Tag Archives: occult primary

Treatment Update — End of Week 2

Jun
23
2012
by Jeff Swanson | 7 Comments

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Hiya everyone.

I’ve just finished my second week (of six) of daily treatments at the Stanford Cancer Center.  Currently, I’ve just been receiving head and neck radiation doses to annihilate any stray melanoma cells that may have remained in my neck after the successful surgery in early May.

A typical day entails Sammy and I driving the 45 miles down to Stanford from our house in El Cerrito, which usually takes about an hour and ten minutes if the traffic is flowing smoothly.  Then I hop on the radiation table, underneath what I would describe as a giant stand mixer.  The technicians slide me around on the table to make sure I’m aligned and then slap a hard plastic mesh mask that bolts to the table to hold my head still to make sure the doses are directed exactly where they’re supposed to be headed.  Then they take an x-ray to compare with the scans used during my treatment plan to make any final adjustments of my position and then it’s go time!  The actual radiation treatment last about 3 or 4 minutes and I don’t feel a thing.  The whole process usually takes 10-15 minutes and then we’re back in the Forester to head home.  LOTS of driving.  Sam has been preparing for a lecture she’s giving next week, so I drove myself to treatment 3 days this week.  Nice to feel a little independent and to give Sam a break from the 3-hour, middle-of-the-day time suck.

So far the side effects of the radiation haven’t been too bad.  I have a constant taste of salt in my mouth, but food tastes normal when I’m eating it.  I’m starting to get a bit red on my right side from the radiation and my mouth is pretty sore when I first wake up in the morning, or if I eat something sharp or rough.   The radiation is directed mostly at my surgery site, but some of those pesky photons go astray and hit my mouth and tongue.  I’m feeling kind of like a mild sunburn on the inside of my mouth.  Ice cream definitely helps that situation as does the prescription mouthwash (but that doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as ice cream!).

Monday (6/25) I start getting the infusions of high dose interferon alongside the radiation treatment.  I’m not sure how that’ll effect me, but I’m not particularly looking forward to it.

We’re counting down the daily trips left to Stanford on our kitchen menu chalkboard and it currently stands at 20 trips.  Each day brings me closer!

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Melan-ohhh mannnn!

Jun
01
2012
by Jeff Swanson | 5 Comments

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So I’ve been pretty absent from photography lately and it’s because I’ve been dealing with cancer.

I felt a lump in my neck in December of 2011, figuring it was just an enlarged lymph node from the start of a cold or something, I let it go for another month.  When it didn’t go away and I hadn’t actually been sick at all, I decided to go get it checked out.  In early February I got a call that my biopsy results were in.  It was cancer.  They knew it was cancer, but they couldn’t tell me what kind.  They needed more info.  Fast forward through CT/PET/MRI scans, two more biopsies and lots of waiting, I was finally diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in mid April 2012.

I then had all of the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck removed and most of my parotid gland taken out as well.  I’m still recovering from that extensive surgery and willhave a sweet scar down that side of my neck forever.  The good news is that of the 50+ nodes that were removed from my neck only the two we already knew about had any sign of melanoma in them.  We still don’t know where it came from, I don’t have any suspicious moles or anything.  I’m told that melanoma can occasionally just manifest itself inside a lymph node.  It’s likely that I’ll never know.

So, the problem with melanoma is that it’s a pesky sonofabitch and you can never be sure it won’t come back.  In order to limit those odds I’m doing everything I can to stop it or push off a recurrence until there’s a cure (fingers crossed!).  That treatment involves 4 weeks of radiation to my surgery site and then 12 months of high dose interferon.  Interferon is an immunostimulant that kicks your immune system into high gear to hopefully kill any microscopic melanoma left after the surgery and radiation.  It makes you feel like you’ve got the flu and it makes you feel really tired as well.  So it’s going to be a tough year, no doubt about that.  The worst part by far is that I had to shave my beard! Ugh, I don’t recognize that guy in the mirror yet.

The good news is that I’m getting my treatment done at Stanford University’s Cancer Center so I’m in really good hands.  And the best news of all is that I have a fabulous fiance who will be here supporting me every step of the way.  (We actually got engaged while I was recording the image at the top of this post. :) We took a long weekend in Lone Pine just before my surgery.  I’d been planning it all along, but cancer wasn’t a part of that plan.  I’m really glad I was able to go on with my plan amidst these circumstances.)

I’m planning on using this blog as a place to post updates and hopefully some images if my body allows.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to shoot as actively as I have been able to do over the past year, but I definitely need a creative outlet and sure I’ll find something to shoot.

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