The C-Word

Hello Nachtigal's:

Sorry to have been out of touch. A new adventure called colon cancer has occupied me since late June. I certainly never anticipated venturing on this path and it has at times been very rough on me physically and yet laden with blessings. I relay this information in the hope that all of you nearing 50 will get your colonoscopies promptly.

Evidently I should have had one at age 42-44, when my tumor would have been just a polyp. Two different oncologists have told me that I must have an underlying genetic tendency for my body to have manifested this at my current age of 52. Neither of my folks can think of any family members who succumbed to the disease, although when my dad was out visiting recently he said that Uncle Jim thought that possibly their Grandpa and Grandma Sabin died of some form of cancer. Back then I'm sure people just didn't know what was actually making them sick.

In an effort to spare you the gory details I will just say that I'm glad that the six weeks of combined radiation and chemotherapy I finished on October 6 is behind me. My mom had to (once again...this is my third abdominal surgery in four years) came out to take care of me once I got really sick in September. I have a port implanted in my chest that expedites the delivery of chemo. In the first phase I wore a pump on my waist that delivered the chemo drug 5FU (appropriate acronym) into my veins 24/7. My world-class medical team at The Nevada Cancer Institute gave me a glorious respite from treatment after finishing the first course. My body recovered quickly (no doubt due to that strong prairie stock heritage). I began my latest course of chemo a week ago today. I get a two-hour infusion of two chemo drugs Oxaliplatin and Leucovorin on Monday and then they saddle me with the pump (loaded with 5FU) and send me home. I return on Wednesday for pump removal. Then it seems I get really sick (nausea can mostly be controlled by medication) and feel like I've been hit by a truck for 2 1/2 days. By Sunday I was mostly recovered. I am currently in a blessed week free of treatment. Next Monday I will return to the Nevada Cancer Institute to do it all again (I should finish the 11 treatments by the first week in April).

My brother Jerry is a survivor of non-Hodgkins lymphoma and he is cancer-free now for a few years. Jerry was very private and stoic about his treatment and recovery. He says he got tired of talking about being sick. He once mused that he may have been exposed to toxic chemicals when he and Dad ventured over to Molokai to work on some test plots. I don't suppose we will ever know what exactly caused our cancers. Envirotoxins are certainly a likely possibility.

I understand that there is a DNA test just created that will allow everyone (for $399) to examine their DNA along with all the genetic tendencies of likes and dislikes, allergies and aversions and propensity to illness. It would be interesting to see what the Nachtigal DNA dictates.

The very good news is that my doctors have given me an 85% chance of full recovery with no reocurrence of the colon cancer, and as someone who lives in the gambling mecca of the world I will gladly take those odds.

I know that nobody likes to hear about the C-word so thanks for indulging me in reading my little story. Life is precious every day. I can cry at the drop of a hat now because my heart overflows and spills out through my eyes when I think about how much I love my precious Dad and Mom and how blessed I am in so many ways.

Cherish every day.

Love, Nancy