Ray’s Blog

There is hope for curing cancer if everyone involved would band together and work as one. As it is, there are some organizations that take on all cancers but there are also groups that focus on specific types at the expense of all others. Of course they sprung up out of feelings of being marginalized and ignored which is understandable but we should not be fighting amongst ourselves. What we have now is competition for funding and messaging which is distorting where our priorities really lie and divides resources which could be better focused and coordinated. I’m hoping for a different message from the Stand Up To Cancer campaign. To understand this better, let’s look at how people are dying from cancer. more…

Colonoscopy: I had one, it was easy, what’s the big deal? It is a medical procedure performed by a doctor to determine if you have a disease. Period. Just like an alien abduction, I don’t remember it and afterwords couldn’t even feel that anything was done. I was thinking that I could understand the aversion better if we weren’t talking about full-grown, 40-plus-year-old adults, but rather children, as they may find it hard to separate a cancer that effects part of the digestive tract from “icky poo poo.” But for some reason, that elementary schoolyard mentality never goes away for most people and they just can’t get past it. There’s also something prudish about it. Is the anus so sacred that it cannot be desecrated by having something move into it instead of moved out of it? Shit no! more…

So another question is why did I get colon cancer. Genetic predisposition or not, why did I get it? Or, how did it happen? Well, I would say that it was because I wasn’t screened. My advice to everyone is to GET SCREENED NOW before it is too late for you as it almost was for me! Standard screening doesn’t start until you turn 50 if you are considered of average risk. So if you are 50 or over and you haven’t been screened, what are you waiting for? Death?! If you are under 50, like me, YOU (not your doctor or anyone else) need to find a way to get yourself screened - now.

Screening is done on those who appear to be healthy. You do not have to be sick to be screened. It is a preventative measure. Colon caner is almost 100% preventable if you are screened. By the time you show symptoms it’s too late, already you have it. more…

One of the biggest questions on any cancer patient’s mind is “what are the chances I’m going to beat this thing? How have others done?” Well, let me be the first to say that you need to take any statistics you see with a grain of salt and analyze them with a critical mind. And even though statistics should only be used as a guide, and everyone is an individual, and only your doctor can give you the best advice about your prognosis, fuck it, let’s look at some numbers anyway, shall we? more…

My cancer was staged as IIIc (T3/N2/M0). Let’s get some perspective and see where that falls in the standard tumors/nodes/metastases (TMN) system of staging: more…

What a day! It was interesting being at Sloan-Kettering. Their lobby is set up like an Asian meditation space complete with waterfall, flat metal cut-out sculpture on the wall, and boxed lattice walls. But all the while Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Meredith Vieira cascaded out of on indentation in the wall with substantially less calm than the waterfall. Damn, I knew we were still in America! But what really struck me was that everyone there who was a patient had cancer, just like me. more…

My grandest adventure yet since my surgery will be my trip to NYC tomorrow. Not that I’ve decided to just take off and do some sightseeing, no, this trip is to yet another doctor. Sloan-Kettering is my destination but since we are all (Christina, Barbara, and I) making the long journey down, no sense squandering our good fortunes and ignoring what New York has to offer. more…

My sleep schedule is still not regular which I am told it needs to be so my chemo is easier. I’m not sure exactly what they mean but I can tell you that I took a 3-hour nap today which was nearly impossible to get up from. I had to will myself awake. This is what chemo may be like sometimes. Using sheer will to move my body. more…

I still have a long road ahead and I just need to wait for it all to get started. This coming Tuesday, I’ll be in New York at Sloan Kettering getting a second opinion on my diagnosis and treatment plan. A very big thank you goes out to Cary for setting this up for me. Cary will even be there on the phone! Hopefully they will confirm what my doctors have already said which is good news overall. Otherwise who knows what will happen. more…

I’ve been incredibly active today with internet technology which I will mostly bore my colleagues in College Relations with but there is one finding everyone should appreciate. After resurrecting this blog, it’s been a lot of fun finding ways to have it function as I believe it should and to trick it out. Of course this is an ongoing process that I’ll never have enough time for (sigh). Oh, that thing you’d all be interested in. Right. more…