Monthly Archives: November 2010

Apparently I’m not sick anymore…

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… if my blood work is to be believed.

Before I get too excited I should note that there is still one test that I can’t seem to see the online results for. And it’s an important one as it contains the White Blood Cell count that I am most eager to see.

But, I did the results back from the rest of the tests and everything is pretty normal. This round of blood work returned something like 40 different results and all of them were within the normal ranges with the exception of one element from the liver function test which was elevated and indicates stress on the liver. But I think (though I’m still not a doctor) that it’s perhaps to be expected given the chemo treatments? I’ll find out on Wednesday when I see the doctor.

What’s weird though, is that they also tested the clotting factors in my blood again and it too came back normal. Normal, as in, entirely within the normal ranges like a normal person. This is a far cry from the last time I had this test done and my blood was clotting at half the rate of  normal. This is definitely another question for the doctor, but as she seemed just as baffled as I was by that initial result, I’m not holding out hope that she’s going to have too many answers for me on that front.

At any rate, we are a “go” for the Chest Port Placement procedure today! We check it at 8:30 this morning. We’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

“He’s more machine now than man; twisted and evil”

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The Chest Port Placement procedure went off without a hitch yesterday. And while I’m not quite Darth Vader yet, I do feel like I’m much closer to being a cyborg than I was yesterday.

We checked in at 8:30 and I was prepped for the procedure with an IV and saline/anti-biotic solution.

I probably could have smiled... but I was a bit drugged

When they were ready for us I was moved down a floor to where we meet with team doing the procedure and went over all the paper work and release forms etc. At this point they showed us what it was that they were about to put into me:

The procedure was quick, and from my perspective was very much like the lymph-node biopsy I had at the end of September. For both I was given a mild sedative so that I was relaxed and then then a local anesthetic for the cutting, digging, and probing part. But unlike the lymph-node biopsy, which from my perspective took about 10 minutes (it was actually closer to an hour) the chest port placement was actually about 10 minutes.

Afterward we moved back upstairs to the bed (as pictured above) and I had to stay for about an hour and a half for monitoring before they let us go. But after a quick nap, we were soon on our way home.

I haven’t been able to see what it looks like yet since I was told to keep the surgical dressing on until later today when they’ll take it before chemo. But I can feel it. The port is located just under the skin on the other side of my collarbone from where I had the lymph-node taken out. The catheter then enters a vein (I was told they have several options and I didn’t catch which one they actually went into) and the catheter ends shortly before the vein connects back up with the heart.

It’s a little sore. It’s just above the pectoral muscle so it hurts a bit if I move my right arm around. Also it just feels tight, both from the trauma done to the area from the procedure and because I can feel the port just underneath the skin, stretching it a bit.

Now I’m just curious to see how they take this thing and plug me in. I’ll find out later today.

Happy News!

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I promised over a month ago that we would eventually have someactual happy news to report here on the blog, and I’m not just talking about the “hey, I’m only kind of dying” sort of news. I’m talking about genuine good news.

Today it was announced that Christine has been promoted at work!. I am very proud of her, and for the first time since my diagnosis, I feel like we are getting back on track in life. When I was diagnosed, she withdrew from classes at her upcoming MBA program, and deferred to next year. I withdrew from the play I had been cast in for this holiday season. Both events felt like a setback for us. Now that her career is still advancing, things are starting to feel right again.

But wait; there’s more!

My dad took me to my chemo appointment yesterday because Christine had to be at a meeting in the afternoon regarding her new position, and we met with the oncologist. So far, the oncologist is pleased with my progress! Based on how I’m reacting to the chemo so far, we think we are on the right track, and I’m responding to treatment. When we are closer to 1/4 of the way through chemo (in about early December), I will have some follow-up tests and scans to confirm her suspicions of a positive reaction.

In additional good news, even though the area is bruised, the chest port that was installed on Tuesday did a great job, and the time it took to receive the chemo treatments was shorter than when they had previously tapped into my ever-squirrely arm veins.

Thanks to my dad for going with me yesterday and acting as chauffeur and note-taker during the oncologist appointment (at Christine’s direction, of course). We are both unbelievably grateful to have such amazing family and friends. Even though I just had chemo, I am genuinely hopeful and pleased right now.

Didn’t really know what to write about. So I thought I’d ramble for a bit:

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There was one bit of mildly concerning news that arose from our visit with the oncologist, and that would be the continued issues with my white blood cell counts. Even with the Neupogen injection I receive for 5 days after chemo my WBC count was only at 3.0 k/u when I went in for chemo again on Wednesday. This is still well below the normal range, though I guess it’s an improvement over the 1.5 k/u that it was at after my first treatment (which was the impetus for putting me on the drug). In fact it’s twice as good. Even so, the doctor indicated that it’s still an underwhelming result and if it does not show signs of improving before my next treatment on the 24th, then she will consider taking some additional action, including extending the injections for a few additional days after treatments. I’m really hoping that it won’t come to that because as it is,  those injections will really start to take their toll by the time Monday and Tuesday roll around. So hopefully the same magic that suddenly caused my blood to clot in a more normal way will take effect on my white blood cells production now.

One thing that should help is exercise. The doctor is encouraging me now to start to exercising as regularly as possible and for at least 30 minutes a day if I can. Initially it was recommended that I not exercise much at all since the goal was work towards putting weight on me and keeping it on, and they didn’t want to anything to derail that effort. But now that I am back up to a normal weight for myself she would like to see back on an exercise plan to get my cardio back up (it’s pretty sad right now) and prevent further muscle loss.

I had pretty much forgotten how thin I had become when this all started. I’m back up now to a normal weight for me, I was 148 when I checked in for chemo on Wednesday, but when I was diagnosed almost 2 months ago I was in the low 130′s putting my Body Mass Index (BMI) squarely in the “Underweight” category. This week though, I was reminded twice how much better I guess I’m looking now. When we went and saw the show I was supposed to be in on Sunday, we stuck around to talk to people afterward I was approached by my good friend Trish who was firstly surprised to see me, and secondly told me right away how good I looked and that I had put on some much needed weight. Trish and I did a couple of shows together last spring and summer. Her comment sort of surprised me at first as I didn’t really realize that I had looked underweight during that time though in hindsight that makes alot of sense. That was the period of time when my cough and other symptoms first developed and when I first started having inclinations that something wasn’t quite right (of course I ignored everything for another month or two).  Still, it was interesting for me to hear that perhaps I was in worse shape than I thought I was, even back then.

The other person to comment on my physical appearance was my doctor. Although we’ve spoken several times I hadn’t seen her in 5 weeks, and the first words out of her mouth when she passed us in the hall before the appointment was that I looked better. I guess 5 weeks and 15 pounds make a big difference.

What’s funny is that a few weeks before my diagnosis I even commented here on the blog about how scrawny I seemed to be. I had posted some pictures of my friends and I golfing in Hawaii and I included a picture of myself with the caption “It’s not often that I see a profile picture of myself. I ALWAYS forget how scrawny I really am.” Looking back through more of those pictures of me from our Hawaii trip this summer, and I have to admit that I’m looking pretty thin, and I still had a few weeks to go before I’d get to my worst. Thankfully there aren’t to many pictures of me at my low point.

It’s actually kind of hard for me to go back and look at some of those pictures of happier times, especially those golfing pictures. About a week after I was diagnosed my dear friend went into the hospital and has only recently started his own long journey of recovery. It’s hard to think about how long it will be before the 3 of us are all healthy enough to get back on the course again, but I already look forward to it, and in fact I think about that day almost every day. I’ve already decided that the two us who are (or hopefully, were) sick are going to ride in a golf cart. Dane can walk!

That’s probably enough rambling for now. On Monday or Tuesday I’ll post some pictures of this chest port that I have in me now. I wanted to wait a few days so that I could get some good progression photos of the bruising. The bruise is about 2-3 inches across and is responsible for most of the “tightness” that I described the other day, but it feels much better today than it did yesterday. I was initially concerned that there might be a problem since the bruising seemed much worse than I was prepared for, but the doctor put my concerns to rest when she basically told me “Meh, I’ve seen much, much worse” =)

Hairloss

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As each week passes by, I grow more and more confident that my hair loss has peaked and that I might not look like a cancer patient to people who wouldn’t know that I’m sick. I might be fooling myself, but I don’t even think it looks that bad, or at least I should say that I think that I might even be pulling it off. By “pulling it off” all I hope is that if you saw me walking down the street you wouldn’t think that I looked weird, or that I was sick at all. It’s certainly pretty patchy in places on the top of my head but overall I think that just enough hair has remained to just make it look like I might be losing my hair at young age. Or that I just joined the military.

What’s strange though is how chemo is continuing to effect the rest of the hair on my body. I haven’t shaved my face in almost a month now, and all that has grown is that time is a very fine “peach fuzz” as if I was 12 again. I’ve never been known for my facial hair growing prowess, quite the contrary in fact. Normally the only facial hair I would be able to grow is a weak mustache that creeps my wife out after a few days, and then some scraggly hairs around the front of my chin, but even that has failed to appear in the last few weeks. Unfortunately it does however continue to grow on underside of my chin and on a bit on my neck which is starting to show signs of the ever popular “neck beard.” She hates it so much! But I can’t see it so it’s doesn’t really bother me.

Additionally I’ve also started to lose most of my leg hair. There is still a bit on the front of my shins, but Christine is growing increasingly jealous of the smoothness of my calves and the sides of my lower legs. Between the smooth face, and hairless legs, it’s like I’m a becoming a freshman on the High School Swim Team. It’s kind of an odd place to be in.

I am happy to report though that the dozens of chest hairs that I’ve managed to grow in my (almost) 29 years have remained in place and thusfar have not shown any signs of abandoning their posts. I take great comfort in this for some reason.