Monthly Archives: March 2011

HairGROWTH Part I

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Ever since I was taken off of the bleomycin due to lung damage back in early January, my hair has slowly started growing again. Well… kind of… and only in certain places.

Where its most noticeable is on the top of my head. It’s slowly coming back in, though not quite as thick as “normal” hair growth yet. And what is coming back in is pretty fine and soft. The color is also much redder than it’s been in years. I was a red head growing up and still thought of myself as one, but as I’ve discovered in the last few months (as people have noticed my redder hair growing back) is that many people who have only known me for a few years, think of me as having brownish hair. For the record, my resume says “auburn” I think that covers it well. Though if this continues, I may have to change it back to “red.”

Along with the color, it’s also coming back so far much softer and finer than it was before. I basically feel like it’s reverting to an earlier state. The physiological equivalent of curling up into a ball, sucking its thumb, and reverting back to an earlier form of itself. In this case it’s going back to an infantile state since its as soft and fine, and as red, as when I was a baby.

I never completely lost the hair on my lower arms, but I did lose the hair on my legs. It’s very hard to see, but in the right lighting you can see little sprouts of hair starting to come back on legs, but for the most part they are still smooth.

The place that is has started growing back through is my chin. Not on my face, but just from the bottom of the chin to the top of the neck.

Artist

The rest of my facial hair is still MIA. Not that I could ever grow it in the first place. But still, even in my prime I would have to shave every other day or so or I would start to look pretty scraggly and gross. Not anymore though. I think I’ve maybe picked up my razor 3 times in the last 6 months.

I am really curious to see how it will take for the rest of my hair follicles to wake up after my last chemo on THURSDAY (!!!)

I could really use some eyebrows.

Last Blood Draw

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Every two weeks, on the day before chemo, I go in for a blood draw. Today is the last one!

Yes, it’s possible that I may have to go in again before we see the doctor in two weeks, but still, it feels like a milestone.

One of the cool things about getting results online is that I can see all of the results going back. There is even a function to make a graph:

The first point on the graph was the blood draw that I had after my first meeting with Dr. Dodge, September 13th. That was he uttered the words that I’ll never forget “I don’t see any reason to sugar coat this: I believe you non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma” (HA! Joke was on him, he was WRONG it was Hodgkin’s!). Before leaving the office he sent me for a blood draw, my white blood cell (WBC) count was 13.2, the “standard range” for WBC’s is between 4.0 – 10.7. (fun fact: the numbers are in K/ul which I believe stands for “Thousand per Unit”)

The second point on the graph was the blood draw that I had before my first chemo and it came in at a respectable 10.7. Then, well, you can see for yourself how I reacted to my first chemo treatment, 2 weeks later I my WBC had RECOVERED all the way back up to 1.5.

From then on I began taking the injections, and you can see from the chart that from then on my WBC generally hovered around the low end of what a normal count should be.

The shots SUCKED. I hated having to do them. But they worked.

Anyway, I just thought the graph was neat. It’s one way to have documented the journey.

OH, and Happy Anniversary to my parents. 37 years!

Today’s the Day

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I can hardly believe it, but today is my LAST chemo appointment.

I don’t even really know what to say about it other than that.

Note that even in my joy I’m hesitant to make any sweeping claims like “Its over” or “I’m done with treatment.” This is certainly a big milestone and I will most definitely be celebrating as it such, but the realist in me is keen to not get too celebratory yet. There are still several things to get through in the coming weeks, and I’ll touch on what are those as we go. But for now, I’m trying to just be glad that this chapter is coming to an end.

Still, I’ll have to go through the same recovery period that I always do. I can this going one of two ways: it will either be easiest or one of the hardest. Easiest in the sense that I know I won’t have to go back, and that it’s only uphill from here. Yet, it could be hard in the sense that my patience with this process has grown thin, especially since I’m wanting to be working toward recovery and getting back to where I was before I got sick. So you can see how it could go either way, either I won’t mind the downs since I won’t have to go through them again, OR I’ll REALLY hate the limitations it puts on me because I can’t wait until I can start getting better.

So think of us today! We’ll be going in at 1pm and it generally takes around 2-3 hours. So by 4 o’clock I’ll be able say “Back when I was going through chemo…”

And on the plus side, now I’ll have something to drink to on every St. Patrick’s Day for the rest of my life!

Anyway, I’m not really good at expressing excitement, either in person or in print, so I’ll leave the super-excited post for Christine to write for tomorrow.

WOOOHOOO!!

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Stine here, with a post that is 6 months in the making! Yesterday was Brian’s last day of chemo, and every minute that passes is a minute closer to him getting his life back!

He took his last day of chemo like the champ he’s been the whole time:

"Peace out."

He wore his green shirt in honor of  St. Patrick’s Day.

My grand mother passed away on St. Patrick’s Day 18 years ago, and I’ve always hated the holiday since then. However, Brian ending chemo has made me full of joy, and I think I will celebrate the day going forward. I think we have the luck of the Irish with us, now. I even wore green yesterday (with matching green earrings), which I haven’t done since the 4th grade.

The tree leaves were green when he started this process, and I have the proof. Every time he went to chemo, I took a picture out of the hospital room window:

October 6, 2010

October 20, 2010

November 10, 2010

November 24, 2010

December 8, 2010

December 22, 2010

January 5, 2011

January 19, 2011

February 3, 2011

February 17, 2011

March 3, 2011

March 17, 2011

And spring will come again! The tree out the window had a slight pink blush to it yesterday (hard to see with the iPhone camera), which is a sure sign it’s about to bud. Today is the day daffodils will be passed out by Pike Place Market volunteers in downtown Seattle, because Sunday is the first day of spring.

We brought daffodils and a card to the nurses, and they were equally as excited for Brian. They helped him celebrate his last day with a send-off that was very appropriate for someone who loves musical theater:

Overall, it was the best kind of chemo day that a chemo day can be; the last one!

The Big Climb

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Perhaps agreeing to climb up 69 flights of stairs 3 days after chemo wasn’t the greatest idea that I’ve ever had. BUT we did it, and we lived to tell the tale.

Before

As much as it sucked, I’m actually glad we did it. If for no other reason than to prove that I could. I must say though, that my time wasn’t the greatest. When I did it back in 2008, I think I did it around 14 minutes. This year, it was about 33 minutes. I did the first 20 flights without stopping, but then I think we stopped about every 10 flights or so after that.

The suck

Recovering at the top

This event benefited the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), which is the same sponsor of the Running Scared 5k and the Pineapple Classic. I think that we will make big group participation activities out of all three of those events in the coming year, and by the time the Big Climb rolls around next spring, I will be one year clear of cancer (knock on wood).