Nicole's Notes

Not only have I had an anatomy refresher course (the iliocecal valve is connected to the colon, the colon is connected to the rectum, the rectum is connected to... let's not go there), but I've learned a lot about cancer treatment.

I guess because "the big C" was such a taboo subject in recent history, I never really knew how treatment worked. I didn't know the difference, for example, between chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Chemo is treatment with drugs (hence the name - chemo/chemicals), as opposed to radiation which is treatment with... radiation. Duh.

And I figured chemo was chemo. You give the patient some drugs and they either get better or not. But for each kind of cancer there are multiple drugs and combinations of drugs, and schedules of administration that could be used. The drugs I had and the schedule I was on were chosen because they were the least likely to have severe side effects (of the drugs found effective with colon cancer, which are not the same as the drugs found effective for breast cancer).

And the whole hair loss thing. A lot of people figure hair loss is par for the course when you're fighting cancer. It's not. In fact, the drugs I was on generally only cause hair thinning in a portion of the people who take it. Some people don't lose any hair. Some people (like me) lose lots. It depends on how well you tolerate the drug. Other drugs can cause some people to lose all their hair (including leg hair and eyelashes!).

Some people are able to take their chemo in a pill form, others need an IV hooked up for a few hours, and some (like me) get theirs as a simple "push" injection.

Some friend tried to tell my grandmother that radiation treatment was done by wheeling folks into a room, and turning on the radiation, like a light switch. The attendants would turn it off to bring them lunch and dinner. What a concept!

I don't know much about radiation, since I didn't need it. It's not very effective on the ascending colon (on your right side, between the hip and the rib cage), I'm told, because that part of the colon, where my tumour was, is very flexible and tends to move around, so they can't aim the radiation very well. The flexibility is also probably one reason why my cancer had spread to so few lymph nodes (only one).

Speaking of lymph nodes, they're found in various parts of your body, but are in clusters in the groin, neck and armpit. They produce immune cells. The lymph nodes are the first place the cancer spreads when it leaves a tumour, and having less than 2 lymph nodes with cancer is considered the same as having none with cancer. Then it travels via the lymphatic system to other organs.

There ya go! Now you're smart like me! :) In our next lesson we'll be learning all about cluster flies! Whoohoo! I know you'll be waiting with baited breath!