Steve Mittelstet Steve’sSquamousDance-off

Thx for joining my Caring Bridge.  

I had a largish “inoperable” malignant Stage 3c anal  Squamous Cell.
•3c means large, in a location where surgery would cause serious functional damage, and where lymph activity is immediately outside the squamous cell (about 5” long, as an “inverted Christmas tree”) but has not metastasized to other organs, so it is a good candidate for targeted radiation, which I have chosen to be administered at the Dallas Northpoint Cancer Center location.
•good news: all my other organs are in “top shape” (“kidneys as strong as a healthy 18 yr old” :). Very important for my “Aikido Möbius Texas Swing Dance-off with my invasive, Infamous Squamous Dancing Competitor”
•We are still tending to:
-my post-polio syndrome muscular challenges (now apparently affecting my neck and the circulation in both arms and their appendages (numbness), 
- my brain health effects from my car wreck head injury 2-½ years ago, 
-my unrelated prostate cancer, which preceded this squamous cell by about 3 years,
-my dermatological rashes, apparently related to chemo, but important not to trigger another basal cell removal by MOHS surgery (teenage roustabout sunburn to “get a ‘base’ every summer — 🥴).


I am up to the challenge:
✔️I have just had my 96-hr, slow-release Chemo pump regimen; to be followed by
NEXT UP:
•6 weeks of 5-day/week radiation treatments (2nd DAY OF RADIATION ON  MARDI GRAS.  CF PHOTO GALLERY FOR VISUAL EFFECTS.)
•Final 5-day  Chemo treatment overlapping 5th week of radiation
•3 wks rest to determine relative success of eliminating my fierce Squamous dancing competitor 
•Houston’s MD Anderson is getting all my reports and will do a final “2nd opinion” at the end of this regimen regarding their view of my success status.


I trust my Leap of Faith into our UNIverse’s creation,
-my relationship-centered, highly regarded Oncologist and her professional, caring team, 
-and my extraordinarily supportive home, family, friends  both in Metroplex and in my East Texas home, and across the Globe,
while having Houston’s MD Anderson overseeing my progress.


I am further grateful for however you choose to send healing energy in your own manner.  I (or one of my daughters) will attempt to give weekly or episodic updates, not expecting responses but welcoming them, as you wish.


If you have followed my journal updates, you know that post-chemoradiation, I still had ½ “ of the squamous cell, so after 2 surgeries, 3 hospitalizations, and 1 rehab stay, I was released to return to my Lewisville home just as CV-19 started shutting things down (March 2020).  Since then, I have successfully convalesced to get my digestive system working healthily with no dietary restrictions.


I receive twice/weekly Home Health Care visits to change the dressing for healing my rear surgical wound, which was very deep and several inches long, given that that was the location for removing 4 organs, part of a fifth, the remainder of which was re-attached to protrude to my exterior belly area, configured into a permanent stoma.  Also removed from that rear surgical opening were 23 lymph nodes, one of which had contained cancer.  


In early July, I was told there were no signs of cancer visible, so I am officially “in remission.”


I am updating this story in the first week of August 2020, as my wound opening appears to be close to healing completely with scar tissue  by the end of August.  


I thank all of you who have supported me in this life adventure.  I’m eager to learn what the next phase of my life will be, post-healing at a time of world turmoil and promise.


I wonder whether we may be living through a major Paradigm Shift in human Earthly existence and am thrilled to be part of whatever historical? time we are experiencing.


steve