan at the moment is that I will have a total of six chemo treatments followed by radiation therapy.

The radiation therapy will, all going to plan, kill off any cancer still hanging out in the eyes, the eyes, it seems, being a potential sanctuary site which it is difficult to treat effectively with chemotherapy.

All going well (magic words!), I'll be back in Japan by late 2005 or early 2006. At this stage I'm optimistic, optimism enhanced by the fact that I had only a little nausea and vomiting during the first chemotherapy session and have had none since. (Reactions to chemotherapy drugs tend to be idiosyncratic, and I happen to have got lucky.)

So that's where I'm at.

Today I edited my way throught a chunk of the BAMBOO HORSES novel, which bears the marks of me having spent seven years in Japan teaching English, often to business people in a corporate environment. The hero is not a dragon-killer but Ken Udamana, a businessman, a manager, no less.

Sample:-