Not Much New, So I Tell the Story of Sadie Cohen

It has been a while since I posted to this blog. That is because there has not been much change. I did visit Dr. Flam on November 9. My labs were unchanged, and my chest X-ray showed little change. because of continuing cough and shortness of breath, he ordered a CT scan of my chest. That was done on Nov 10. I looked at the images but do not have them to post. I would describe the findings using a term I coined. "Mixed Change". That is, somewhat better in the right upper lung annd somewhat worse in the right lower lung and the same on the left. No change was seen in my posterior mediastinum, the site of the only known tumor, which I hope is totally inactive. No liver metastases are seen. I will get the full report when I see Dr. Flam on Wednesday. I still have shortness of breath and a cough, The cough responds well to Hydrocodone/homatropine cough syrop. It allows me to dictate reports with little interruptions for a coughing break.  Drug Info 
This is a narcotic with potential for addiction. Apparently the Homatropine is added to stop people from taking too much at a time. It also helps me sleep all night as the homatropine prevents bladder spasm. Constipation is a side effect but so far has not been too much of a problem. My other symptoms are stable. Dry mouth, arm and leg numbness and hearing loss have not changed and are not too debilitating.
I have been working half days at Kaiser and even worked a full day at Sierra Imaging. 
I was taking Vitamin B Complex, tablets from CVS. On my CT scan, I could see the tablets intact in my colon. Needless to say, they could not be very effective in treating peripheral neuropathy.
We have an addition to the family, sort of. Our oldest granddaughter Eva has a baby (half) brother born yesterday to her mother and stepfather. 


Since I have no more news, I will tell the story of a patient from my internship who I will call Sadie Cohen. 
Sadie was an elderly Jewish diabetic being treated for an ulcer in her foot, with the hope of preventing an amputation. She had Alzheimer's disease and was in pain She would lie in bed constantly moaning oy-oy-oy-oy-oy as only an old Jewish lady could. It was my job to keep her IV running and she would be constantly pulling at it until she dislodged it. There were no ports or PICC lines back then. They were calling me at all times to restart the IV. When I would stick her with the needle, you would hear "oy-oy-oy-oy-GEVALT-GEVALT-GEVALT! Because of this, I invented the decoy IV, some tubing taped to the arm above the real IV. When she pulled this off, the nurse could replace it.
One day I was called to see her because she was in a coma. I checked the IV fluids and there was an error in pharmacy. Too much insulin had been added to the IV. I gave her an injection of Glucose, and a few seconds after I gave the injection, I heard "oy-oy-oy-oy-oy". I knew she was back to normal. (for her).

Some Random Observations About MCC and Me

This is my 100th post.


Here is a graph showing survival of patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma by stage at the time of diagnosis.

Relative survival for 2,856 Merkel cell carcinoma patients by stage according to the 2009 AJCC staging system. Percent relative survival was calculated for cases in the National Cancer Database using age- and sex-matched control data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stages are as indicated in the figure except for Stage IIIA which could not be derived using this dataset. The curve marked “IIIA*” represents pathologically node positive patients, with the clinical node status unknown or negative. It is anticipated that true Stage IIIA patients (clinical node status negative) have better survival than the line marked with “IIIA*.” Total number of patients was 2,856, and individual substages were as follows: IA = 266, IB = 754, IIA = 124, IIB = 414, IIC = 84, IIIA* = 794, IIIB = 143, IV = 277.  From AJCC Staging Manual 2009.

This refers to stage  at the time of initial diagnosis. I was stage IIB at the time of diagnosis, but I would classify myself as Stage IV diagnosed on November 24, 2010, about 11 months ago. If I can survive another 13 months, I will fall into that 20% who survive long term. Those who survive 2 years almost all are long term survivors.
These patients who survive stage IV undoubtedly have had chemotherapy, so I submit my thesis that, in spite of what Dr. Nghiem says, chemotherapy can prolong survival in Merkel Cell carcinoma.




Al Davis, famed and notorious owner of the Oakland (and Los Angeles) Raiders died last week. I have seen his death certificate on the internet. He supposedly died of heart disease and he had a history of cardiomyopathy. He supposedly died of ventricular fibrillation. He also had Merkel Cell Carcinoma, and had undergone a procedure for dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) a few days before his death. I submit that the full story has not been told. I suspect he died of complications of Merkel Cell Carcinoma.


Bridge. The Fresno Sectional Bridge Tournament was held last week. I played in all 8 sessions, and for the first time since I came to Fresno in 1976, I won the Presidents Trophy for winning the most masterpoints. Thanks to my partners, Bert Rettner and Mark Stern.


So how am I doing? I feel pretty good these days, but my shortness of breath has not improved. The worst symptom of this is inability to speak very long without coughing. This bothers me most when working, as I spend all the time dictating reports into Dragon 10 Medical. The software does a good job of ignoring my coughing. I am using cough drops and taking cough syrup at night, and have few symptoms when not speaking.
My neuropathy has not changed.
I will see Dr. Flam next Tuesday and will discuss  possible treatment with corticosteroids.