Drew Wohl

Four years ago today was my first visit to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital.  The pathology report was back.  It was cancer.  I went through a battery of tests.  And was scheduled for surgery. What I was thinking, and my first first on this blog a year ago today: “What are you in for?” That phrase kept on rolling around in my head.  I was scared I was periodically mouthing the phrase so people would clearly see what I was thinking.  Or, worse, actually saying it out loud. The room was crowded, but quiet.  There was just an occasional brief sound of a conversation.  Each person had the same look.  Neither race, gender nor religion made a difference.  I could see pretty much every type of person as I looked around.  We were all one and the same – in for the same thing and all waiting for the sentence. But I kept to myself.   I never did ask anyone  “What are you in for?”  I already knew the answer.

4 years and one week ago I met with a surgeon to do a biopsy.  At the time he said there were often false positives on scans and that he will often find nothing when doing the biopsy. Not a pretty thing to look at He further qualified things by saying  if it was cancer, it looked limited and probably no chemotherapy.  I was not really buying it by this point.  Four years ago today, I had the biopsy.  The first words I heard was I needed to call a surgeon immediately - even before my wife and I left the parking lot.  No pathology report yet run, obviously, but it was moving closer to being official. "A frond-like/villous, fungating, ulcerating non-obstructing mass was found....This was biopsied with a cold forceps for histology.  Injection(tattooing) chromoscopy with India Ink was performed." On the good news side of things, I got my first tattoos.  I probably would never have otherwise gotten one.  I like them, but I know my personality, the ...

Today is the day I actually read the report saying "cancer" right before heading to the funeral for my friend who passed away from breast cancer.  Was very surreal.    I knew my doctor was kind of passing things off but saying "he is not an expert." And today I marked the four years it with the following:

I went back to get the scan that I was not able to do the day before due to the broken CT machine.  I got the scan then picked up the report and CD of the scan from the day before.  It was all clear.  Nothing indicating cancer.  I went home relieved and planned to call my brother to let him know. But before I called him, I jumped in the shower.  I had to go to a wake for a friend of mine who had breast cancer.  A wonderful person who dealt with it for years.  I got out of the showered, put on my suit, then checked my phone. "This is Dr ___, call me the moment you get this message, it is urgent."  Not the words you want to hear.  I called and waited for a return call.  I answered and he started with "You are young and in otherwise good health..."  I asked him, "Cancer?"  He said he could not say for sure since he was not an expert.  Playing it close to the vest.  I picked up the report the next day before heading to th...

Four years ago today I went for a bone scan and CT scan in what I thought was over medicine and concern, though pain had started right after scan in late December and stopped two days before this scan. The CT machine was broken so that scan was postponed until the next day. And so the creeping to finding out what was going on continued. . Today I thought my grand plan would be watching the  @NFL  playoffs with friends, but had been feeling less than great since  #chemotherapy  last Monday. Today I thought I was okay. So told friends I was going to run for  #triathlontraining  then get together. Two minutes later felt bad and slept for an hour. Felt good and told people I was going to run and let’s get together. Then going upstairs to get running clothes requires another 45 minute rest/nap .. Finally got it going and did a 2 mile run then a 1.5 mile semi-run/walk/jog. 5K the hard way. Then watched some football with friends. Overall the day worked out well....

The waiting for the results of the first scan is over.  And my totally untrained eyeballing of the scan itself was pretty much on point.  No real change in most of the tumors, though some of them did grow a bit.  Obviously not the optimal result that I was looking for, but it seems some are being controlled. Additionally the of the tumors show "cavitation," which basically indicates some kind of activity, including the possibility that the tumor is dying.  It looks like a little black circle in the middle of the tumor.  The green arrow on the following image shows where one example is. There are also indications that the tumor in my back and spine is being reduced.  Which is a good thing.  But the big question is what is going on?   Check out the spot on the right side (looking at this image) with the red arrow pointed down.  That one is a monster. And still not a clear cut answer.  I asked specifically as to whether or not the cavi...

Had a scan today at Memorial Sloan Kettering.  It is the first scan that I have had since going back on chemotherapy.  I have had five cycles of FOLFORI, of which four were on standard b-weekly schedule after the first treatment which made me violently ill. Your mind plays games with you. I was pretty certain that something seemed off when I was in the scan today.  That there seemed to be a lot longer breaks between sliding into the machine, being told to hold my breath, then breathe.   Got the CD of the scan like I always do.  I am far from even being borderline competent on reading these things, but there is a location or two that I know.  Overall it looks like there was not a readily visible improvement, though I think a couple of places may have shrunk a small amount.  But the overall impression is there is a ton of stuff still in there about the same size.  I was hoping it would be clearly clear. These are three images from three scans....

I went for a run today to start the New Year.  Was going to blog about that.  What the year will bring.  My immediate future with a scan to see if the chemotherapy was working. Then I saw the news about Tyler Trent. I hate cancer.  When I briefly fool myself about it, I am reminded what it is about.