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这是一个真实故事，主人公目前还活跃在网络论坛中，在2022年01月15日分享自己2008年患癌历程，主人公来自美国，叫莉莉安娜。
My story begins in September 2008 with, what I refer to as, dizzy spells and a heightened sensitivity to bright lights. Something just didn't feel right. Upon visiting my family doctor, he ordered blood work and for me to wear a holter monitor as he thought it may be my heart. I was 43 years old and other than having low blood pressure, I was in good health. I ate a healthy diet, walked regularly and was not overweight. I didn't smoke nor did I drink excessively. 我的故事始于 2008 年 9 月，当时眩晕、对强光很敏感，感觉有些不对劲。在拜访家庭医生时，他建议进行血液检查，并做一下心电图，他认为这可能是我的心脏出问题了。当年我43 岁，除了低血压外，身体很好，饮食健康，经常走路，也没有超重。不吸烟，不酗酒。
Spacer Fast forward to October 2nd. I woke up at my usual time, 6:30 a.m., went about my routine, got the kids up, made breakfasts, lunches, etc. feeling fine to this point. At about 8:00 a.m., I felt dizzy again and began banging into door frames and tripping as I walked from the carpet onto the hardwood floors. My daughter, 11 years old, was talking to me and I couldn't understand what she was saying. I didn't know where I was for about 30 seconds. I started to panic and I was sweating. I had to get my daughter to the bus stop and figure out what was going on. I came home from the bus stop shaking and afraid. My left side went all tingly. I thought I was having a stroke.
时间来到10 月 2 日。如往常一样6 点 30 起床，开始我的日常生活，叫孩子们起床、做早餐等。早上 8:00 左右，我再次感到头晕，当我从地毯走到硬木地板上时，我开始撞到门框并绊倒，11 岁的女儿跟我说话，我却听不懂她在说什么。我大脑完全无意识，大约 30 秒。我开始恐慌，汗流浃背。我把女儿带到公共汽车站，然后从公交车站回到家，整个过程浑身发抖，害怕。我左侧刺痛。以为中风了。
Spacer I called my husband at work and told him I needed to go to emergency as I thought I was having a stroke. He immediately rushed home and took me to the hospital where I was taken for an ECG right away. They told me I had not had a stroke, there was nothing wrong with my heart and were getting set to send me home, thinking I may just have had a fainting spell. My husband went outside of the hospital to call our family doctor at which point he bumped into our doctor coming out of a different door of the hospital. He came in and spoke with the doctor in Emergency and suggested they do some further tests and take a look at my head. I was sent for a CT scan and not long after, the doctor and nurse came in and dealt us the news. YOU HAVE A 3cm TUMOUR IN YOUR BRAIN. The tumour was located close to the surface in the left parietal region, just above my ear. We were told to go directly and immediately to Trillium Hospital (the regional neurological centre), room 211, climb into the bed and wait for the Neurosurgeon to come and see me. Shocked and dazed, we first went and picked up our children, at high school and elementary school, told them what was happening, had a group cry, dropped them off at home and then went to Trillium. Sure enough, room 211 had clean sheets on the bed and was waiting for me just like I had been told. I had surgery 5 days later on October 7th. The surgeon was able to remove only about 25% of the growth as the tumour mimicked the appearance of the brain and in places he was unable to differentiate between the tumour and healthy brain tissue. While we were obviously distressed by this, the surgeon told us to take heart because in these types of cases, surgery is not the primary determinant of the final outcome. After a week in hospital I was sent home to recover and wait the results of the biopsy. I was ultimately diagnosed with an ANAPLASTIC ASTROCYTOMA Grade 3, and was referred to the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton Ontario Canada, for further treatment. Especially in the early days, it was sometimes very disheartening, especially as we tried to learn more about this disease. In particular, while the internet can be a tremendous source of information, it can also contain information that may be misleading. One of the scarier things to read about was the statistics, which can seem very grim. I made a conscious decision not to even think about that, and I encourage anyone going through this to do the same, because we are not statistics. Every individual person's situation is unique and I was not going to let statistics lessen my resolve or hope. My initial assessment at the cancer centre was on October 30th. Both my radiation oncologist and the medical oncologist felt that because I was young and strong I could handle the most aggressive treatment as my tumour was now approximately 4.6 cm in size.
我打电话给正在上班的丈夫，告诉他我需要去急诊室，因为我以为我中风了。他立即赶回家，带我去了医院，我马上做了心电图。但结果是我没有中风，心脏没有问题，并准备送我回家，以为我可能只是昏厥了。丈夫走出医院，打算给我们的家庭医生打电话，这时他正好撞见了从医院另一扇门出来的家庭医生。他进来与急诊室的医生交谈，并建议做进一步的检查，看看我的头。我被送去做 CT 扫描，不久之后，医生和护士进来告诉我们这个消息。您的大脑中有一个 3 厘米长的肿瘤。肿瘤位于靠近左侧顶叶区域的表面，就在我耳边。然后我们被告知，立即直接去 Trillium 医院（区域神经中心）的 211 室。我们震惊、茫然，那天，我们先去接孩子，在高中、小学，告诉他们发生了什么，集体哭泣，把他们送回家，然后去了Trillium，开始住院。5天后的10月7日，我做了手术，外科医生只能切除大约 25%。虽然我们显然为此感到苦恼，但外科医生告诉我们要振作起来，因为在这些类型的病例中，手术不是结果的主要决定因素。住院一周后，我被送回家康复并等待活检结果。我最终被确诊为 3 级间变性星形细胞瘤，并被转诊到加拿大安大略省汉密尔顿的 Juravinski 癌症中心接受进一步治疗。尤其是在早期，有时非常令人沮丧，尤其是当我们试图更多地了解这种疾病时。特别是，虽然互联网可以是一个巨大的信息来源，但它也可能包含可能具有误导性的信息。更可怕的事情之一是统计数据，这看起来非常严峻。我有意识地决定不去想这个，我鼓励任何经历过这件事的人也这样做，因为我们不是统计数据。每个人'的情况很独特，我不会让统计数据削弱我的决心或希望。我在癌症中心的初步评估是在 10 月 30 日。我的放射肿瘤科医生和内科肿瘤科医生都认为，因为我年轻而强壮，我可以接受最积极的治疗，因为我的肿瘤现在大约有 4.6 厘米大小。
Spacer On November 17th I began a treatment regimen of radiation and chemotherapy together. I had radiation treatments Monday to Friday and took a low dose of temozolomide (140mg) 7 days a week. I had a four day break from radiation over Christmas and finished this phase of treatment on January 5th 2009. Overall, I tolerated it very well. Other than losing my hair, the biggest effect I felt was increased fatigue. Also, the steroids I was taking to relieve headaches and pressure in my brain caused bloating and affected my sleep patterns.
11 月 17 日，我开始了放疗和化疗的治疗方案。我周一至周五接受了放射治疗，每周 7 天服用低剂量的替莫唑胺（140 毫克）。圣诞节期间我从放射线中休息了四天，并于 2009 年 1 月 5 日完成了这一阶段的治疗。总的来说，我对它的耐受性很好。除了掉头发，我觉得最大的影响是增加了疲劳。此外，我用来缓解头痛和大脑压力的类固醇会导致腹胀并影响我的睡眠。
Spacer After a four week recovery period, I had an MRI which showed that the tumour had shrunk to 1cm. This result had not been expected as we had been cautioned by our doctors that the first MRI often does not show any improvement. The radiation oncologist had never seen results like this in his 20 years of practice!!! That day I began the next phase of my treatment which consisted of higher dose chemotherapy (temozolomide) for 12 months, on a 5 days on 23 days off cycle. The amount of chemotherapy that is prescribed is determined by body weight. My target was 360 mg, however I was not given that level to start off with. The doctors wanted to gradually work me up to that level so I started on a dose of 270 mg, which I took for the first three months. Other than some nausea and vomiting, I tolerated this dose fairly well and my blood levels stayed within acceptable limits. In April, the dose was raised to 360 mg, and in my case, I felt the change almost immediately. I got very itchy over my entire body, was a lot more nauseous and incredibly tired. Blood tests the following month confirmed that my level of platelets was greatly reduced, so my next cycle of treatment had to be delayed for about three weeks to let my body recover and get my blood levels back up. For May, June and July I was given 270 mg of Temozolomide which I tolerated fairly well, although I still suffered from fatigue and some nausea. I was told that this was completely normal in this stage of the treatment, and given that my blood levels were good, in August my dose was increased to 300 mg. An MRI showed that the tumour continued to shrink and was now only 2 – 3 mm. I remained on 300 mg until my treatment finished in January 2010. I have had no further treatments since then.
经过四个星期的恢复期后，我进行了核磁共振检查，结果显示肿瘤已缩小至 1 厘米。这个结果是出乎意料的，因为我们的医生已经警告我们，第一次 MRI 通常没有任何改善。放射肿瘤科医生在他 20 年的实践中从未见过这样的结果！那天我开始了下一阶段的治疗，其中包括 12 个月的高剂量化疗（替莫唑胺），5 天，23 天的停药周期。开出的化疗剂量由体重决定。我的目标是 360 毫克，但我一开始没有达到这个水平。医生想让我逐渐达到这个水平，所以我开始服用 270 毫克的剂量，头三个月服用。除了一些恶心和呕吐，我对这个剂量的耐受性相当好，我的血液水平保持在可接受的范围内。4 月，剂量增加到 360 毫克，就我而言，我几乎立即感觉到了变化。我整个身体都非常痒，更恶心，而且非常疲倦。接下来一个月的血液检查证实我的血小板水平大大降低，所以我的下一个治疗周期不得不推迟大约三周，以让我的身体恢复并恢复我的血液水平。在 5 月、6 月和 7 月，我服用了 270 毫克的替莫唑胺，尽管我仍然感到疲劳和恶心，但我的耐受性相当好。有人告诉我，在这个治疗阶段这是完全正常的，鉴于我的血液水平很好，8 月份我的剂量增加到 300 毫克。核磁共振显示肿瘤继续缩小，现在只有2-3毫米。我一直服用 300 毫克，直到 2010 年 1 月我的治疗结束。从那以后我没有接受过进一步的治疗。
Spacer Initially, I had follow-up MRI's every three months which have consistently come back as "clear". These were scaled back to once every 4 months and now once every 6 months. As much as is possible, I am back to living the life I had before my diagnosis. The biggest changes that I have experienced are that I get tired a lot quicker than before, I am still sensitive to loud noises and bright lights, I have difficulty dealing with multiple things going on at the same time, and I have problems with short term memory, which means I have to make notes for everything. This is my "new normal" but I am not complaining.
最初，我每三个月进行一次核磁共振检查，结果始终“清晰”。这些被缩减为每 4 个月一次，现在每 6 个月一次。尽可能地，我回到了诊断前的生活。我最大的变化是我比以前累了很多，我仍然对嘈杂的噪音和明亮的灯光很敏感，我很难同时处理多件事情，我有短期的记忆问题，这意味着我必须为每件事做笔记。这是我的“新常态”，但我没有抱怨。
Spacer One thing I did not mention, which I think is very important is having a positive attitude, and for me personally – the power of faith. I was surrounded by people who kept my spirits up and always encouraged me. Also, these same people and many others, some of whom I didn't even know prayed for me. I never lost my faith in God, and I believe having a positive attitude and always believing and hoping for the best are so important as part of anyone's journey with this illness. I thank God each day for the miracle of healing that I have received. 有件事一直忘提，我认为保持积极的态度非常重要，对我个人而言——信仰的力量。我周围都是那些让我精神振奋并一直鼓励我的人。此外，这些人和许多其他人，其中一些我什至不认识，为我祈祷。我从未失去对上帝的信仰，我相信拥有积极的态度，始终相信并希望最好的结果对于任何人的这种疾病之旅都是如此重要。我每天都感谢上帝给我带来的医治奇迹。 |
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