Mark Everett Kelly celebrated his 29th year since his diagnosis of Stage IV Rhabdomyosarcoma on December 12, 1990.
The week before Christmas in 1990, I spent receiving my very first dose of chemotherapy. My doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering put me on an experimental protocol of treatment for Rhabdomyosarcoma. The protocol called for five days of treatment during the first cycle.
One of the reasons I decided to go into detail of my first treatment is because hospitals today still use the same types of chemotherapy they used on me almost 30 years ago. They include Ifosfamide, etoposide, Cytoxan, doxorubicin/adriamycin and vincristine.
The fact that these drugs are still so commonly used, despite knowing the long-term side effects they will cause, greatly disturbs me. Please look at this link to discover the over 40 diseases/conditions that will eventually replace cancer. Despite "beating" the disease, patients will forever be dealing with long-term issues that will permanently change their quality of life.
WAS SURGERY A CHOICE INSTEAD OF CHEMOTHERAPY?
If I wanted to deal with a much more deadly, aggressive form of Rhabdomyosarcoma a few months down the line, then no, it wasn’t a choice. The tumor was also a little too large to remove all at once. The hope was that chemotherapy would shrink it enough to be removed before beginning bone-marrow transplant.
Below is an explanation from the same website that lists the diseases I referred to in my previous paragraph.
"Only about 15-20% of patients will have visible spreading (metastasis) of Rhabdomyosarcoma, but all patients are considered to have micrometastatic spread (too small for detection by radiologic tests). For this reason, chemotherapy should be used to treat all patients with RMS to eliminate micrometastatic tumor cells and decrease the likelihood of recurrence. Many different types of chemotherapy are used, and usually in combination. The specific combination selected depends on cell type, primary tumor location, and extent of the disease."
Micrometastatic cancer cells hide and are undetectable on most diagnostic tests such as an MRI, Bone Scan and Cat Scan. My oncologist, Dr. Ghavimi, who designed my protocol, said if I didn’t complete the entire protocol, then I might as well shoot a bullet through my skull.
SIDE EFFECTS FROM THE FIRST WEEK OF TREATMENT
I work up from surgery on December 17, groggy, and in pain from the lymph nodes they surgically removed from my right groin. They also inserted a broviac which had running through it my first dose of chemotherapy. Later that evening, I vomited about 20 times, which was a common occurrence for the remainder of the week.
Despite all these horrible side effects, there was one very positive result. My first round of treatment ended at midnight on December 23/24. When my doctor examined before sending me home for Christmas, he discovered my tumor had shrunk about 50 percent from the start of treatment on Monday.
Please make sure you read my next blog entry next week.
MY SCARS TELL A STORY
If you wish to purchase a copy, please email Mark at CKMagicSports@gmail.com. The publisher continues to charge too much, and the purpose of the book was so others could be inspired by it, not overpay. As Mark puts it, "I didn't write "War & Peace."
Click on logo to view “The Morning Boys” on Tuesday & Friday, 8-11 AM.
I no longer am accepting any earnings from the publisher due to this unfortunate decision by Dorrance. Whatever copies I have left, I will send it to whoever wants one.
BACK ON SPORTS RADIO
I now do a sports radio show every Tuesday and Friday from 8-11 AM EST. You can find all our shows, live and via podcast, here.
WHERE TO FIND ME