Last week I got the results of the CT scans as a follow up to the 12 rounds of chemo I received for colon cancer. The scans showed no signs of cancerous tumor growth so that is great news. I appreciate and am thankful for all the support and prayers I have received. It worked. So I do not have to undergo any chemo treatments for now. I go back to see my oncologist at Sloan Kettering in 3 months. They did find a blood clot in the main portal vein in my stomach. I get blood thinner injections to correct that problem. Evidently blood clots are not uncommon for chemo patients.  All in all it is good news. The frustrating thing now is waiting to see what happens next. It feels better when you are taking action steps like chemo to solve the problem.  For now I will exercise and eat right and move on and that will be my action steps.

My goal in writing this blog is to get people to schedule yearly appointments with their doctors. All to often these stories get glossed over and everyone just goes about their business. I hope that the details I am sharing will get people to take action. You have to go to the doctor every year to get blood work etc. done. It can save your life so get it done.

 Thanks again to everyone for their support and prayers. Here is the link to my Swim Across America page. SAA raises money for cancer research. It is a great organization and we would appreciate your support. http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR/OpenWater/LongIslandSound?px=1084546&pg=personal&fr_id=1944

Frank

Frank Schwall Update

Tomorrow I start my last round of chemo for my Stage III C metastatic colon cancer. It is the 12^th round. I started at the end of January after surgery in December. It’s been 3 days every two weeks. One day at the infusion center and then two days with a portable pump bottle. On July 8^th the group at Memorial Sloan Kettering will do tests ( scan and blood work ) to see what if anything is going on and then on July 11^th  I meet with the doctor to find out the results. Hopefully I will be NED – no evidence of disease. If that is the case I get some time off and will go back in 3 months for another scan. Most likely if there is a tumor growing it will be on the liver or lungs. That is how it usually works with colon cancer. You see I had a lot of cancerous lymph nods so most likely I have cancer cells floating around in my blood. They are looking to grab onto something and grow a tumor. The chemo is designed to kill those cells before they find a spot to grow again.  If there is a tumor in either of those areas I will be classified as Stage IV. Then they might do surgery or chemo or both. But I think that all will be clear.

The purpose of my telling everyone this is to get people to take action now. I don’t want people feeling sorry for me – no need to. I do what people to heed my advice. So I hope that describing this stuff in detail will at the very least scare you into doing what you need to do to take care of yourself.

Here is what I have learned.

1.You have to go to the doctor every year. Not every two years or every 5 years but every year. If you don’t you are a wimp.  Feeling fine is not a reason to skip your annual checkup. You have no idea what could be going on in your body. So suck it up and get it done.

2. If you are 50 or over you need to get a colonoscopy. If you have a history of colon cancer in your family – even extended family like a great aunt or uncle you need to get a colonoscopy now! Colon cancer is called the silent killer. Blood work and a colonoscopy are the ways to know for sure what is going on.

3. You have to know your family’s medical history. For the most part this stuff if genetic. Yes you should eat right and exercise but even if you do that you can still get cancer. In large part because you might be predisposed to get it because of your genetic makeup. So here is my suggestion. This does not need to take a lot of time. But ask your parents questions. Ask your aunts and uncles if they know of anyone in the family with medical conditions. I know that the last thing you want to do is find out what is going on with your crazy uncle’s colon. But doing so might save your life and allow you to walk your daughter down the aisle at her wedding or make a great toast at your son’s rehearsal dinner or coach your grandkids little league teams – all the things I plan to be doing in the future. You can send or email or even better at the next family gathering take 2 minutes to bring it up. Then get back to having fun. Your doctor has to know what is up with your family – even great grandparents count. (as it turns out my great grandmother had colon cancer as did my great aunt) Think of it like this. If you are a financial advisor or CPA how can you give your client advice if they don’t tell you all the facts of their situation? If you are a lawyer your client is doing themselves a disservice if they don’t tell you all the things that apply to their case. Doctors are no different. If you can’t tell them the facts of your extended family’s medical information then you are wasting everyone’s time.

So if I got your attention and you are going to take action you can quit reading this now. (expect you need to check out the link to my Swim Across America page – fundraising for cancer research) Otherwise I will fill you in on some more details.

I have not lost my hair. For the most part I have kept a regular schedule. I have also been running our church’s junior youth group and coaching my daughter’s 2^nd grade softball team. But one of the drugs I was getting Oxaliplatin was really strong. In the cold weather it caused me to feel like a thousand needles were sticking in my face. I could not drink anything cold for several days after each round because my mouth and tongue would also feel like they were full of needles.  I could not hold anything cold because my fingers would sting. Anyway after 7 rounds of that stuff my platelets were so low that they had to quit administering it. But that was more rounds than most people could tolerate. By the way – scare technique alert – if your platelets are too low you can bleed to death – even internal bleeding from a fender bender. So it underscores the power and dangers of chemo. At one point my white blood cells were too low so they gave me a booster shot to get the counts up. That was probably the worst time. I was moving slow and really tired for a week. Usually I slept some in the afternoons during each of the rounds. In 4 or 5 days I ended up feeling fine. One of the side effects of chemo is numbness in the fingers. I am experiencing that now. It feels like my fingers are asleep. Not that big of deal and it is supposed to end soon. I also want to mention the steroids I was given to offset the chemo. The steroids helped to keep the nausea at bay and too boost my immune system – I never got sick with flu or fever so that was great. A lot of people really struggle with their immune system during chemo so I was lucky.  It also helps to stimulate the appetite. Steroids work …so I am now losing the weight I gained i.e. Swim Across America. I used to think that steroids were no big deal. I did not care that much about the performance enhancing drug thing. But now I will say this. Steroids suck. At first you can feel the energy but in the end it just feels weird and not right. So if you have a kid playing sports who is looking for an edge tell him it’s not worth it. It is a great drug for doctors to prescribe to help with specific things but I now believe it was not meant to just help you get stronger so you can show off.

The worst part really has been having to see others – many people younger than me - deal with cancer.  I see them at the treatment center and hospital. It is depressing. I can take it but it is heartbreaking to see some of the other cases. I almost start dry heaving when I walk into the place each time. But I thank God it is me and not anyone else in my family or among my friends. I do believe that God gives us what we can handle.  The reason I got this is to spread the word of the importance of early detection. And as my buddies who love the blues know we just call it some more mileage.

Two more things. I really appreciate all the support and prayers and good karma I have gotten from people I know and people I don’t know. It makes a difference and I am luckyfriends. It has been proven many times. So thanks.

Last thing. For the last 3 or so summers I have participated in and event called Swim Across America. It is an organization that puts on swimming events which are used to raise money for cancer research. Most of the swims are in open water. The one that I participate in takes place in the Long Island Sound. I started doing it not because I knew anyone who had cancer or had some cancer related story but because it seemed like a good cause and it is really fun. The swim gives me something to get in shape for and it makes for a fun day. Little did I know that I would end up swimming as a patient/survivor this year. What is really weird is that Memorial Sloan Kettering is a sponsor and their logo is on the towel that all the competitors are given. I just noticed that last week. So here is the link. If you can, I would appreciate your support. Please nothing crazy. $10 or $20 would be so appreciated. You can do it all online. The web site has all the information about the organization. http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR/OpenWater/LongIslandSound?px=1084546&pg=personal&fr_id=1944

I will let everyone know how things go on July 11^th. Take it easy. Frank

 

Cancer

I have been diagnosed with Stage III C metastatic colon cancer. I had 12 inches of my colon and 32 lymph nods, 14 of which were cancerous, taken out on December 14th. I start 6 months of chemotherapy tomorrow, Friday January 18th. I will get 3 days of chemo every two weeks for a total of 12 treatments. At that time CT and PET scans will be done to see if there are tumors growing. If yes then I will keep doing chemo. If nothing is growing then I might be able to take some time off. The general consensus is that I will need to "manage" my cancer for the rest of my life. As I always say 85% of all statistics are made up so I am taking the stats that apply to my condition with a grain of salt.

So why am I telling everyone about this? Yes, I have always enjoyed attention, but only for good things. Attention, sympathy - pity party - or being a downer are not the reasons for this post or for future posts. My reason for writing about this is to raise awareness that will lead to each of you taking ACTION! Physicals every year and colonoscopies BEFORE you turn 50. This applies to the girls too.

I have heard about cancer stories before, good and bad including Katie Couric's husband and Tony Snow the White House Press Secretary for GW Bush, but I never paid attention mostly because the stories were not explained in detail and were not graphic enough. I want to make people WAKE UP and internalize what can happen if they do not take action now.

So here is my story. My last physical was in the summer of 2009. Everything checked out fine and the doctor told me I did not need a colonoscopy until I turned 50. Starting about 1 1/2 years ago I noticed I would get short of breath when I exercised or walked up stairs or hills. It would not last long and I was not short of breath when I was sitting. I would get frustrated while swimming or attempting to run on the treadmill. I have always been decent at distance things but I figured that I was getting old and was out of shape. I would get tired at the end of the day but who doesn't? I would fall asleep on the train home but when I got up to exit I would see half of everyone else asleep so I did not think anything of it.

I went for a physical in December 2012. The doctor gave me the thumbs up but that night the on call nurse called to ask if I was ok. She suggested I get a blood transfusion. The blood work showed that I was severely anemic which meant I did not have enough blood in my body. I was told to go back to the doctor the next morning so that they could re do the blood test. They thought it must be some sort of mistake. It was not a mistake. The doctor could not believe I had been operating with this condition. He said I must be bleeding. (They call colon cancer the silent killer because it can go undetected - even the bleeding)

I got a colonoscopy on December the 12th. The doctor found a big tumor that was almost blocking my colon plus a lot of lymph nods. When I woke up from the colonoscopy he told me I had cancer and needed to check into the hospital for surgery. The surgery was successful. We then interviewed several oncology groups and decided to use the group at Memorial Sloan Kettering in the city. So tomorrow I get a "port" put in my chest. It is like a hole that allows the tube from the chemo to be injected into my vein. I will go to the infusion center for a day and then take home a portable bottle of chemo that will continue to go into me for the next 48 hours. So it works out to be about 3 days of chemo every two weeks. There are side effects but they are different for each person. I don't plan on having any side effects and will power on through the whole thing. I will not let my kids see me as anything other than the guy they have known their whole lives. That is the most important thing to me.

This is not going to be pleasant but I can take it. I don't want it to happen to you so take action tomorrow. Call your doctor and schedule a physical if you have not had one in the last year and also request a colonoscopy. Don't let your doctor tell you to wait till you are 50.