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    God Made Me Fall
    God Made Me Fall
    God Made Me Fall
    Ebook163 pages2 hours

    God Made Me Fall

    By Dr. Glen Pichichero

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This is a story of inspiration, perseverance, and determination in the face of a life altering cancer diagnosis. It is a chronological journey of medical visits, hospitalizations, treatments and surgeries. Together with all the changes that occur in one's personal and professional life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateNov 22, 2016
    ISBN9781532323959
    God Made Me Fall

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      Book preview

      God Made Me Fall - Dr. Glen Pichichero

      Twenty-One

      Chapter One

      I had a bicycle accident. It was a beautiful August night. Tuesday August 4, 2009. I had finished work about 7:30 pm and had no dinner plans. I was living alone, as my wife left me 10 months earlier with our 4- year old son Luke. I decided to ride my bicycle about 2 miles to a restaurant in the West End of Long Beach for Taco Tuesday .

      After a couple of margaritas and tacos, I left the restaurant at about 10 pm for my bicycle ride home. I didn’t make it very far. I hit a curb and toppled over the front of my bicycle. Splat! I did a face plant on the sidewalk. There was blood everywhere. Fortunately, a fellow that I knew from the neighborhood, was coming out of a nearby restaurant with his wife, and witnessed my fall. As people started to gather around, he came, and dispersed the crowd, telling them he was my friend and we did not need an ambulance. He wrapped my face in a towel, put my bicycle in his SUV, and he drove me home.

      At my house, he helped clean me up. As the bleeding was subsiding, we realized I had a number of very deep cuts. He suggested that I go to the hospital emergency room as it appeared that I was going to need stitches. I thanked him for helping me, and told him I would call someone to bring me to the hospital.

      I was taken to South Nassau Hospital Emergency Room, for what I thought would be routine stitches following a freak accident. Little did I know, that episode would dramatically and permanently change my life?

      Well, I did need stitches on my cheek, eyebrow and forehead. No surprise! As a precaution, since I had a head injury, the hospital needed to take a CAT scan to see if I also had a concussion. While receiving stitches from the plastic surgeon, they came back with the results of the CAT scan. I didn’t have a concussion, but they found a tumor in my head. (see fig. 1) I remember the news being delivered in a cold and insensitive way. Off in a distance, there was an image, I believe a nurse who I couldn’t clearly see, who blurted out, You have a large tumor in your skull. What? What do you mean a tumor? Where? How Big? Was it Cancer? I got very emotional. This certainly was not the way to deliver shocking unexpected news. Was she next going to tell me that I was pregnant?

      This was definitely not how I would have expected my evening to end, when I went out for tacos a few hours earlier. Oh watta night. Unfortunately, they couldn’t give me any answers. They told me I needed to follow up with my family physician. The report described it as a 4 cm. lytic lesion in the right posterior skull vertex.

      

      Fig. 1

      Full of anxiety and apprehension, I called my family physician the next day and was given an appointment for August 12. My physician reviewed the CAT scan and discussed how we needed to proceed. Since I am a Dentist and have a Medical background, I understood he couldn’t determine treatment until we knew what this tumor was. Apparently, the tumor was sitting in a space below my skull bone and on top of my brain. My physician believed the tumor originated someplace else in my body. He didn’t believe my head was the site of origin.

      As a result, that began a whirlwind of tests and doctors’ appointments. He performed a blood test at that visit to see if I had multiple myeloma-a blood cancer. Two days later, on August 14, I was seen at an imaging center to have a number of tests performed. They took a chest X-ray, to rule out cancer in my chest. A thyroid ultrasound was performed to rule out thyroid cancer. And, they performed a renal ultra sound to rule out kidney cancer and bladder cancer.

      The following week on August 21, I went to Long Beach Hospital to have a full body radioactive bone scan to see if I had bone cancer. Three days later, on August 24, I had a CAT scan of my lungs to see if I had lung cancer.

      I was 50 years old, and my life was in disarray. Since I had my own Dental Practice, I had to close the office while I went through all these tests. My kids were noticeably concerned and upset. I was also in the midst of a divorce with my second wife, with whom I had my 4- year old son Luke. I also had 3 sons from my first wife and during this month of August I could not keep to any visitation schedules. That really should have been the least of my worries, but I was a very devout father with two special needs sons, and tried to be very involved in their lives.

      My family physician scheduled an appointment with me on August 25, to discuss the results of all the tests I had performed. To this point it had been a very nerve wracking month filled with uncertainty. A lot of thoughts of What if… in my head.

      Well, I received the NEWS!! It was good and bad. First the good news or even great news. All the tests came back negative! No cancer of the blood, No thyroid cancer, No bladder or kidney cancer, No lung cancer, and No bone cancer. Great news right? Well now the bad news. We spent a month having all these tests, but we still didn’t know what the tumor was.

      My Physician was at a loss. He told me I now needed to start seeing various specialists to try to determine a diagnosis. He recommended I see a head and neck surgeon first and go from there. Well, I got answers of what I didn’t have, but no answers of what I did have.

      On September 3, I had a morning appointment and afternoon appointment with 2 separate head and neck surgeons. Both surgeons presented similar scenarios. They felt I needed to have the tumor biopsied to make an accurate diagnosis. The problem was, it lied beneath my skull bone. They would have to drill through and possibly remove part of my skull to gain access to the tumor. Not what I wanted to hear. There had to be another way? Regardless of the process, neither surgeon would perform the procedure. They said they only deal with soft tissue lesions not bone lesions. They recommended I see a neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City.

      Now I was even more scared! Nobody could tell me what I had and nobody wanted to touch me. And… I’m being referred to the world- renowned Cancer Center Hospital? Uh oh, not very comforting!

      After days of telephone calls, and explaining my situation time and time again, I was able to get an appointment for September 17, with Dr. Mark Bilsky, who I believe was the head Neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). In advance of the appointment, I had all my test records, and CAT scan results forwarded for their review.

      At the appointment, I met with Dr. Bilsky and the radiologist who read my CAT scan. I was noticeably anxious but Dr. Bilsky quickly put me at ease with his laid back demeanor. At this point, we do not know what the tumor is, he said. He did not seem too alarmed. Ok, if they are at the top of the field, and didn’t seem overly concerned, I guess that should be reassuring. Dr. Bilsky said, Let’s wait 3 months from the August 4, CAT scan and then have an MRI of your head to see what changes may have occurred. That would be early November 2009. They felt we shouldn’t be too aggressive until they can see the tumor again months later.

      That opinion, though they were the experts, didn’t make much sense to me. It was a tumor that obviously shouldn’t be there, so I would think you would want to take it out sooner rather than later. Regardless, I complied with their recommendation and scheduled an MRI for November 5.

      Now I had 2 months to wait and worry. Not an enviable position. I seeked the advice of friends and family and felt there was an urgency to get my ducks in order. I had to worry about the future of my 4 boys, God forbid anything happened to me. What happens to them, what happens to my house, and what happens to my Dental Practice in the event of tragedy? Questions and answers that you are generally not forced to address at 50 years old.

      I made an appointment with an estate Attorney and felt I needed to establish a Will. That was a process, and educated me in an area I knew nothing about. Since my two middle sons were learning disabled and challenged, I was advised to create special needs trusts to provide for their futures. I also created trusts for my two other sons with provisions to be overseen by a trust officer.

      It was also recommended that I make provisions for me in the event of incapacitation. I assigned a health proxy to make medical decisions if I were no longer able. A power of attorney was set up to make and execute financial decisions. And lastly, I provided a wish list of what to do with my home, office and possessions. Ok, now I’ve taken care of my children’s future and my legal protection.

      I also had pending medical issues that needed to be addressed. At age 39 back in 1998, I had a pinhole sized sore on my upper lip, it would bleed then scab repeatedly and never seemed to heal. After several weeks of this cycle, I went to see my dermatologist. As soon as he saw it and I told him the history, he told me it was skin cancer. He took a biopsy and referred me to a Moh’s surgeon.

      Skin Cancer at age 39? That took me by surprise. I thought I just needed a topical prescription to heal the sore. I never expected to hear the C word. A little shocking! Growing up by the beach with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skinned, I guess I was a prime candidate for skin cancer.

      The results of the biopsy came back positive for basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. I went to see a Moh’s surgeon, who is a cosmetic dermatologic surgeon. Being in the health field, I found his profession pretty interesting. He conservatively removes the lesion, and has a lab tech process the specimen in the office. A slide is made, and the surgeon views the margins to see if the borders are clear of cancer cells. If cancer is still present, the surgeon removes a second larger specimen and the process is repeated until no cancer cells are present. With each specimen removed, the wound gets larger and deeper. When all the cancer is removed, the wound is then cosmetically closed and

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