Two Weeks of Chemo: Day 9

This is part of an ongoing two-week series. For more info, see this introductory post.

For all the fuss it causes, cancer can have remarkably few symptoms. Though some forms such as acute leukemias and most brain cancers show signs in very early stages, most cancers can grow into enormous tumors and even metastasize before the person even notices that their own body has turned against them. Sure chemo and radiation can cause a whole slew of problems, but the cancer itself is a rather peaceful invader right up to the most advanced stages of the disease.

My initial PET scan, prior to receiving treatment. Everything brightly colored in the chest is tumor. Below you can see my kidneys and bladder collecting the unused radioactive marker.

Though one could see this as proof of cancer's frightening power to kill, I see it as testament to the resilience of our bodies. Multi-celled organisms are the ultimate demonstration of teamwork and the human body is the pinnacle of eukaryotic complexity. Each of trillions of cells overpowers its own primal desire to grow and divide so that the organism as a whole may continue to thrive. But, as with our relationships at the organismal scale, all it takes is one selfish jerk to ruin a beautiful collaboration.

In my case this jerk was a rogue lymphatic cell just above my heart probably several years ago. It grew and divided, creating an army of jerky clones. One of these eventually broke free of the mob and was caught by a lymph node further along the lymph duct system. There it grew and divided, creating another tumor (which you can clearly see near my neck in the above PET scan). For some unknown reason, this tumor triggered my immune system, causing an inflammatory reaction which eventually alerted me to the problem.

Slice from my two-month PET scan. The tracer
appears as yellow in this image.

It's strange to think of how long I carried these tumors, totally unaware of the threat inside me. I'm just glad that my immune system caught it, because by the time I had started treatment, the swelling had receded and the tumor was again invisible to all but the PET scanner. Thankfully, chemo doesn't care how well-behaved the cancer is. By two months into my treatment, the tumors were completely undetectable by imaging.

Back to Day 8.
Ahead to Day 10.