Now, on to the story:<\/strong>
\nI wake up. I can\u2019t breathe. I am choking, being strangled to death; it feels like there are two hands around my neck squeezing tighter and tighter. My body is covered head to toe with welts and a horrible rash: the itching and burning is unbearable.\u00a0The rash is in my ears, in my nose, in my vagina, on the bottoms of my feet, everywhere \u2014 under my arms, my scalp, the back of my neck. Every single inch of my body is covered with welts except my face. I don\u2019t know why.<\/p>\nI struggle to the telephone and call one of the doctors I trust. I start to tell him what is happening, and he stops me: \u201cYou are in danger. Go to the hospital right now.\u201d I knew it. I could feel that my breath was running out.
\nRight off the bat, to me this sounds like an allergic reaction to something or an anaphylactic reaction. It could be something else (more later), but the first thing that comes to mind is an allergic reaction. Indeed, upon hearing this story, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if one of the many supplements that Somers takes on a routine basis was the cause. Did she start any new supplements recently? Certainly I\u2019d wonder about that.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the initial cause, it certainly sounded as though the E.R. docs thought she had some sort of allergic reaction going. They treated her appropriately with Benadryl, Albuterol, and steroids. Even someone as dim as Somers realized that:<\/p>\n
I say to the doctor, \u201cIt seems to me that I\u2019ve either been poisoned or am having some kind of serious allergic reaction to something. I mean, doesn\u2019t that make sense? The rash, the strangling, the asphyxiation. Sounds classic, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t know. A CAT scan will tell us. I really recommend you do this,\u201d the doctor says. \u201cNext time you might not be so lucky \u2014 you might not get here in time. You were almost out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why the doctor insisted on a CT scan, who knows? A CT scan is not generally the test of choice for diagnosing the cause of anaphylaxis or respiratory distress, which is what it sure sounds as though she was being treated for. Maybe doctors saw a mass on chest X-ray. Who knows? It doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. There may have been other findings on physical examination that suggested that a CT scan might be indicated. Again, in this chapter, at least, Somers doesn\u2019t give us enough information to judge.<\/p>\n
I am now dressed in a blue hospital gown, and so far I\u2019ve been reinforced by three rounds of oxygen and albuterol. I\u2019m starting to feel normal again. Drugs have been my lifesaver this time. This is what they are for. Knowing the toxicity of all chemical drugs, I\u2019ve already started thinking about the supplement regime and detox treatments I\u2019ll have when I get out of here, to get all the residue of pharmaceuticals out of me. I\u2019m hopeful this will be the one and only time I have to resort to Western drugs.<\/p>\n
So what did the CT scan find? This, apparently:
\nWe have very bad news,\u201d he continued. My heart started pounding, like it was jumping out of my chest. \u201cYou have a mass in your lung; it looks like the cancer has metastasized to your liver. We don\u2019t know what is wrong with your liver, but it is so enlarged that it is filling your entire abdomen. You have so many tumors in your chest we can\u2019t count them, and they all have masses in them, and you have a blood clot, and you have pneumonia. So we are going to check you into the hospital and start treating the blood clot because that will kill you first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, we already know that Somers did not, in fact, have cancer. I\u2019ll get to that shortly. In the meantime, let\u2019s take a look at what she says about her oncologist:\u00a0The oncologist comes into my room. He has the bedside manner of a moose: no compassion, no tenderness, no cautious approach. He sits in the chair with his arms folded defensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got cancer. I just looked at your CAT scan and it\u2019s everywhere,\u201d he says matter-of-factly.
\n\u201cEverywhere?\u201d I ask, stunned. \u201cEverywhere?\u201d
\n\u201cEverywhere,\u201d he states, like he\u2019s telling me he got tickets to the Lakers game. \u201cYour lungs, your liver, tumors around your heart \u2026 I\u2019ve never seen so much cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
So the oncologist who saw Somers first was a world-class dick. It\u2019s quite possible. Not every doctor has a good bedside manner, and some have a horrendous bedside manner. Sadly, some of them are oncologists, even though if there\u2019s a specialty that really needs a good bedside manner, it\u2019s that of medical oncologist.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, let\u2019s just assume that Somers\u2019 oncologist was a flaming asshole. it\u2019s the worst case for \u201cWestern medicine\u201d and it is not as uncommon as I\u2019d like to admit. Besides, it\u2019s easier. In that case, I\u2019d say, \u201cSo what?\u201d I\u2019m sorry that her oncologist was a jerk. There\u2019s no excuse for that.<\/p>\n
Oncologists are very reluctant to give chemotherapy to someone without a definite tissue diagnosis proving that they have cancer, be it metastatic cancer or any cancer. Widespread cancer could be a recurrence of her breast cancer (especially given Somers\u2019 proclivity to pump herself full of \u201cbioidentical hormones\u201d after having been treated for an estrogen receptor-positive cancer), but in a 63-year-old woman, there are lots of other possible malignancies. What would be used for breast cancer might not work very well against, say, colon cancer or ovarian cancer, another likely possibility. Consequently, the first rule is to do as little as possible to relieve symptoms.<\/p>\n
But the first thing that any competent oncologist would demand is a tissue diagnosis, either from a needle biopsy or other tissue, to prove that there was cancer and to identify the type of cancer, so that the correct chemotherapy could chosen.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Somers did get a biopsy. She describes it in her interview above, \u201cThey cut into my neck and went in and took a piece of my lung, a piece of one of the so-called tumors around my heart turned out it was not cancer at all.\u201d
\nSo what was it? My first guess, though, was sarcoidosis, likely with a pneumonia complicating it. Even though she\u2019s on the old side for a first presentation of sarcoidosis, which usually hits people between 20-40, in retrospect Somers\u2019 presentation was pretty classic, as this article shows:<\/p>\n
What are symptoms of sarcoidosis?<\/strong>
\nShortness of breath (dyspnea) and a cough that won\u2019t go away can be among the first symptoms of sarcoidosis. But sarcoidosis can also show up suddenly with the appearance of skin rashes. Red bumps (erythema nodosum) on the face, arms, or shins and inflammation of the eyes are also common symptoms.
\nIt is not unusual, however, for sarcoidosis symptoms to be more general. Weight loss, fatigue, night sweats, fever, or just an overall feeling of ill health can also be clues to the disease.<\/p>\nThose tumors around Somers\u2019 heart? They were probably enlarged hilar lymph nodes, which are classic for sarcoidosis, which can also be associated with shortness of breath. From what I can gather she appears to have had a blood clot, which made the E.R. docs worry about a pulmonary embolus, and she had all these masses \u201caround her heart,\u201d as well as an enlarged liver. Sarcoidosis may account for it, but there are certainly other possibilities to account for the apparent misdiagnosis.<\/p>\n
Whatever Somers had, I guess we can blame an oncologist with a bad bedside manner, doctors too quick to leap in and tell her she had widespread metastatic cancer before getting a tissue diagnosis, and what appears to be a misdiagnosis.
\n
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