Don, I am the pig man as well as the bacon King. I thought you knew that.

Keep in mind, my bizarre journey into cancer world was very unique and because I had an attempt to remove some nodes in a room that wasn't equipped for the type of surgery needed, a node was just poked back in and a piece sent for pathology. Because of this, I had some extensive broad swipe XMRT because of concern for micro mets. In addition, I had lost almost 40% of my body weight yet no new mask was made. I'm confident I was shuffled around when I became the second patient in a new radiation center and just the fact I had to wait all morning for them to get ready for me made me nervous at the time. Looking back, they should have made a new mask at the very least. I was about the last patient my RO had before he retired, too, although he was known as the best in Dallas. I met with an RO once after treatment until 4 years out when I started experiencing fasciculations extensively in the back and neck. When my breathing started getting difficult, I was told I needed to try harder to breathe. When I went from 211 down to 115, I was told to eat more. I was consuming about 3,000-4,000 calories a day at the time. Then complete parastolsis of the digestive tract and inability to swallow at all. These lasted over 100 days. I had somewhere around 50-60% muscle loss! depending on who I asked! but it was extensive nonetheless. I was unable to even sit up because there were no muscles in the rear or back. It was classic lower motor neuron disease with massive cognitive decline.

Given all that, I never read anything about radiation issues. I didn't read anything about cancer, either. My attitude is why would I fill the mind with fear and hope I'm adequately armed should one of many possibilities come to fruition? Everything I have delved into is because it is something I am chasing after about a dozen doctors threw their arms up, declared me a dead man walking and stuffed me into hospice care. Everything for 2 years has been self-care and telling the docs what needs to be done as far as diagnostics or blood work.

I would suggest you not chase this radiation stuff either. If I shared with you my last three weeks, I believe you might understand better. If I shared my last 5-6 years, you would run for the hills. There's nothing in my sights right now as far as curative care. There hasn't been for the past 6 years. I've learned to pick up a "medical twang" in my dialect of hmmmmm. I have an excellent relationship with all the docs I work with now and we openly discuss this in terms of me but more importantly, in terms of how can this be caught earlier and how can it be treated, given there are many possibilities of how it presents and how it should be treated.

If you still just want to read things, I can direct you to many studies. I try to review all studies world wide and research the protocols to find similar things here in the states and then research our available drugs/treatment in hopes of finding something that can squeak out some time for me. I'm not even sure why I'm doing that these days as my only hope for 5-6 years was stem cell treatment and frankly, I'm not seeing anything promising on this front.

So, guinea pig or not, I trudge on. The things I have thrown at it would surprise and maybe shock some. I think I am more like a kewpie doll looking for a new collector.