“If you want to make God chuckle, tell him your plans!” This blog will complete the steps it took to arrive at this diagnosis and I will discuss the value of a second opinion.  During my colon cancer in 2005, I never even considered getting a second opinion, because cancer is such a jolt to your senses, you just do whatever your doctor tells you to do. In Part I we left off prior to my Petscan, but by mid-March we still had no indication of cancer.  Honor Health had been ordering all the diagnostic labs and procedures since the onset of symptoms on November 19th.  On March 10th I received a notice in my Portal that results of a CT Scan were available.  We were having dinner at Mom’s and I pulled it up on my phone and started reading it out loud to Mom and Diane. As I was reading these medical terms I knew they were bad but I found myself googling words like; Infiltrative mass, concerning for carcinomatosis, upper quadrant ascites, nodular density concerning for metas...

I do get asked, “how did you discover this cancer?”    Well, the ordeal came to light on Diane’s birthday, November 19, 2021.  We had just arrived in Arizona for the winter at the beginning of November.  We brought down a few boxes of Alaska salmon and halibut and we had a nice dinner at Mom’s with Joan.   Shortly after dinner I felt very full.  Then, my stomach began to ache and it felt firm and distended.  My first thought was food poisoning but no one else felt bad.  I mean, it’s not like I ate a giant plate of Mexican food or some bad food combination.  I really needed to take a dump but didn’t want to do that at Mom’s house so we decided to go home. Being a male, of course I had no intention of going to Emergency.  All I needed to do was go to the bathroom and if necessary, force myself to vomit (which I’ve always done successfully my whole life).   I got home and I could do neither, even as the pain increased.  Diane want...

I’ve never tried to create a blog, in fact I’ve never even looked at someone else’s blog.  So, this project may start off a little slow.  My plan is to post frequently about what’s currently happening.  But, people also want to know when this started, what were my symptoms, and why did it take so long to get this diagnosis.  So I will, from time to time, create posts that will be labeled “Prologue”. That story will begin on November 19th, 2021 and I’ll add stories until I reach today’s date.  April 18th, 2022 Today I finally have a comprehensive diagnosis.  It’s not what we were hoping for but at least we can now proceed with the attack. I have Peritoneal Mesothelioma.  Most people think of Mesothelioma as a lung disease but of the 3000+ yearly cases of mesothelioma only10-15% occur in the abdomen.  The primary cause of mesothelioma is from exposure to asbestos.  Later, I will tell you the story of my time working around raw asbestos.   ...