Jon, I hope my story might help you. In 1973 at 23 years old, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, lymph cancer. At that time the only treatment for cancer was radiation, and they blasted me with it, from my neck down to my crotch. Over the last 50 years the damage it did keeps cropping up, starting with it killed my thyroid requiring life long replacement medication.
A few years later I found that I would easily strain my shoulder and neck muscles. My identical twin brother and I were getting ready to do a workout when I took off my T-shirt and he noticed that my shoulder and neck muscles were very atrophied. I went to a neurologist, who said the radiation damaged the nerves in my spinal cord at my neck and there is no treatment, much like any spinal cord injury. To this day I can't hold up my head properly and a neck brace only makes it worse. (BTW, because of being identical twins where one gets cancer, we became part of a twin study program at USC School of Medicine.)
Then in 1996 I had a routine stress test and it was found that the coronary arteries around my heart were damaged from the radiation and I had to have open heart by-pass surgery of all five of them. Cedars Sinai did a great job and I was out of the hospital in three and a half days. In 2002 During a routine urology exam, blood cells were found in my urine, which was bladder cancer, again from the radiation, but it was very early stages and after the procedure, I was deemed cured. Shortly after I wasn't eligible for the company provided better health insurance and had to go to a limited self pay plan at another hospital (Kaiser), which cost me a lot of money every year.
About twelve years later I was having on going chest pains and found that the Kaiser dropped the ball and allowed four of the by-pass arteries to close up. Kaiser said nothing could be done, but I insisted on a second opinion, which got them to put in one stent. A couple of years later during a routine exam, they found that both my carotid arteries in my neck were closing up, damaged by the radiation, so they put stents in both.
Shortly after, I had to have my right hip replaced from a car accident I had many years before. Then in 2019 during an exam, they found that two valves in my heart were damaged from the radiation and I had to have another open heart surgery to replace those, but the surgeon botched the job and I now have to live with a hernia in my chest at the surgery site.
In 2020 I went to dermatology for a routine exam and they found that on both sides of my neck under my ear lobes was Squamish cancer, again caused by the radiation. I also had them look at a sore just below on one side and was told it's nothing.
Over those years I was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate, though they do not admit it, I know it was also caused by the radiation because my identical twin brother does not have the problem, and Kaiser let it ride continually.
Then December of 2021, I complained again of angina, and Kaiser said the fifth artery that was good, is closing up and they put in a stent. By this time I was getting fed up with the way Kaiser handled me and finally decided to leave there and pay the price for better health insurance and went back to Cedars Sinai (yes, the US has a terrible reputation for health insurance).
As soon as I did, my new cardiologist said they could stent the arteries that Kaiser said couldn't be done. Also, my new urologist said they could fix my prostate because letting it ride like Kaiser did, caused me to have a severe urinary tract infection.
Then a couple weeks ago during a dermatology exam, I asked about the sore on my neck that Kaiser said was nothing, which turned out to actually be skin cancer, and was removed successfully a couple of days ago.
To finally get to my point, during all of this over the 50 years, the thing that got me through it was having a positive attitude. I did not for one minute let anything get me down, I always dwelled on the good things in my life; playing guitar, then ukulele, consciously keeping connected with family and friends, specifically joining music groups to occupy myself. That's even easier now with all the internet and Zoom live presentations going on. I never got married and have no kids (that I know of) but once I got into my thirties and matured, realizing that time never stops, I resolved to not ever feel lonely or depressed. It's a mind set that you are in control of your reactions to adversity, only you.
Glad to see that you value your connection to this group, keep it up and spread it out more.
Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
4 tenor thinline cutaway ukes, 3 thinline acoustic bass ukes, 5 solid body bass ukes
•Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
•Member Cali Rose & The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers