Radiation Raver: The Life and Times of Shaun K. Kearney

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During 1999 I was a normal, part time self employed, happily married, standard South African guy.

38 years old with a great future planned. I had most of the same hang ups that plagued everybody, mid month crisis and month end blues.

My wife, step daughters, mother in law and myself, lived in the suburbs of Kempton Park, happily going about our daily business with minimal stress levels.

During July 1999, I was temporally managing a hardware store in Greenside when the owner had a lump removed from his chest. The lump proved to be malignant but had not spread.

I am fair haired and have a light skin complexion, and as I had been working outdoors repairing and installing irrigation systems, some of my freckles became dark and suspicious and as Mister Elsbach, the hardware store owner, had just had a tumour removed, dark freckles became a point of concern. I had four of my freckles removed and tested for all those wonderful things that life throws at you.

The results of the tests on all four biopsies came back negative. Relief.

Once again I believed that I was a reasonably healthy guy.

Out of the blue, during September 1999, a slight swelling on the right side of my neck began to grow. Being a normal tough guy that I was, I didn’t worry about the swelling as swollen glands are part of growing up. Eventually, after many hours of putting up with a nagging wife, about six weeks later, and having difficulties using a razor to shave with, I made an appointment with our family GP.

After a course of very strong antibiotics, everything on my body healed, including my navel, and excluding this lump in my neck, which had grown considerably in size during the previous weeks of treatment.

A decision was made to remove the offending bits of swollen gland and send it off for tests. The removal of the lump was scheduled for the 1st of December 1999.

The surgical removal of the lump was successful.

The story that follows is a result of the lump removed from my neck.

I come from a rather large family and I have four brothers and four sisters. For my wife and I to phone everybody with all the different news all the time was proving to be a rather time consuming project and was becoming rather costly.

As I have family and friends all around the world, the most convenient form of communicating with everybody at once is email.

I maintained a sort of an electronic diary with photo’s for all to see. This worked out quite well as some of my family and friends were involved in the medical services and understood the doctor’s medical jargon rather well, as well as wanting to create my own record. Understanding the medical jargon proved to be quite a life saver. Whenever I needed an explanation on any diagnosis, I would email Jerry in Australia and get an answer in English that we all could understand.

The emails that I sent out to family members to keep all informed proved to be quite popular and the list of recipients grew and grew.

This is my story of how I survived the diagnosis and the treatment.

I have kept the diary as close to the original email format with some explanatory notes accompanying the story.

Born and raised in Johannesburg during the latter half of the 20th century. I attended Bedfordview and Hillcrest Primary Schools, and Jeppe High School for Boys, in Johannesburg. During my high school years of the 1970's, I started to D J for private functions. Drafted for military conscription during the 1980's and then the real world thereafter. I worked in the electrical and electronic industry for ten years before changing careers, to become an irrigation and pumps system designer. Married in early 1998 and never looked back. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Head and Neck cancer during December 1999. Life has never been the same