Postby V8 Boys » September 29th, 2013, 11:55 pm
In October 2011, my wife and I were sitting across from each other, and she looked at my neck, and said "what's that bump there?".
That painless, insignificant little bump, got bigger as the weeks passed, from the size of a dove's egg, to the size of a small child's fist.
It was just a month later that I felt that we should go see a doctor....we went to a good friend in Couva, and when he saw the lump...he went "what's that?" It had no color, and he called in another doc, who also went: "what is that?"....they begin to look intently at it, almost not wanting to touch it....and they called in a specialists who said: "I think you should go get an ultra-sound, that may be a hematoma" (blood clot)
The ultra sound revealed nothing and the doctors said it is probably a hematoma caused by me hitting myself...3 weeks later, it got bigger, then the pains I was living with...started to intensify.
( I would later make the connection between the pain I was getting in my lower back for years...to the diagnosis I would soon receive)
After another week, one of the best Hematologists in the Caribbean Dr Waveney Charles, saw me and said I was over doing it, and thought it was also a hematoma...but sent me to do a CT Scan....
I was fortunate to get the scan in a week, and went home by my mom to wait for the report to be read to us over the phone.
The hours, seemed like days. At 3.30pm, my wife called, and my mom answered...I stood behind her watching, listening....
Her head went down, then she looked up into the ceiling: "my God Jehovah" was all I heard... She turned to me and I hugged her, and she started to cry..."don't worry son, we'll get thru this, Jehovah will get us thru this"
The word CANCER would never sound the same again. (I will explain this later) The "lump" in my neck wasn't the only one...I had 8...in my lower back, near my kidneys and my aortic valve, pelvic area and abdomen.
The time it took for my wife to tell my mom the news was 8 seconds and in those 8seconds, my entire life changed. I will never be able to explain the emotions we all felt that day, or the drive I took to pick up my wife from work....emptiness I guess, might be the right words...
The next two weeks took us to several Doctors, each one with his idea for treatment.
It was decided to remove the lump in my neck, so as to determine what type of cancer it was and at what stage it was.
Operating on me up to that time was always a no no...because I was born with a rare blood disorder that causes me to bleed uncontrollably if cut, or in this case operated on. We agonising whether to try a "fine-needle aspiration" to extract a sample of the lump in my neck, but it was decided it would be more risky than actually removing the lump altogether.
Dr Capildeo said that the needle would go into the lump fine, but on coming out....the pressure of the blood FOLLOWING the needle out of the hole, would cause a "volcano" effect, and that the hole would close up, causing me to bleed internally.
Enter the 3 men...Doctors..who have saved me, thus far...Dr Malcolm Samuel -kidney transplant surgeon, Dr Kavi Capildeo - Hematologist/Oncologist and Dr Hess Benjamin...my attending Doctor at NRC (National Radiotherapy Center).
to be continued tonight
Last edited by
V8 Boys on October 1st, 2013, 9:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
