Medical after cancer

Kev,
Thanks for the best wishes....

Sure. It was a fairly rare cancer called MFH .. Malignant Fibrous
Histiocytoma. Only about 5000 cases in the US every year. Fortunately my
HMO had a doc that saw a relatively large number of cases of this junk and
specialized in its treatment. I was at the right place at the right time,
but had a bad cancer. That special doc is no longer at my HMO, but to his
credit, is now teaching at UCSF in San Francisco. I'm glad he is giving his
knowledge to the next generation of physicians.

After losing 50 pounds on the chemo, he said....."it is time to operate".
All went well. But I did lose a few extra pounds of flesh (tumor) on my
leg. The radiation killed half of my femur, but a set of interlocking
titanium-niobium rods supports it and I still ride a bicycle
today......although with much more care. And of course I have my standard
3rd class medical back.... and right now I'm taking a break from studying
for an Instrument Ground quiz we are having in class this evening.

Yes I was lucky.... no metatastic sites...or they were so small that the
chemo got them..and now that is fairly sure as I'm way down on the right
side of the re-occurrence bell curve. In my case it peaks at 18 months.

I just hope that Chas is fortunate to find a great medical team.... and
assuming he is listening... works with them....and asks lots of questions.
My doc kept me in on all the decisions. At one point he told me...."it is
50-50....what way do you want to go?" That gives you POWER.....It really
made me feel like I was taking hold of the horns of this monster and
winning..... Although at the time it was frightening. As a pilot, you can
understand the technical stuff. I even mapped radiation on the rest of my
body, by taping dosimeters under my Tshirt. (I had access to small
thermoluminescent dosimeters and a way of reading them). Funny... after my
last radiation treatment, the rad doc said, "Hey.....you know about this
stuff, you should have brought in some dosimeters. We would have let you
use them." I about choked.....because that is exactly what I had done. I
should have been more trusting and just asked. But the dose outside the
tumor area was just as he had predicted.... Those docs and techs really
know their high tech radiation machines. (thank you Varian and Siemens)

Chas..... we are so fortunate! Many of our illnesses would have been fatal
50 years ago. Today, the opposite is the norm. I hope your medical team
works as well as mine did. In any case, I for one, have you and Jim and all
folks who fight these battles in my thoughts every day.

Best Wishes,
John Severyn


"Kev" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 27, 1:11 am, "J. Severyn" wrote:
Chas,
I will not make any comments on your particular situation, the medical
folks
have those answers.

But almost 9 years ago I started a fight with a particularly mean type of
cancer. After chemo, surgery, radiation and a metal implant to save my
femur from breaking at a later date, my orthopedic oncologist wrote a
letter
to the FAA saying he could see no reason to keep me from flying. (this
was
about 6 months after chemo/ 4 months after surgery/ 3 months after chemo/
1
month after the metal implant).

John (and Jim) thanks for your detailed experiences. John, can I ask
what type of cancer? One thing that seems important to the FAA is
the type, and whether it's spread or not.

Here's a short example list for AOPA members:

http://www.aopa.org/members/pic/medi...cation/cancer/

It claims, for example, that with colon cancer it might only take six
months, whereas with some lung cancers, it could take five years.

Stay indication free!
Regards, Kev