Welcome Therese and Peter, I found myself reading your story and hoping
that things will turn out alright! Welcome to Mol and you will find a
lot of support from our Mol Angels. You have the right attitude and glad
to have you on board.God Bless, Jeanne
> Therese Ryan wrote:
>
> We are Peter and Therese and we live in Sydney, Australia.
>
> We both saw this mailing list and started reading it a couple of days
> ago. I (Therese have had a bit more time available to read it) and I
> must say that I find it inspirational. Peter, my husband, is 35 years
> of age and in July last year he was diagnosed with Sarcoma - Malignant
> Fibrous Histiocytoma of the skin, very rare.
>
> As a bit of a preamble to all this in about late April, Peter had
> growth come up on his back, it was rather like a large blister. We
> went to our local doctor who referred us to his dermatologist to have
> it checked out. Peter Has been seeing this dermatologist on an annual
> basis for about 5 years now, just as a precaution. However, that
> aside, the dermatologist took a shave biopsy of the growth. He told
> Peter at the time that he did not think it was anything to worry
> about. The result of the pathology came back a bit unusual, so the
> dermatologist asked for further investigation of the results. The
> dermatologist then phoned me tell me what had gone on and that the
> further testing came back as okay. In the next couple of weeks, the
> blister on Peter's back grew again and was quite itchy and inflamed.
> We arranged to see the dermatologist again. He looked at it and said
> "oh that's just scar tissue, here put some of this cream on it" and
> you should be right mate, he then said as we were leaving his rooms
> "now go home and lick your wounds?" nice guy!!!!
>
> Within the space of about six weeks, Peter started to become very
> lethargic, did not want to do anything, he also started to develop a
> lump in the side of his neck. It gradually got bigger and harder.
> Peter also developed a severe cold and a nagging cough. Peter does
> shift work and on one particular day he was due to go in and do a
> night shift, but he just didn't feel up to it. He took himself to a
> different local doctor, as our original doctor was bit too far away
> and he didn't have the energy to take himself that far. On seeing the
> new local doctor, he was very curious about the lump that had
> developed, he wanted to know if Peter had recently had a trauma to the
> skin, as he thought that it was his lymph nodes trying to heal the
> trauma. Peter then went on to tell him about the growth on his back
> and its subsequent removal. The doctor then arranged for Peter to go
> and have an ultrasound done. This came back as either being a cyst or
> a malignant tumour, to determine what it was Peter then had to undergo
> a fine needle aspiration. This came back as being malignant. Our
> local doctor then arranged for Peter to have chest and lung x-rays,
> and thankfully, these were clear. The local doctor then arranged for
> Peter to be referred to a specialist surgeon, but we were not happy
> with him, his bedside manner was all wrong etc etc.
>
> One of Peter's best friend's brother works as a radiotherapy doctor in
> one of the top hospitals in Sydney. He was talking to several of the
> professors about Peter's condition and told them about what had gone
> on. They suggested that Peter should go and see a Professor O'Brien
> who is a head and neck specialist and is considered "the best" in the
> business. We had a tough decision to make as it usually takes about
> six weeks to get into see Prof. O'Brien, however, I'm sure God was on
> our side, due to the other Professors knowing Prof. O'Brien we were
> able to get in the next day. We went and saw Prof O'Brien (a true
> gift from God) and he said, I want you to go home now and pack your
> bags and come back in again this afternoon, as I am admitting you
> straight away. Prof O'Brien performed the operation the next day.
>
> After the operation Peter was waiting anxiously (as you do), to find
> out what went on in the operation. Prof. O'Brien came in to the room
> to see Peter, Peter had a sudden rush, he was thinking to himself what
> is he going to tell me, Peter was scared stiff. Prof O'Brien said
> that "they got it all", Peter sighed a breath of relief. They had
> removed all the lymph nodes on the left hand side of his neck, they
> called it a "radical neck dissection". They also reopened the
> original site on his back and made a much bigger incision to make sure
> that they removed everything from there. The site on his back was the
> primary tumour and the lymph nodes was the secondary stage.
>
> Peter has undergone six weeks of radiotherapy. He has now made quite a
> few changes to his diet, he tries to tackle one day at a time now. We
> were told by Prof. O'Brien that Peter has an 85% chance of it
> returning in the first year. He has had a pet scan back in November
> and they found nothing. Nine moths down the track, and it hasn't
> reappared.
>
> Peter and I are catholics, although we weren't practising catholics at
> the time. Peter and my family are both fairly religious and I am sure
> that it has been through everyones prayers that we have got to this
> stage.
>
> We were both shattered when we first heard those words "malignant
> cancer". We both thought it was the end, our heads were spinning. I
> think when you are in your 30's you seem to thing that you are pretty
> invincible. Well it takes something like this to bring you back down
> to earth with a real thud and a real thud it was. We have two
> beautiful little children, Katherine (4 years old) and Sean (2 years
> old). At the time I could only think of these two kids growing up
> without a father, and even as I am typing this message, it brings
> tears to my eyes. All I ever wanted in life was to have a happy home,
> a home full of love and laughter, for Peter and I to see our children
> grow up, to share life's experiences together, but now I feel that
> there is this cloud of uncertainity hanging above our heads.
>
> But I have gained some inspiration from your messages here especially
> one, where somebody said "all anybody has is today". I guess that is
> true, because nobody know what tomorrow holds.
>
> Peter is well (although I would like to use the term that Robert
> Ulrich uses "cured"). His body is cancer free, Peter is working
> again, enjoying life, however sometimes I am frightened that we will
> slip back into our old ways and get up in the fast lane again.
>
> Peter and I are trying to make the most of every new day that God
> provides us with, as we realise now what a gift that is.
>
> Peter and I pray that someday soon there will be a cure for this
> enormous disease that effects so many different people in so many
> different ways. I have found throughout all this that Peter has
> probably been my rock. He seems to have been the stronger one out of
> us, yet I feel that I should be the stronger one. I love him dearly
> and don't know what I would do if he was to ever go away, we are a
> real team, we do everything together and most importantly he is a
> wonderful husband and father.
>
> You are all in our prayers and thoughts. It is nice just to be able
> to babble on like this, I hope you don't mind.
>
> Regards
> Therese & Peter.
> Sydney, Australia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
