ANTHONY R. VIZZARI | ARCHTOGRAPHIST

Dr. Botha's office received my recent scans and reports today and reviewed them in a matter of hours. (If you are familiar with the medical system, this is an amazing response time - usually it takes days to get answers. The folks at UNMC are on top of their game!) The (new) plan, per Dr. Botha is to perform a right hepatic lobectomy. This is similar to what was discussed with the staged resection, but instead, we would be skipping to the 2nd stage of the procedure. The goal is to get rid of these hybrid lesions ASAP, especially the largest tumor. So, we scrap the staged resection. Any remaining tumors (in the right lobe) would be treated by PRRT or other liver directed therapies. To perform this lobecotmy, they first have to do a "portal vein embolization". -Blood flow is cut to the left lobe in order to grow the right lobe. This is generally an out-patient procedure. After 6 weeks, if the liver grows as desired, they will proceed with removing the left lobe entirely. At

Apartment building windows: Frankfurt, Germany A still from "Run Lola Run"on a Frankfurt theater window... This is the first movie Andrea and I watched together. We're flying home today... In all, I'm exhausted and can't seem to get that hospital smell out of my stomach. The trip, overall, was surely worth the information learned. Things might have been VERY different if we didn't make this journey. However, with so many new unanswered questions, it's like learning you have cancer all over again. I had finally gotten comfortable with my disease and now, I it has all changed and become uncertain. So, we travel home ready for our own bed, showers, food, and friendly faces... but we also head home with a new vengeance.

…the deer hunter there was a snap-echo and i fell to my knees after a pithy pause. what i recall were all these little crackles, restless, beneath leaves and body and frozen grass in concert with my thick wet exhales, -wheezing. i should have worn orange… it was deer season.

FDG-PET: Note the large tumor lesion with an SUV +/- 60. FDG-PET: Note cross hairs on the "potential" primary tumor in the pancreas. I am out of the hospital in Germany and the good news is that I will not have to return for 12 months… the bad news is that I need to have surgery soon. It turns out that the large potentially 90% benign lesion IS NOT BENIGN after all… This wouldn’t be so bad except that now, it appears as though I don’t have a pure NET, but some type of rare unidentified hybrid (both in the liver and primary). This was revealed by the FDG-PET scan. These suspect tumors have massive FDG uptake. (-a scan that is available in the US an none of my doctors thought to order…???) This “mixed-tumor” didn’t happen overnight, it has been like this from day one, but we only now have the information to deal with it. My disease is no worse than when I walked into the hospital, but the information we have changes the plan, and potentially the prognosis, greatly. Luckily, th

the sadist… by hook fire anchor or noose i saw no way out. i think execution machines were sweeter than you. but i could not stop craving your push and pull and empty words. i hung onto your every touch waiting for the branch to break or your knot to slip so i might breathe once again. by hook fire anchor or noose i wanted only you

The "kidney protection" drip... this thing lasts forever! The beautiful adornment... My hospital room in the ward... not too bad. After a relaxing day with Andrea (fueled by room service and general doing-nothingness), I checked into the hospital on Sunday afternoon. At which point, Andrea and I were eventually forced to part ways. I am not allowed visitors in the hospital ward, be it before, during, or after treatment. On Monday, I started a battery of different tests which consisted of much poking of needles. One test was to examine kidney function. At around noon, after a physical examination, my treatment began with an IV drip of “kidney protection” medicine. After about 45 minutes, the PRRT treatment was started. The treatment was short, maybe 30 minutes or so? I felt ok during treatment, but right after I started to feel very anxious, had a headache, was kind of dizzy and generally irritated all over. It was as if I could just not stay still or get comfortable (I beli

Berlin Photoautomat Chemical Booths: From our "grand tour" of Berlin. Location 1-7 (8 was not open in the winter.) Back to back booths in a Berlin neghborhood (loccation #9). Even though it was midnight, and 25 degress, people were still using the booths non stop! Me, Andrea, Carole and Siobhan (from London's Photomovette). Our Lady of Sorrows: Pedro Roldan Circa 1670: Bode Museum, Berlin After a few great, albeit very cold and snowy, days in Berlin we are now back in Weimer. In a few hours I will be headed to Bad Berka for my in-patient check-in. According to my schedule from Dr. Baum, I am supposed to start the PRRT treatment tomorrow (Monday). I will then be stuck in the hospital ward for a little stretch! We saw much of Berlin and toured nine photobooth locations throughout the city. Our friends from London came to visit with us for a few nights, which added to the fun. It was spectacular to catch up with them and see friendly faces. Via taxi, train, and many mile

My 68-ga Scans: the full disk is amazing... note the bottom row. See that the large tumor is not illuminated. More to follow. UPDATED (Q/A with Dr. Baum via Email - at end of post) 02/10.2010: Disclaimer: Trying to get to Berlin, so please excuse the typos: Yesterday I had my visit with Dr. Baum and the (68ga PET/CT scan) here in Germany. The results were interesting! After over a year of searching in the US, the primary tumor was found here in Germany in the tail of the pancreas. It is very small, around 1CM in dia. Also, Dr. Baum believes that the largest tumor in the dome of my liver (6.5CM) is actually 90% benign with a metastasis (NET / cancer) growing in the center and edge. This is very rare and Baum has only seen it one other patient in over 4200 cases. We will do more tests (FDG PET Scan) to confirm next week, but it makes a lot of sense. This conclusion was made by how that tumor reads on the scan. It has to do with receptor uptake, etc. Others could probably explain it bett

Somewhere, just outside of Germany... view from the plane, obviously. We arrived this morning in Frankfurt. It was a very easy flight and a fast train ride into the city. We caught up on a few hours of sleep, then took the time to wander the streets a bit... we finally ended up getting some great Indian food. We also ended up, by accident, walking through a small "red light' district that definitely was an interesting cultural experience. Tomorrow we make our way to Bad Berka via train.

1947 Memphis Studio: Taken with what I beleive was a P.D.Q Camera... similar to photobooth technology... somewhat. The blog has been silent this last week. Things have been beyond hectic trying to get my act together to disappear for a while (even if it is only for a week, or two?) I wish I had some great parting thoughts... but alas, I really don't. I don't even have any great German (found) photos? But I did recently find this image(above), which I love! All I can say right now is, I'll keep you posted!