When I went to the bathroom, I had a lot of blood. My internist was on vacation so I went to his on call internist. He examined me and took a sample of my blood. The next day I called his office and the nurse told me it wasn't cancer and didn't give me advice about what to do about it. I had no more symptoms for over a year. i went to Dr. Seftel, my ENT. I had previously done his orthodontics.
He said nothing was wrong with my ears, so he sent me down to have a sonogram on my carotid arteries to see if they were blocked. They were clear. He was puzzled and took a sample of my blood for a blood test. It came back that I was severely anemic. I went to my regular internist immediately and he scheduled me for a colonoscopy and a biopsy. Dr. Jackson should have done them, but he was arrogant.
The colonoscopy showed I had a tumor. The biopsy showed it was a squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Alexander scheduled my surgery for April 6, 1996. During my surgery Dr. Alexander found a tumor the size of my fist in my colon and a tumor on my liver. After the surgery, Dr. Alexander told Kaye he was sorry but he didn't think that I would survive the cancer. They took out 3 feet of my colon. The tumor on my liver turned out to be benign. The biospy of 6 other sites showed that the cancer hadn't spread. The doctor wanted to be sure that they got it all and so he wanted to have some chemotherapy. Dr. Alexander said I was a very lucky person.
Lisa, our granddaughter, and Greg were going to be married in May in Medford, Oregon. Kaye and I flew up to Medford to go to the wedding. While we were there I kept having a fever and chills. We went to the doctor in Medford and they couldn't find a reason for it. While I was in Medford, I negotiated to buy a ranch that I had been wanting to buy for two years at Lost Creek Lake. We made the deal and then I went back to Santa Cruz.
I started chemotherapy. It made me very sick. I told the doctors that I just couldn't go anymore. He told me that they had a pill I could take that was very expensive that would help with the nausea. I asked how much it was and it was $9, I said give it to me. I took the pill that Saturday and came back that same day and did another session of chemotherapy.
Sunday I woke up with shaking chills. Kaye took me down to the emergency room and my doctor's partner came in to the emergency room. I had shaking and spasms while he was there and he immediately put me in the hospital. Three days later I woke up and they told me I almost died. They said it was due to a little infection that I had since the surgery. It was low grade and caused me to have a 100 degree temperature. They shouldn't have given me chemo until they cleared up the infection. I continued to get better at the hospital, but I was very weak. I was in the hospital about ten days. Kaye told me that the High Priests came in and gave me a blessing. I started to get better the next day.
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