So far I’m surviving

Not a lot of enery to night, but between Micki and I we got a dialup setup. This probably means video conferencing won’t work tomorrow, but we’re going to attempt it. Right now the worst part is the nasaua that leads to acid reflux and vomitting, but so far only twice and I’m getting some more meds for it.

Going In

Tomorrow is D-Day. I’ll be checking into the hospital tomorrow to undergo the stem cell transplant. I’m ready for it, the waiting has gotten old. This is probably the biggest physical challenge I’ll undergo this lifetime, though I could attempt a marathon. It’s mostly a matter of staying positive and charging through. Right now I’m completely ready, that will probably change after a few days of chemo.

I have one major focus, internet access. I’m going to bug the heck out of the staff to setup my internet access. I picked up an iSight camera and we already have an iBot at home so Kassie and Molly can say goodnight to me every night. Feel free to ping me if you see me online, I may not answer right away, but I’ll try.

So wish me good luck out there. If you want a preview of what I’m about to do try this site.

T-6 days

Only 6 days to go until I head into the hospital. I feeling pretty good right now in the nauseau is almost completely gone. Unfortunately I aquired a cold on Sunday so I’m sniffiling and taking a lot of sudafed. The doctors and nurses assure me the cold shouldn’t make a difference. Everything’s still on schedule.

The stem cell collection went swimmingly. It only took 1 day of collection, which is basically sitting in a chair hooked up a rather large machine to get twice as much stem cells as they’ll need. Everyone tells me thats a good sign, I can produce a lot of stem cells which comes in handy after the last nuking with chemo when I’m in the hospital. Apparently the average collection is 2.7 days.

Micki informed my that my nephew Zak, who’s 4, was very upset when he saw a picture of me with no hair. His mom had told him about the cancer and that I was sick a few times, but it didn’t really sink in for him. It’s hard to explain these things to 4 year olds. I still wonder how worried Kassie really is, she looked at me with big saucer brown eyes while they changed the bandages on my PICC line today at the infusion center. I think she worries a lot more than she lets on. Still she played the waving game hiding behind the nurse and waving as she changed the bandages.

And I saw ‘The Incredibles’ over the weekend, very nice to see a movie and be out again. Unfortunately it was a little to intense for Kassie, she’s been having nightmares about it sense. Sometimes experiments don’t work out for parents.

I’m just really looking forward to having the whole episode behind me soon.

Next up stem cell transplant

Well, I’ve learned that during chemo treatments my energy to sit down by the keyboard gets pretty zapped. Since chemo cycle #2 I’ve done the following:

• Chemo Cycle #3
• PICC installed
• Blood Transfusion

Chemo Cycle #3 went a little better than #2 and it only took two days in the hospital. They installed a new PICC line and pulled out my old unit. Now I have two cool red and blue lines that hang out on my upper right chest. I think they worry Kassie a little, I can’t sleep on my right side, and shower time is a major pain, but other than that not too bad. Best part about them so far is no more poking, and the surgery wasn’t hard to recover from unlike the earlier portocath. I guess I’ll have a lot of scars on my chest, but then I’m happily alive and married to an understanding woman so I don’t think it decreases my appeal much.

The blood transfusion was today as apparently my hemoglobin in my blood was crashing. I noticed this by the side effects, my heartrate was around 100-120, and climbing one flight of stairs winded me. I slept a lot this chemo cycle. It seems like the 2 units of O+ blood I got have done the trick–my heart isn’t threatening to jump out of my chest, and I’m still awake and functional after 8:00.

So that’s where I am right now. The other really good news is that I’m in full remission according to the PET scans and the lack of a bump on my neck. We had to get that clarifed as when my wife called in they told her that the scan was “almost normal.” Apparently radiologists don’t like to get specific. After both of us took a look at the slides it appeared there was nothing left in my neck. Luckily my oncologist concurred and noted that radiologists are never able to declare something completely gone.

I have a new routine now. Everyday, yes including weekends, I go in and get two wonderful nepogene shots. They go one in each arm just under the skin and they burn a lot. Unfortunately some nurses think injecting very slowly for like 3 minutes is better than doing it in say 20 seconds. Lack of understaning on the pain side there. Then every other day they clean up my new patriotic line, it has 1 red and one blue end. Then once a week they change the dressing. And finally I get a blood draw every day to check counts. Hopefully this all slows down on Monday when they do the stem cell collection.

Hair is gone, nasaeau is longer lasting

Well, my hair is long gone now, except for some spotty bristle patches that are falling out when I rub them. The hospital stay this time was extra long, I didn’t get out until 1:00pm on Friday because they took 36 hours to give me the 24 hour chemo drug. I have my first mouth sore as well.

That said I’m feeling pretty good this week. I’ve been back at work, I had a PET scan that I expect to come back clean. Only one more RICE cycle and then on to the great stem cell transplant.