Hi everybody,
I had just accidentally stumbled onto your forum while doing
research for my father's chronic constipation. I've read some of
your stories, or should I say tried to read them through my tears.
My father, 75 years old, has a recurrence of his prostate cancer and
was officially diagnosed with Mesothelioma in his left lung on March
1, 2007. His last psa reading on his prostate was 536 in Jan.,
2007. I'm not sure what stage the Meso is at..the Dr. didn't say
and I didn't know enough to ask, and he didn't mention how long he
had to live. He had worked for US Steel for 30 years and was
exposed to asbestos in their boiler rooms.
It all started about 6 months ago. He weighed 175 lbs. then. He
was having constant shortness of breath so he went to his PCP who
had sent him directly to the Emergency Room where they eventually
proceeded to remove about 2 litres of a reddish fluid from his
pleura. There was more in there, but my Dad couldn't stand the
pain. He was then scheduled to have a pleuracoscopy to see why the
fluid was continuing to build up. They said it would be a 3-4 day
stay in the hospital, it turned out to be 11 days. The bottom part
of the left lung was hardened and 1 litre of congealed fluid was
removed. They found no trace of cancer, but after the surgery, they
did a needle biopsy in the upper part of the lung which confirmed
that he had the Mesothelioma. They had sent him home with Darvocet
for his pain, which he is still on today.
I also want to mention that prior to this surgery, he had begun to
lose vision in his left eye. He now has no vision in that eye, and
they can't figure out why. He's been through every test imaginable
including a temporal artery biopsy. The same day, after the
pleuracoscopy, that blind eye has now "wandered off" to the left.
His eye Dr. said it might be Sixth Nerve Palsy...
View this and other personal stories in the discussion forum
