Health/Medical – Page 2

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part VIII

This week started out where the last ended and much on the same downward trajectory. Even though chemotherapy is over, we spent several hours at the infusion center on Sunday trying to get hydration and potassium into my wife. After about 3 bags of potassium solution and some saline, we headed for home; however, we did schedule a return trip the next day for more hydration. While this sounded like a good plan, Monday found a way to go off the rails.

My wife started hydration at 8 AM at the infusion center. While there, she also had a blood draw for lab work. Then shortly after 10 AM hydration was stopped, and she got her usual radiation treatment. Having completed her business at the hospital, my wife got in her car to head home only to get a call from her oncologist instructing her to check herself into the emergency room and get her potassium levels up.

At the ER, they did another blood draw for lab work. Her potassium level was in the basement. They hooked her up to an EKG machine and started pumping more potassium into her. The doctor also decided to add magnesium to the mix as well. After many hours they did another blood sample for lab work. Finally, my wife was .01 below the normal band for potassium. The doctor made her promise to fill a prescription for a potassium supplement at a local 24-hour pharmacy and take it immediately and then sent her home. She got home sometime after 7 PM. After a few minutes to refresh, we jumped into the car and set off to get the prescription filled.

The potassium supplement “tastes like the strongest orange whiskey that you can imagine. It is very salty and burns all the way down.” My wife vomited this stuff up several times over the course of the week.

Nevertheless, the remainder of the week was better for my wife. She had another IV bag of fluid on Tuesday and was feeling even better on Wednesday. She was able to eat mashed potatoes and ice cream in addition to “smoothies”. Her favorite treat this week was a concoction of ice cream and lemonade from Chick-fil-A. On Wednesday, she even broke out the Cricut Maker to craft t-shirts for the radiation crew since the next day was her last radiology treatment. This week, the radiological oncologist warned her that the full effects of the radiation treatment will not be felt for another two weeks. My wife has to take several medicines to ease the pain enough so that she can swallow anything. It hurts from the throat to her stomach and without the medicine, eating and drinking would be almost impossible.

My wife has been in good spirits this week and tried to eat several new things; however, it was not unusual for her to be unable to keep them down. The sores in her mouth have gone away.

Saturday, we had a family gathering at the house to belatedly celebrate her birthday. It was a fun time, and she did very well. For much of the gathering, it was hard to tell that she was even ill.

While this week started badly, it finished in a happy Norman Rockwell sort of way. Sunday (tomorrow) is the next blood draw and I expect that it will show improvement in her lab results.

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part VII

This week started out with a bizarre but happy twist to my wife’s chemotherapy regiment. On Monday, she met with the Oncologist who informed my wife that she’s done with chemo. Our understanding of what was going to happen was upended by this announcement. So, no more pumps or all-day trips to the Infusion Center each week.

We were left wondering why? If you recall, the chemotherapy was supposed to be done concurrently with the radiation treatment. My guess is that the new chemo drug was so strong that users need to take a break before having another round of treatment. Since the next round of treatment would be after the radiation, there is no need for more.

Meanwhile, my wife is having much difficulty keeping anything down, even water. She is miserable much of the time. As a result of her treatment, she has developed sores in her mouth and pain in swallowing. As expected, her esophagus also hurts because of radiation and acid reflux. Coughing fits were common during this week. Several nausea medications were given to her along with mouth rinses and other concoctions. While not having infusion this week, my wife did go to the infusion center on Friday to get some saline because she thought she might be dehydrated.

A few times during the week, she was able to eat scrambled eggs—many of which were from the local Costco. Specifically, she likes Three Bridges Egg Bites which come in Eggs Whites with Bell Peppers and Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Uncured Bacon. Of the two, the egg whites were her preference as the bacon bits in the other “were like little pebbles as they were going down.” By Saturday morning she was able to eat two pancakes for breakfast and about 1 ½ more for lunch. This is the most solid food she has had in about eight days.

Without a doubt, this has been the toughest week thus far. My wife even had me drive her to radiotherapy one day due to dizziness. I expect next week to be better because she only has four radiation treatments left. Then the long and probably quiet pause before we start gearing-up for surgery. The only new appointment is one with an allergist to document the reaction to whatever was in the IV bags that affected her.

Lastly, the wife is still in great spirits and clinging to the belief that she can return to the classroom in February and complete the school year. However, …

A few hours ago, I was in the midst of explaining to my son what the treatment path was for his mom once the radiotherapy is completed, when she walked into the room. When I mentioned that if the tests prior to surgery showed that the cancer has spread that there would be no surgery then she got very angry and said, “That’s not going to happen.” If nothing else, it showed us that she is not willing to opening discuss the seriousness of her cancer. Flowers and unicorns are all she wants in her world right now. In addition, saying “No” to her about making long term financial obligations has also become a thorny topic but one beyond the scope of the current post.

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part VI

Week three of chemotherapy was the most difficult yet. My son and I spent the week with colds while trying to care for our cancer patient. We did the home Covid test twice and it was negative—not that we could have done much about it anyway. Junior got to return to school about the time I started suffering from the cold symptoms.

Monday saw us do a two-hour procedure to install a port into my wife’s chest. The entire thing is under her skin and seems to take a path from its endpoint to somewhere near her heart. It is painful and uncomfortable. There is much bruising from this being done to her. Less that 24 hours after installing it, it was being used at the infusion center.

The infusion day was the longest yet. My wife had yet another allergic reaction to a whole different family of drugs. As it turns out, my wife is allergic to a secondary chemical used to keep the medicine suspended in the IV bag. I have heard it also referred to as a preservative. Anyway, this stuff is also a major component of the Covid 19 vaccines. Thus, my wife is medically excused by the CDC from getting the Covid jab.

As an aside, if my wife did get the Covid shot and died—which we now know would happen, the CDC would not classify her death as related to the vaccine because any death within two weeks of getting the shot doesn’t count under their methodology. So next time they claim to be “following the science” you can know yet another reason it’s a lie from the swamp.

Anyway, the infusion time was about 8 to 8 ½ hours for the first chemo drug. We also came home with a portable pump in a fanny pack. My wife is expected to pump this stuff 2.5 ml per hour for 96 hours. The pump uses those rectangular 9-volt batteries; one at a time. We learned this because they sent us home with two spares. We are currently on the second spare, and I had to dig up one of my own in garage just in case it quits at 1 AM like it did last night. Saturday night at 5 PM we can get the pump, hose, and needle assemble removed until the next infusion day. I can’t imagine having the same needle sticking in your chest for over four days while getting dressed and undressed, taking a shower, eating, sleeping, etc.

Meanwhile the radiation is affecting her ability to eat and drink. Even liquids are painful to swallow. The radiological oncologist says that this is expected and said it might get easier in another week. We will see.

Between the chemotherapy and radiation, this week has been the most difficult. My wife even had to ask for help to get to her radiology appointment yesterday. Today was better and she went on her own. Nausea and occasional vomiting and the medication to prevent them have been a big part of this week. Two more weeks to go until this phase of treatment is done.

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part V

Chemotherapy week two has been an epic failure. (Is it just me, or do you think of Aaron Park whenever someone uses that term?) Anyway, after five and a half hours at the hospital’s Infusion Center, session two was cancelled by the doctor. Again, my wife had an allergic reaction to the chemo drug even though they gave her three different drugs to prevent any reaction prior to beginning the introduction of the main drug. She was given no more than a fourth of the solution. We were sent home with orders that the doctor would be contacting us the next day.

Some here at the blog wonder if my wife’s reaction is related to the fact that she is a Trump loving Republican that is being given a known poison called “tax all” via an IV. Clearly many Democrats in California are addicted to this stuff. As you might expect, “tax all” was the easy path. One that has now been denied to us as we learned from the doctor the following day.

In reality, my wife ended up speaking with the doctor twice the following day. It looks like the new treatment will be Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).

If I have this right, Cisplatin will be given weekly at the Infusion Clinic and the fluorouracil will be administered at home over a series of days via a pump connected to a port. Yep, we get to do self-administered chemotherapy for the next three weeks. What could possibly go wrong?

This treatment requires that my wife has a “port” installed.

Your healthcare provider’s decision to recommend a port may depend on several things. Some chemotherapy medications can only be given through a port because they are too caustic to be delivered into a peripheral vein.
Beyond that, using a port is often easier than inserting an IV each time if you will be having several infusions of chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy Ports Benefits and Risks

The port may be placed on your upper chest or occasionally your upper arm. It is then attached to a catheter tube that is threaded into one of the large veins near your neck, such as the subclavian vein or jugular vein, and ends near the top of your heart.

Oh, while all this is happening, the radiation therapy continues, and its effects are starting to manifest.

Lastly, Really Right junior has come home from school with a runny nose, sore throat, and cough. As a precaution, we told him to start the over-the-counter Covid symptom reduction stuff that we bought at the local pharmacy. We bought the stuff just in case something like this happened.

Week three is coming fast and looks to be a bumpy ride.

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part IV

This week marked the beginning of chemotherapy and radiation treatments for my wife. She still maintains that her treatment will result in being cured and that come sometime in February, she will be able to resume her life.

Let me break this down in a little more detail.

First, chemotherapy is being used because leeches are like so Middle Ages. Chemotherapy is the purposeful injection of poison into your body that works much like the theory of the game “chicken”. You hope the “bad” cells are killed before the “good” ones. Depending on the dosage and frequency of treatment this may or may not work. However, it turns out, your body and immune system take a beating. Oh, to get your body to tolerate the chemo drugs, they give you other stuff before and after.

Radiation is more of the same. It is trying to concentrate a lethal dose of this unseen killer at a particular point or points in the body. As mentioned in a previous installment, the radiated tissue must be removed in a window five to ten weeks after “treatment” ends. Also, they forget to remind you that all the tissue which the radiation passes thru to get to the cancer takes a beating as well. The military would call this collateral damage but guys in white lab coats call it medicine.

Oh, my wife’s new basis for claiming that she will be cured is that the doctor filled out her initial disability application and said that the soonest that she could return to work would be February 2022. In her mind this means that she will be cured by February. Is this an example of childlike faith or utter delusion? I think the latter. In my opinion, my wife’s optimism is that of a five-year-old aspiring to be the next Disney Princess. This may be cute when looking at five-year-old children but in adults its disturbing.

As to the actual treatment. We were at the hospital for just over seven hours for the first round of chemo instead of the expected two and a half to three hours. My wife had a reaction to the drug, and it took much longer than advertised. After a few hours at home, she had a horrible headache and was not allowed to take any medication for the pain. (The following day she was told Tylenol would be ok to take.) In addition, while she has no fever, it looks like she spent 14 hours in the sun yesterday as her skin is a very bright shade of red; especially her face.

Two days later, my wife is lethargic and had some nausea. There is a prescription for that if she remembers to take it. She also spent a few hours in bed but was unable to nap so she opted to read a book.

The treatment train has left the station. I plan to post another update in about a week as we travel thru this journey.

A Sad Story of Alcoholism

Sad stories aren’t typically reserved for a Friday afternoon, hopefully this blog airs some other time. But this blog will showcase alcoholism and how it affects a person, a family, and their inner circle.

A close friend of mine from back in the day used to live kitty corner from us. We were thick as thieves, the two of us were. Best friends, our parent’s best friends as well. It seemed we did everything together or were always with the other one’s parents going/doing something. My mother hired his mother, and my dad and his dad were always working on a project or working on a 12 pack. Everything was great until I went off to college. Suddenly his parents were having major relationship issues. I never really understood it, but in a sense, I chalked it up to him being a hot-headed prison guard and her being a strong woman. Anyhow the relationship started boiling over very quickly. Suddenly the arguments almost came to fisticuffs, nasty exchanges were the regular. He could not get away from her quickly enough or stay away long enough. I never really understood it. They eventually had the world’s messiest divorce, literally fighting over the smallest things.

Things started becoming clearer after a couple years, my mom would never be able to see her because she was “sick all the time.” Literally plans made weeks/days/months in advance were cancelled, at the last minute…. sometimes literally the last minute. There were rumors of heavy drinking, but in all honesty, the household and groups I grew up around, most parents enjoyed a drink or two after work. Nothing out of the ordinary. I found out later she was actually guilty 3 separate times of taking a break at work, going to her car and sipping on a flask. Keep in mind she worked for my mother. She was caught all 3 times by parents at the school, never once was she disciplined.

The last-minute cancellations continued but things took yet another turn for the worse. She had moved in with her mother to save money and continued her drinking ways. Worse yet, hiding it from her 87-year-old mother. When my mother and I would visit, it was not uncommon to see her taking bathroom breaks or pouring something from behind the cover of the fridge door directly into a coffee cup. Clearly this was the rule not the exception.

My friend came home for a long weekend, flew in from out of state (upper Midwest) to visit his mother, he knew it wasn’t great, but felt obligated as any son would. I dropped him off, and saw his mother on a small trike, as she had broken her foot from falling (likely alcohol induced, but I cannot say for sure.) She fell repeatedly off her trike, and I decided after about 15 minutes, that it was time for me to leave. It was 9 AM. Not long after, my mother received a call as my friend had “disappeared.” I called him and he was driving (his own car was left here) back to the upper Midwest. Yeah, he had seen enough after a short stay.

The DUI charges also began racking up, with 4 happening over a 20-year period. She called me once to ask for a tow company while not knowing where she was saying only “I’m on the side of a freeway.” Folks Sacramento doesn’t have too many freeways, the northeast corner has even fewer. I cannot recall a time when I didn’t know where I was whilst stranded on the side of the roadway. This story led to bracelets around her wrists and a trip to the blue roof inn to detox.

She has been in and out of rehab more times than anyone can count. When my mother would visit, she would routinely smell booze on her breath and be told, “there is more being drank inside these walls than outside.” Sad but there is far more, and it only gets worse.

After about 3 years, my mother finally figured she just had to show up unannounced. She did, and likely regretted it. Her friend had the front door open only the screen closed, it wasn’t locked. She found her friend on the couch, half clothed. Jack in the Box burger and partial order of uneaten fries on the table. She claimed it was her lunch, the time was 3:45. Two drained bottles of wine rested not far from where she was seated. My mother inquired as to how she obtained the beverage and food. The response was door dash for the food, and AM PM delivers wine. Most disturbingly, she said she just can’t help herself in regard to drinking. Her friend had finally lost her license after several major surgeries and DUI’s. She had bruises on her body, from falling. Her friend used to be a well-built woman, not fat or heavy by any means, and was always on the cutting edge of fashion. Now she ambles around with a walker, and likely weighs 100 lbs. while being 6’3. Her legs are the size of golf balls, she is all skin and bone. She refuses additional help, or rehab, and my mother was quickly whisked away. Her son does not wish to see her again, but she wants to leave all kinds of money behind for him so he can love her.

In conclusion this is what addiction does to the human body. My mom’s friend likely won’t last until Christmas, and it is no fault of anyone but her own. She didn’t want to work for the State anymore despite being only a few years way from being fully vested, instead she went to work for my mother. She became parttime worker, fulltime drinker. Any amount of the grape or beer or hard liquor will eventually cause major damage to the human body. The DUI’s just put the toll in real dollars as opposed to physical appearance. She ruined her marriage, her relationship with her son, and all her friends because her world revolved around drinking. It’s sad but it happens quite often. She couldn’t even slow herself down when her son visited …because like any other addict, they do not care. Most disturbing was the comment about having AM/PM, a gas station by the way, delivering your beverage of choice. If there is such thing as a rock bottom, that has to be scraping pretty close to it.

At 74, I’m sure this was not her idea of the glory years unless happiness is staring at a bottle and hoping to drain it in one night. College days are over, and you have ignored warnings from the health community, you had parts of your colon, and stomach removed, and you are still refusing to change your ways. Lunch isn’t served at 3:00, that only happens after passing out from drinking on an empty stomach. The empty calories “filled you up” and your body is lying to you as far as being full. The going to sleep isn’t because you need rest, it’s because your body can not take it any longer and needs a shut down. DUI may be a badge of honor at 25; it’s a sad story after 35. It’s flat depressing after 55, and unconscionable after 65. A lesson never learned. Now you are in serious peril of not making it to the next year. Friendships, marriage, and your only child, all lost because you couldn’t put the bottle down, even after several trips to rehab. It’s so bad folks that even her only brother is done with her, she moved in with her niece and was kicked out after 90 days due to you guessed it, her drinking. Addiction kills, sadly for this person. At least without a driver’s license, it won’t make her kill anyone else.

Johnnie Does

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part III

Treatment is finally scheduled. I should be happy about that but…

We finally have a start date for chemo and radiation in mid-September. The radiation is the heavy lifter in this treatment plan and the chemo is supposed to make the radiation more successful. This is penciled -in for five weeks. This will be followed by four to six weeks of waiting and then will be followed by surgery. Said surgery is just in time for the beginning of the holidays. And then everything is all better, or so my wife claims. (She keeps using variations of the word, “cured”.)

Folks, if having esophageal cancer was really this easy, then why are half of all patients diagnosed with this cancer, dead within 13 to 18 months of diagnosis? I guess in polite company we don’t ask, and they won’t volunteer it.

For those willing to listen, the talk with the radiologist was measured and cautious. No, “you probably won’t get burns on your skin” and “your hair probably won’t fall out”. Then the comment about “if you’re healthy enough, you can have surgery.”

Of course, the treatment is to shrink to tumor and then allow for surgery. “Yes, radiation shrinks the tumor, but you may develop sores in your esophagus that prevent you from eating what you want.”

The chemo/radiation treatments will decimate my wife’s immune system and necessitates locking down all household members in a manner that sounds suspiciously like the two weeks to flatten the curve nonsense inflicted on us during the spring of 2020. However, unlike then, wipes and toilet paper are easily obtainable. During this time, our son gets to go to school and back, while I’m the designated grocery shopper. My wife is expected to lose 20 to 25 pounds during this period of time and that’s without the doctor knowing that I will be the designated cook for much of this time.

As for the surgery, my wife has it in her head that it will be laparoscopic in nature and over in a short period of time. Color me skeptical. We will know in a few days when we meet with the surgeon.

Update after meeting with the surgeon.

The surgeon says the procedure must be performed between five to ten weeks after the end of the radiation treatments. Five weeks is to allow the presence and effects of chemo to dissipate and probably allow the immune system to recover slightly. The ten-week limit is due to the fact that irradiated tissue will become scare tissue making the success of the surgical procedure unlikely.

Now for the procedure itself. Here are some quotes related to what is scheduled to happen.

Surgery to remove some or most of the esophagus is called an esophagectomy. If the cancer has not yet spread far beyond the esophagus, removing the esophagus (and nearby lymph nodes) may cure the cancer. Unfortunately, most esophageal cancers are not found early enough for doctors to cure them with surgery.
Often a small part of the stomach is removed as well. The upper part of the esophagus is then connected to the remaining part of the stomach. Part of the stomach is pulled up into the chest or neck to become the new esophagus.
How much of the esophagus is removed depends upon the stage of the tumor and where it’s located:
If the cancer is in the lower part of the esophagus (near the stomach) or at the place where the esophagus and stomach meet (the gastroesophageal or GE junction), the surgeon will remove part of the stomach, the part of the esophagus containing the cancer, and about 3 to 4 inches (about 7.6 to 10 cm) of normal esophagus above this. Then the stomach is connected to what is left of the esophagus either high in the chest or in the neck.
Surgery for Esophageal Cancer

The surgeon described the procedure as a transthoracic esophagectomy. This method is also known as the Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy. The technique was originally developed in 1946.

A transthoracic esophagectomy, also known as an Ivor Lewis esophagectomy, is a procedure in which part of the esophagus is removed. During this surgery, small incisions are made in the chest and another is made on the abdomen. The cancerous portion of the esophagus is removed, along with the surrounding lymph nodes and a small margin of healthy tissue above and below the tumor. The stomach is made into a cylinder, pulled up into the chest and connected to the remaining section of the esophagus.
Transthoracic (Ivor Lewis) Esophagectomy

Illustrations of the procedure can be found at Technique of Open Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy. Please read descriptions of the various drawings to get a better idea of the procedure.

Pre-Surgical Complications

The surgery has a few points of deciding go or no-go on going thru with the procedure.

Is patient physically able to undergo the surgery after the pounding their body endures from the chemo and radiation?

Does the presurgical PET scan show any spread of the cancer since patient has had the chemo and radiation treatment?

Surgical Complications

When surgery begins, following the incision into the chest and stomach area, the doctor does a visual inspection of tissues surrounding the cancerous area. If cancer has spread, then the surgery is aborted before it proceeds further.

The operation begins with an esophagoscopy to confirm the extent of tumor. On opening the abdomen, the right gastroepiploic artery is palpated and its fitness as the blood supply for the gastric conduit is confirmed. Abdominal exploration should confirm absence of liver metastases, extensive nodal disease, omental metastases, etc.
Technique of Open Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy

Post-Surgical Complications

Comparison of complications reported in a recent series is hindered by the lack of uniform definitions of complications, the nonreporting of events, and the mixture of surgical approaches in some of the reports. The incidence of pneumonia has varied from 8% to 26%. Anastomotic leak has been detected in 3% to 8%. Mortality has varied between 1.4% and 10%. It is also known that esophagectomy is a procedure that is affected by hospital and surgeon volumes.

The surgeon said that a hospital stay of 7 or more days was common. Per reading that I have done, some post operative complication is likely. Per the American Cancer Society, here are likely risks:

Short-term risks include reactions to anesthesia, more bleeding than expected, blood clots in the lungs or elsewhere, and infections. Most people will have at least some pain after the operation, which can usually be helped with pain medicines.
Lung complications are common. Pneumonia may develop, leading to a longer hospital stay, and sometimes even death.
Some people might have voice changes after the surgery.
There may be a leak at the place where the stomach (or intestine) is connected to the esophagus, which might require another operation to fix. This is not as common as it used to be because of improvements in surgical techniques.
Strictures (narrowing) can form where the esophagus is surgically connected to the stomach, which can cause problems swallowing for some patients. To relieve this symptom, these strictures can be expanded during an upper endoscopy procedure.
After surgery, the stomach may empty too slowly because the nerves that cause it to contract can be damaged by surgery. This can sometimes lead to frequent nausea and vomiting.
After surgery, bile and stomach contents can back up into the esophagus because the ring-shaped muscle that normally keeps them inside the stomach (the lower esophageal sphincter) is often removed or changed by the surgery. This can cause symptoms such as heartburn. Sometimes antacids or motility drugs can help these symptoms.

Conclusion … for now.

Now that I have described what lies ahead, I have a few closing comments.

My wife continues to display signs that the cancer is still growing. She has more difficulty swallowing than a few weeks ago and each night she is now afflicted with lots of acid reflux after going to bed. She believes (and based on what I see, I agree) that her stomach is no longer sealing, (sphincter muscle is no longer closing her stomach). She believes that her tumor is preventing this system from working correctly.

I will update you further as we progress thru this treatment. I still remain pessimistic, but as I am but a spectator in the drama, which is about to unfold, my opinion is of limited value.

Esophageal Cancer: When the Grim Reaper Darkens Your Door Part II

As expected, this installment won’t be any more cheerful than the last. I’m writing this account for two reasons, first so that I have a way to deal with my emotions as I have to deal with what’s going on with my wife, my role as the supportive spouse, and the role as parent of a teenager facing the real prospect that he will lose his mother in the next several months. The second reason is in case somebody else finds this account and may be going thru the same cancer in their family.

I would have written sooner but the doctors found ways of delaying the PET scan and coming up with a treatment plan—a plan that while formulated still lacks a start date.

It’s now been about three weeks since the initial diagnosis. In that time, my wife has developed much more difficulty in chewing food since it keeps getting caught on the tumor. Clearly the tumor continues to grow.

The PET scan results were emailed to us and the doctor simultaneously just a few hours after the procedure. The tumor is in my wife’s esophagus just above the stomach. It is 40 v 27 mm in the axial plane (left and right) and 60 mm in craniocaudal extent (up and down). This translates to 1.57 by 1 by 2.36 inches. The cancer was found in only one location and thus excludes a stage 4 diagnosis.

Per several medical studies that I’ve read on the Internet, the over/under on tumor size for esophageal cancer is 3 cm (or 30 mm) in height. Under 3 cm, the odds are much better for survival. Over 3 cm, the odds are markedly worse. Per one study that did three divisions, under 3 cm, 3 to 6 cm, and over 6 cm; the numbers are even worse over 6 cm. This is regardless of stage of the cancer.

The difference between stage 2 and 3 for cancer in this situation is a matter of how many layers of esophageal tissue that the cancer has penetrated. More superficial is stage 2 and more layers containing cancer is stage 3. Given the size of the tumor, I think it’s stage 3, but the doctor won’t commit to saying that. The doctor said that the treatment is the same so why does it matter? As an aside, the doctor capable of making the determination is on vacation so waiting for the endoscopy ultrasound would cause even more delays in treatment.

Oh, the treatment is six weeks of daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy. This will be followed by surgery to remove the cancerous area. Per Doctor Google, as my wife calls the Internet, the surgery portion for this type of cancer is pure butchery. When I think about this treatment plan, I have a mental picture of Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelly) mumbling about the damn primitive 20^th Century butchers.

Besides waiting to get a start date for treatment, we are waiting to be contacted by a “nurse navigator”. Apparently, this nurse will be our go-to person and point of contact to guide us thru the maze of cancer treatment. My sister says there is also a similar person whose job is to guide you thru the financial and insurance obstacles necessary to get treatment.

After writing this draft we did get more info on the treatment plan from a “clinical nurse navigator”. Also, and I don’t know if its just because its August or it’s a Covid thing, but the radiologist assigned my wife’s treatment is on vacation and thus we are experiencing another delay as we wait for him to return. Ditto for the surgeon. Additionally, due to Labor Day being during the first full week of September, we may be pushed back another week because they want chemo on Mondays (of course they have Monday holidays off). Thus, we are probably looking at another three-week delay before any treatment will begin. Hurry up and wait may be monotonous for military life but for this type of cancer, its just more time for it to grow and spread, two things that make it even more life threatening. I think the doctors should be allowed vacation but the fact that their workload seems to freeze when that happens is concerning. Sometimes it feels like our emergency is not their problem. I’ll post more as things develop further.

Dr. Fauci Admits to Guessing on Youth and Masking Mandates

Folks it isn’t nice to pick on older citizens, but enough is enough with this Dr. Fauci. Take a look at what he had to say in an interview with Hugh Hewitt.

“It’s not comfortable, obviously, for children to wear masks, particularly the younger children,” he said. “But you know, what we’re starting to see, Hugh, and I think it’s going to unfold even more as the weeks go by, that this virus not only is so extraordinarily transmissible, but we’re starting to see pediatric hospitals get more and more younger people and kids not only numerically, but what seems to be more severe disease.
“Now we’re tracking that, the CDC is tracking that really very carefully, so it’s going to be a balance that we would feel very badly if we all of a sudden said OK, kids, don’t wear masks, then you find out retrospectively that this virus in a very, very strange and unusual way is really hitting kids really hard,” he continued. “But hopefully, this will be a temporary thing, temporary enough that it doesn’t have any lasting negative impact on them.”

Yep, hopefully it’s temporary and doesn’t have any lasting effects on them. Kind of like let’s pass the bill to find out what is in it. Just as a sidebar, my doctor has told me implicitly in regards to masking, “do not wear a mask while working out, it’s horrible for your health as it restricts airflow.” Yet it is ok for young people to wear masks all day in a school setting? Oh, furthermore they will not have to wear masks while at lunch, I guess the virus takes a lunch break just like humans do?

Folks this is crazy. Vaccinated or not we must mask, and our kids must mask too. Clearly this stupid vaccine is not all that great. How is it in a country of about 350 million, the only leadership we have is a doctor whose best days are in the distant past? Shame on Joe Biden for wheeling him out there every day and making him answer questions from reporters about Covid. No one knows anything about this virus except the Chinese workers at the Wuhan lab, and they aren’t allowed to talk. We collectively freaked out as a society, mask, no mask, dine in, no dine in, but the numbers never went down. We demand answers yet our scientists and doctors cannot supply them since we know nothing about this virus and how it behaves.

One last thought, please riddle me this “science believers,” since I had Covid why should I get a vaccine? Shouldn’t the presence of anti-bodies in my blood be good enough? One more thought, my colleague did a 2 shot Moderna, a friend did the 2 shot Pfizer. Both were inoculated four plus months ago, both got Covid, both got it pretty severely. Maybe quit drinking the Kool Aid and start looking at this with an open mind, we have no answers. Quit making Fauci “Meet the Depressed” every day. And quit agreeing to mask mandates and restrictions on your freedoms. Wear a mask if you want, don’t if you don’t want.

Hope your kids don’t get “affected” by wearing a mask all day at school, but hey science says its ok. Or was that a Dr who has been wrong the entire time?

Chief

Editor’s Note: My wife has been an educator for many years. She has always worked with small children. There is no doubt in her mind that the way Covid is being handled is permanently harming our children. Fearing our neighbors is the stuff of Communist tyrannies not freedom loving Americans. This whole episode is yet another example of the compassion of the wicked being cruelty.

Covid Stuff That You Probably Never Saw

Below is a summary of several articles on Covid-19 that you probably never saw on your local news outlet. They are not presented in any particular order.

If you think being vaccinated gives you immunity to Covid then you are wrong and ill informed.

So, you got vaccinated! You still need a mask. You still need to isolate yourself—and you will still get the virus. You may have felt good getting jabbed. Or you felt bullied into taking an experimental drug, where the manufacturers REFUSE to tell you the risks—nor willing to take financial responsibility when things go wrong. Now, you are as susceptible as anyone else to get the virus. In fact, now you can be a super spreader.
“Five days earlier, I had gone to a house party in Montgomery County. There were 15 adults there, all of us fully vaccinated. The next day, our host started to feel sick. The day after that, she tested positive for COVID-19. She let all of us know right away. I wasn’t too worried. It was bad luck for my friend, but surely she wasn’t that contagious. Surely all of us were immune. I’d been sitting across the room from her. I figured I’d stay home and isolate from my family for a few days, and that would be that. And even that seemed like overkill…
Then, I started to hear that a few other people who had been at the party were getting sick. Then a few more. At this point, 11 of the 15 have tested positive for COVID.
I went to a party with 14 other vaccinated people; 11 of us got COVID

And there probably is no more clear an illustration of that uncertainty as the recent announcement from Carnival that there are positive COVID cases aboard its Carnival Vista cruise ship.
That’s because, according to The Liberty Daily, every staff member and every guest on the ship was vaccinated.
“Somewhere near Cozumel in the Caribbean Sea, there’s a cruise ship that had zero unvaccinated people aboard but that still suffered an outbreak of COVID-19,” the report said. “This goes against the narrative that the reason for ‘breakthrough cases’ is due to too many unvaccinated people mingling with those who have taken the experimental injections.”
COVID hits all-vaccinated Carnival Vista cruise ship staff, passengers

Need to Fake a Positive Covid Test? ask a Kid

Some children have found a devious method to get out of school – using cola to create false positive Covid tests. How does it work?
Children are always going to find cunning ways to bunk off school, and the latest trick is to fake a positive Covid-19 lateral flow test (LFT) using soft drinks. [Videos of the trick have been circulating on TikTok since December and a school in Liverpool, UK, recently wrote to parents to warn them about it.] So how are fruit juices, cola and devious kids fooling the tests, and is there a way to tell a fake positive result from a real one? I’ve tried to find out.
First, I thought it best to check the claims, so I cracked open bottles of cola and orange juice, then deposited a few drops directly onto LFTs. Sure enough, a few minutes later, two lines appeared on each test, supposedly indicating the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19.
How children are spoofing Covid-19 tests with soft drinks

This article gets into the nitty-gritty of Covid test strips and how this works. Since its written by a chemistry professor, you shouldn’t expect anything less.

Blame the Unvaccinated

For days, the mainstream media have been playing a loop of reports that 99% of COVID-19 deaths are among unvaccinated people.
Besides there being no data —there’s actually evidence that the opposite is true – it’s become the basis for a stream of dehumanizing propaganda that labels half of the American adult population and most children who haven’t taken experimental COVID-19 shots as “variant factories” and “incubators” of disease.
It’s frighteningly similar to early Nazi propaganda that referred to “filthy Jews” as spreaders of disease and stirred up irrational fear and hatred of millions of people in German society. It was a government message used to justify quarantining a people, starving them, and then annihilating them.
“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated – and they’re killing people,” Joe Biden told reporters on Friday.
Rochelle Walensky, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said something similar earlier that day: “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Why ‘the pandemic of the unvaccinated’ is a lie

The CDC stopped counting a critical pandemic parameter, but other countries did not. The U.K. data on “variants of concern” reveals that there were 92 deaths of unvaccinated people compared to 163 among the vaccinated (most of them fully vaccinated). These mortality figures are miniscule in a country of 66 million people. But if you’re talking vaccine success, when you compare rates of deaths between the two groups from their case numbers, it’s the vaccinated who come out worse off – with odds of death nearly nine times higher than the unvaccinated.
In Israel, it was reported June 29 that the vaccine was failing and most new cases of COVID were in the vaccinated. Roughly 60% of the patients in serious conditions had been vaccinated and, according to Hebrew University researchers advising the government, around 90% of newly infected people over the age of 50 are fully vaccinated.
If in countries like Israel, with higher vaccination rates than most of the world, it is the vaccinated who are infected, and the vaccinated can get and spread disease, then it’s time to stop the “filthy unvaccinated” propaganda and let people make their own medical choices free of coercion.

Oh, lest you think the story above is an outlier, feast your eyes on this next story.

Study: COVID Cases are Increasing in Counties with Higher Vaccination Rates, Declining in Counties with Lower Vaccination Rates

An analysis in California has shown that counties with above-average vaccination rates have higher COVID-19 case totals, which drives a stake through the heart of the propaganda line that the unvaccinated are causing a new wave of cases.

The Bay Area News Group discovered that he counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco have a higher percentage of people who are fully vaccinated than the state average as well as a higher average daily case rate.

Meanwhile, the counties of Modoc, Glenn, Lassen, Del Norte, and San Benito have below average vaccination rates and are seeing a decline in cases. The so-called experts are attempting to make excuses for these findings in order to coerce support for the vaccine regime.

No Scientific reason to Vaccinate the Young, In Fact Reality says Don’t Even Think About It

Evidence of an emerging two-tiered society is difficult to overlook — a society in which young people face immeasurable pressure to inject something into their bodies that they fear is much more dangerous than the disease it claims, without much scientific data, to prevent. The COVID recovery rate in people aged 17 to 22 is known to be 99.9 percent but the long-term health impact of the shots will be anybody’s guess.

The average age of people dying of COVID in America is 77. For someone that age, the long term risks of an experimental vaccine may not be that big of a deal.

But what if you’re 18 or 20 years old and have another 60 or 70 years of life ahead of you?

…McCullough, a cardiologist, internist and epidemiologist on the medical staff at Baylor University in Texas, said he has personally been very busy in recent weeks treating young people with vaccine-related injuries, most of them permanent injuries involving cases in which the COVID spike protein collected in the heart, the blood vessels, the brain, the ovaries and other organs.

…Meanwhile, the casualties continue to mount, says Dr. McCullough.

“Most of what I’ve mentioned are permanent. That is the great fear. The neurological ones are very worrisome, and so we’re seeing these now in practice six or nine months later,” he said. “The first thing the patients ask is, ‘Am I going to have this ringing in my ears forever or is this going to go away?’ Or, a patient reports ‘my face is paralyzed on one side, is it going to get partially better or am I going to be stuck with my face contorted?’”
McCullough said anyone considering these vaccines ought to be asking serious questions.
Segregation returns! Unvaxxed students threatened, harassed

Long Term Effects of Vaccine May Not Be Seen for 10 to 15 Years

Dr. Seneff serves as Senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and is the author of Toxic Legacy, How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment. The MIT scientist wrote a research paper with Dr. Greg Nigh titled: “Worse Than the Disease?
Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of the mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19” for the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research.

Dr. Weld explains:
“Dr. Seneff’s background led her to have concerns about the Covid-19 vaccines that are being heavily promoted. These vaccines use a novel mRNA technology, and their long-term effects remain unknown. However, there is sufficient published scientific information to explain some of the mechanisms behind the adverse effects these vaccines are having now and what they might cause in the years and decades ahead. She anticipates an increase in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, which take 10 to 15 years to manifest themselves.”

Some of the major points of the RAIR exclusive interview:

Dr. Seneff “anticipates that there will be long-term damage that won’t instantly be linked to the vaccine. Developments, such as an increase in auto-immune and neurodegenerative diseases, which may take 10 to 15 years before manifesting themselves.” “We are in for a big surprise down the road,” she predicts.
Dr. Seneff believes the vaccine would exacerbate symptoms of those with Parkinson’s.
Those who claimed that mRNA would not impact DNA are “wrong.”
Spike protein “really has become the most toxic part of the virus” and exists when Covid is gone.
“Among the possibilities she foresees is an increase in Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD), a prion disease (or protein misfolding disease) comparable to mad cow disease.”
“There is an epidemic of Alzheimer disease, which people are getting at an increasingly younger age. The recklessly and haphazardly implementation of the vaccine roll-out will contribute to this trend.”

MIT Scientist: Covid Vaccines May Cause Diseases in ’10 to 15 years’

I wonder what tune the media would be singing if the Orange Man was still in the White House? Certainly, they would be opposing vaccination due to the myriad of unintended consequences resulting from the jab but they certainly own it now.