One New Year's Eve, 1997, he started experiencing flu
like symptoms and lower abdominal pain. He made an appointment to see
his doctor. He was told that he might have a hernia and was scheduled
for a pelvic ultrasound for the following week. However, Paul's
condition worsened to the point where he had to be rushed to the
emergency. By this time he was in a lot of pain. They ran tests at the
hospital and the doctors still believed that they were dealing with a
hernia. He returned home, but after a few hours he needed to return to
the hospital. The pain in his abdomen increased and had become
unbearable. After going back and forth from home to the emergency a few
times he was finally admitted. By now his abdomen had become quite
swollen. After a week in the hospital he was diagnosed with
DSRCT, a rare
form of cancer. he was then sent to City of Hope in Duarte.
Paul responded to the early chemotherapy treatments, but did not respond
well to the later ones. Finally, the day came when he was told that they
could not do much more for him. He was given 4 to 6 months to live by
doctors at City of Hope, but they encouraged his parents to seek more
medical opinions. A doctor at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in
New York City, believed that he could help Paul, but the cost was very
prohibitive. His HMO didn't believe that anymore treatment would be
helpful (based upon the prognosis that they received from City of Hope).
Paul has undergone various surgeries beginning with a 10 (ten) hour
surgery last September 17th. During the surgery doctors removed a
cancerous mass in Paul's pelvic area the size of a grapefruit. At one
point in the surgery, doctors had to stop the operation due to the loss
of vast amounts of blood. Doctors proceeded after the excessive bleeding
was stopped.
After the surgery, Paul developed 3 (three) severe bacterial infections.
One infection in paticular attacked his liver. This specific infection
was prognosed as Jondis. Paul was kept in isolation for 5 weeks and
given antibiotics until the infection cleared.
Doctors had difficulty reconnecting his intestines after surgery. Paul
was connected to a Illiosomy bag for 3 and 1/2 months until another
surgery can be scheduled to resolve the problem.
Paul dropped his weight from 160 lbs to 118 lbs after his surgery. He
was put on a high calorie diet in hopes to gain weight.
Paul began Chemotherapy on November 24th. He is taking his Chemo orally,
a 3 (three) week process in which he takes the Chemo twice a day (2 cc's
mixed with juice). Paul commented on the Chemo saying that it tasted
like hard alcohol. The taste doesn't bother Paul though considering that
the oral Chemo has less side-effects and he exclaims happily, "I have
hair now". The oral Chemo travels straight through the stomach where
Paul's tumor presides rather than through his veins like the traditional
Chemotherapy treatments.
|
