Below you'll find the story on why I started Pet Heaven and about my finding out that I had cancer! This site isn't here to discuss cancer but I'd like to tell my story in the hopes that you might be influenced a little in getting regular check-ups!
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Pet Heaven! Why?
I started Pet Heaven because of my love for pets. Unlike people, I don't think I've ever met a pet that I didn't like! And, knowing that there are many more animal lovers out there, and that you can spend hours trying to sort out the many pet sites on the internet, I decided to do something that I would enjoy by building a site that would be easy for anyone to use.
It will always be "a work in progress" as there are so many things that I'd like to add, that I know I will never have the time to get it done. Hopefully, everyone who visits will find something of interest and will continue to visit, knowing that there will always be something new.
I thank 50megs.com for making free web-building sites available as I could not afford to do a site without them. You will notice that I have what are called affiliate links throughout the site. This is for two reasons. To help you find items that you need or can use and to help make a small income for myself. Although I started Pet Heaven as an enjoyable hobby, I now, must also use it to suppliment my income. My story on cancer, below, will explain this.
Please, feel free to enjoy the site without feeling obligated to shop Pet Heavens Gifts or any of the affiliate links! I thank you for spending a little time here and hope you find it useful.
Is There Cancer In Your Future?
I'd like to tell you a little about myself in the hopes that it might be of help to some of you.
To begin, I have been diagnosed with cancer. If the Drs. had paid a little attention to me many months ago, it may never have reached the stage it's at now. Maybe, by my telling the story here, it may help a few of you recognize early symtoms.
At the start, I started getting a pain in my right hip. It didn't hurt unless I walked a distance. Then it would start aching enough that I was limping, but it would go away once I quit walking. The pain was intense enough that after a month or so, I asked my Dr. about it. She, as I did, thought my hip joint might be getting bad, so had it x-rayed. Nothing showed in the x-ray so she decided to let it go to see if it would continue to give me problems.
After a month or two, the pain quite coming in my hip, but I started having a constant pain in the front part of my leg between the knee and the hip. At first, this pain was not that bad. I'd take a couple, over-the-counter, pain pills and it would ease up. It quickly got to the point that I was taking these pain pills every four hours, and they weren't taking the pain away. The best way that I can discribe this pain is that it was as if I had a constant, very intense, charley horse in that muscle between the knee and hip!
Now, mind you I had been keeping my Dr. informed as to the progression of this pain, but I really feel that she believed that I was exagerating just how bad it was because she was not pressing me to check it out any further. She did however, finally prescribe a combination pain pill (hydrocodone/acetaminophen) saying that it should control the pain!
After a week of taking this pain pill, I called her to tell her that something had to be done! By this time, the pain had me limping all the time, I could only climb stairs by going one step at a time and had to lift my right leg to raise it for getting in the car! She finally set me up an appointment to have my muscles and nerves checked.
After doing the muscle and nerve test, that Dr. told me that it appeared that my nerves in my pelvic area were being pinched somehow. He recommended to my regular Dr. that I have an MRI.
Well, the MRI showed a growth in my right side but not much else, so it was recommended that I have a CT scan. From the CT scan, they determined that it was a four inch growth in my right pelvic area. They said that they were 90% sure it was cancer but would have to do a CT assisted needle biopsy to be positive. The needle byopsy came back negative, but the Drs. claimed that they must have gotten into a dead spot on the growth because they were still pretty sure it was cancerous. By this time, I was seeing half a dozen different doctors!
Now, I was told that I would need to have a PET scan because it would "light up" the growth if it were cancer! Well, according to them, it lit up the growth, so now they need to cut me open to get a bigger sample to tell them which type of cancer it is!
Two surgeons are colaborating on this "cutting me open" thing right now. The nurosurgeon says that if it's lymphoma, they would close me back up and treat with Kemo. If it was Carsanoma, they would take out as much of it as they could, and I would end up with a numb spot in my leg so would need therapy. The Uroligy surgeon says that if it's Carsanoma, I probably won't be able to walk after the surgery. They have a board of surgeons meeting at the University Hospital today, and are planning on running my case in front of the board to get thier opinions. Can't say I'm too happy either way!
I'll add to this story as things happen in order to keep you all on your toes when it comes to getting ailments taken care of! I think a big point here is that you need to insist to your Dr. that aches and pains need to be checked out right away! And believe me, sometimes they need some proding to get it done!
12/24/05
Well it's been a few months since I wrote everything above. And, not a whole lot has changed! I've had a couple more MRIs, another CT guided biopsy and I don't think I can even remember everything! The board of surgens decided that the growth couldn't be removed because of the nerves and blood vessals being intwined in it. From one of the core biopsys, they said it didn't show it to be cancerous but they weren't convinced yet. I've got to have another MRI in Feb. to see if it's grown any! If not, they'll leave it alone for a while. If it has, they say maybe we can still try Chemo or Radiation to try to shrink it. In the meantime I don't know whats going on.
