| Celebrating life: Newburyport man shares cancer survival story to help ...
Being a Newburyport firefighter for 32 years may seem like a risky lifestyle. But Leo Rocco's toughest battles weren't fighting fires, but surviving mantle cell lymphoma - not once, but twice.
Rocco, 66, was first diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma - a cancer that affects the lymph nodes - in 2001. It was a lingering sore throat that provided the early clue that something was wrong. But after six months of chemotherapy, he was considered in remission.
When his cancer returned in 2003, his family sought alternative treatment. In 2004, Rocco participated in an experimental trial and became the fourth umbilical cord blood cell transplant recipient at a Boston hospital.
Cord blood cell transplant involves matching donated umbilical cord blood, which is rich in blood-forming cells, and implanting them in patients with diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma.
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Since she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2004, Hetty Hazenberg has struggled for survival in two worlds - one of conventional medicine that focused on operations, chemotherapy and radiation, and the other of alternative medicine that considered her mind, spirit, and soul. More than three years later, the 38-year-old Dutch-born North Vancouver resident feels she has found the right balance, including a new job, a new outlook on life, and a foot in each medical camp. "I believe the two go hand in hand," says Hazenberg, who will undergo more testing next month. "I needed an operation, but there is so much we can do ourselves. We can't just focus on the body. We all have a mind, soul and spirit that needs to be healed, too." .
Modern prostate surgery carefully preserves nerves
DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 77 and have been "watchfully waiting" with an enlarged prostate for 20 years. Is there sex after prostate removal? — M.B. Yes, there's sex after prostate surgery. The inability to attain an erection after prostate surgery hinges mostly on damage done to nerves serving the penis during surgery. Those nerves lie in close proximity to the gland, and keeping them intact during surgery can be difficult. Damage mainly occurs when the entire gland has to be removed. That's something rarely done for prostate enlargement — it's done for prostate cancer. Even then, modern surgery is careful to preserve those nerves. Less-radical surgery, like a TUR — transurethral resection — is not likely to lead to postsurgery impotence. Here the gland is pared down using instruments passed into the urethra, the tube draining the bladder.
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