We talked a little bit about how the tumor measurement is interpreted. I have often described them as “freckles” on my liver since the measurement is quoted as a diameter. I pictured them as spots each the size of a different coin – a penny, nickel, quarter, etc. But that’s not quite right. The tumors are three dimensional like a marble or a small ball and they aren’t necessarily on the surface of the liver. My larger ones are now just under an inch in diameter.
So, in trying to picture what my liver really looks like, I did some homework last night on how big a human liver is. The answer in part depends on the size of the person. Women have slightly smaller livers than men but that’s just because they’re slightly smaller anyway. The liver is shaped like a right triangle with the long side running horizontally under the ribcage from the right side of your body to the middle. The short side runs down the right side of the body. For an “average” man, it is about 9 or 10 inches across, 6 inches tall and – amazingly I think – 4 inches deep! It weights 3 to 3 ½ pounds and has a volume of about 1.4 liters (about 48 fluid ounces). In other words, it takes up about the same amount of space as four cans of soda.
So, if we drop into these four cans of soda three or four marbles of about 1 inch in diameter and perhaps 8 or 10 smaller marbles (like the kind we played with as kids), that’s my liver. Hope you liked that visual! BB
4 comments:
Well done Brian. My prayers were answered. How about some chocolate pudding when I see you next. Love, Mom
How nice to hear that you are extending your holiday. When we come into NYC we pass some of the same landmarks that you photographed. I will think of you as we pass them in the future. But the new layout confused me for a few seconds.
Brian
In Vanity Fair Mag over the past several months the celebrity Christopher Hitchens has been writing about his bout with esphogeal cancer.
He should read your blog. What a difference in style. He can be humorous, but with the undertone of pessimism. He could benefit mentally from your writings which are both humorous and uplifting. Like you say: keep going, one foot in front of the other. That's something Hitchens and many cancer patients need to do to become a "cancer survivor".
You can read his articles on VF.com/archives Tumortown(Nov issue);Topic of Cancer (Sept); Unanswerble Prayers (OCT); Marlie,Maggie and Me (June).
M
YAY! I love when holidays can involve food! Thanksgiving! Christmas! Birthday! Let the celebrations begin. You can also make/have some of your famous Irish Cream ;-)
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