Any day above ground is a good one

October 8, 2006

Back To The Front Of My Brain

Filed under: My Cancer Story — Dan @ 11:17 am

On the 22nd of September I went for my three-month check up at the Dattoli center. I had the usual blood and urine test, CT scans etc. I was surprised this week when I received a letter from the Dattolli center with the following ominous note in it:

The purpose of this correspondence is to provide a copy of your urine cytology with a prescription to have this test repeated due to the presence of "atypical", possible pre-cancerous cells. These cells are not considered normal, however they are NOT cancerous at this testing. It is MANDATORY that you have this test repeated in six months time as a follow up to this finding and to rule out the potential for bladder cancer!

Needless to say this got my attention. When a letter from a doctor’s office comes in the mail and it is annotated with quotations, "atypical" and things capitalized, NOT and MANDATORY, not to mention an exclamation point at the end of a sentence that ends with the words bladder cancer. Yes it got my attention, real fast.

I called the doctor the very next day to get his alarming letter cleared up as the copy of the test from Bostwick labs stated that the overall test returned negative results but showed:

Rare single and clusters of mildly to moderately atypical urothelial cells: this may represent a reactive process, but neoplasm should be considered. Clinical correlation is indicated.

Upon talking to a nurse she indicated to me that this occurs with many of their patients and is cause by the great deal of radiation that we receive. My urologist also scoped me just before I got my seeds and it showed no signs of bladder cancer. So I will be going back in six months for my next test which we hope will be clear at that time. But in the mean time I am left thinking more about my cancer than I recently have been…. Was I engaged in wishful thinking?

4 Comments

Dan, two friends with [other types of] cancer have reported
very similar testing situations to me. Both received
similar responses from their nurse/doctor. In both cases,
the “fear” portion of their reaction was unfounded. It
seems that both radiation and chemotherapy in large amounts
have such affects on some otherwise normal cells. As long
as you were successfully pre-screened, as you were, for
other related cancers, you should be “good to go.” Don’t
second-guess yourself into a downward spiral! On the other
hand, if you can’t put this out of your mind after three
months, INSIST on moving that test up to three or four
months for your own mental health.
Hope you are generally enjoying your return to the normal
life of a teacher in Florida. ALSO hope Paula is finding
her way back from the dark side of all this.

Comment by Karen — October 19, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Thanks Karen,

I also came to the same conclusion after talking to the nurses at the Dattoli Center. I also showed the report to my family doctor and he said the exact same thing. I is just a bit un-nerving to see a report like that. Thanks for the support.

d

Comment by Dan — October 20, 2006 @ 10:26 am
Hi Dan and Paula:

It’s hard to believe that it’s just short of a year since your ordeal started…..I have to say that, reading your blog, I feel better about your situation now than I did back then. Keeping you in my daily prayers - my best to you both. Tony

Comment by Tony Noriega — October 20, 2006 @ 5:35 pm
T-Bone!!

Yea me too. I have been thinking about that also. I plan to write about it soon. Things are much better now for sure. Thanks for your note.

d

Comment by Dan — October 20, 2006 @ 5:59 pm