My Husband Has Cancer
Cancer of unknown primary and peritoneal dissemination.
For a dummy like me, it was a name I couldn't remember for a while.
In the first place, I don't understand what it means for the primary site to be unknown.
Is it there? Did it disappear? Did it get erased?
There isn't much information when you look it up, so I'm starting this report in the hope that it might be helpful to someone.
First, let me introduce my husband, the protagonist.
My husband, Shonji, already had the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and osteonecrosis of the femoral head.
But now, he's also been diagnosed with Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP), making him a triple crown winner of specified diseases.
A triple crown that no one is jealous of!
And on top of that, he's a super rare case of cancer of unknown primary.
I wish someone would protect him.
Fortunately, his SLE symptoms have been stable for the past few years, but if he goes somewhere cold, Raynaud's phenomenon inevitably appears, and he sometimes gets sudden high fevers.
We're so used to it that we don't mention it every time, but his daily life is probably 'somehow sluggish' more than ours.
Being 'somehow sluggish' is his default.
As for the osteonecrosis of the femoral head, it's not just his femur; his joints are acting up one after another.
He can't lift his shoulders, and his ankles, elbows, and various other places are probably messed up too.
He should have had surgery on his femur a long time ago, but he's too lazy and keeps putting it off.
I think it's more of a hassle to live while dragging your leg, though.
This is one of the seven mysteries of the Chama household.
ITP is a new specified disease that was discovered during the chaos of the last few months.
Welcome to my husband's body.
Not that we're welcoming you at all.
Simply put, it's a disease where you have very few platelets.
Apparently, there are antibodies that attack the platelets.
It's like, who gave you permission to do that?
And when did you even get there in the first place!
By the way, it doesn't affect his daily life, but apparently, the numbers are at a level where we have to be careful about surgery and chemotherapy.
That's no good!
Because of all that, he's being seen by a team consisting of gastroenterology, hematology, rheumatology, and gastrointestinal surgery.
Good grief! What a troublesome man!!
My husband runs a small bar, which is a bar in name only.
He has two staff members.
Now that my husband can't be at the shop, the two of them are running it for us.
I'm grateful. Seriously grateful. Thank you always.
Next up is the report on starting chemotherapy! (Or so it should be)