Life after cancer

In my front yard have a young saguaro cactus that has an insect impaled on one of the needles. Now, how the insect came to impaled I have not a clue. Still, there it is slowly being desiccated in the dry desert air. Did a sudden gust of wind blow it onto the needle? Did the insect simply misjudge the distance? Maybe the point of the needle is too small to register in its vision. It appears that the needle pierced the wing very close to the insect’s abdomen. Whatever happened is a mystery.

The universe and our lives are filled with mysteries. Some mysteries we try to explain by invoking the odds of something transpiring. An example of that would be explaining my getting pneumonia after radiation treatment by explaining that I aspirated food into my lungs. Aspiration pneumonia is fairly common after treatment for esophageal cancer (20 % to 25 %, depending on the mechanism). Then there is “Silent Aspiration” which is just having food enter the lungs with no cough or immediate distress and is much more likely.

OK, so for the first time, I can buy aspiration. But getting pneumonia a second time seven months after treatment? My first thoughts about the re-occurrence was that I picked it up because I wasn’t wearing a mask (shades of the COVID pandemic). Or maybe it was still lurking deep inside of my lungs. Or maybe I did aspirate food into my lungs again. Just like the impaled insect, it is a mystery to me.

The good news is that I am getting better at understanding when there is something amiss. This time I went to the ER immediately and only spent two nights in the hospital. Now I wear a mask to work (where there are many homeless people) and other places where there are crowds. My oncologist referred me to a speech therapist (not for talking but for finding out if I am swallowing correctly). I’ll go. I am also getting a CT scan to see if there is anything lurking in my lungs. It may be a mystery, but I want the best odds I can get.