Halfway point?

Round 3 Day 2.  I've noticed my agenda for the past month has constantly revolved around where I am at in my treatment cycle.  It's a little interesting not being able to plan things out more than two weeks in advance with any sort of commitment.  Hopefully this treatment cycle marks the halfway point and there are less than six weeks to go!  Of course we aren't out of the woods after chemo but it is a definite milestone. 

Speaking of milestones, in less than two weeks I get new CT scans to figure out how the cancer has reacted to the chemo treatment.  I am really looking forward to seeing the results but trying not to get too worked up about them.  It would be great to see nothing on the scans but that is highly unlikely.  I feel like we will see good regression of the cancer cells but of course I fear that we may not see any regression and heaven forbid seeing progression of the cancer.  My blood work came back looking very similar to two weeks ago, good but not great (compared to a healthy, not on chemo person) but definitely good enough to continue treatment.  My medical team says I'm doing very well with the treatment regiment, I even put on a pound since the last weigh in! 

Thanksgiving week was great.  I got to spend it surrounded with good friends and family and plenty of good food.  Even my sis Karin flew in from the East coast to spend time with us.  I was lucky it was my off week and so food was appealing (the appetite tanks for a few days after treatment).  We had dinner at my brothers house with about 15 people present and a couple kids crawling around.  For the turkey we fried and smoked another, both were ridiculously good but the smoked one was better.  Probably was the blanket of bacon on it that gave it the edge.  I also tried frying the pumpkin pie (think individual hand pies, not the whole thing).  It worked well when I could keep the pocket of dough stuck together and not leak out the filling, they were tasty.  Next time I think we will try freezing the filling so it won't spill out so easily.  Even with all the craziness going on in life, there is still plenty to be thankful for. 

Well I haven't shaved in 3 days and it doesn't even look like my usual 5 'o clock shadow.  Quite patchy.  The hair loss has mainly been the top of the head and the beard, still have eyelashes and eyebrows but who knows how long that will stick around.  It seems to go fast when it goes.  Not looking forward to hiccups tomorrow, they did happen again after last treatment so it will probably continue.  Once again, better than nausea.

Looks like we are once again ahead of schedule for infusion for today.  This dual port has definitely been a time saver.  Looking forward to heading back to Richard & Anna's house to hang out with the nephew!

Beard Removal

Sorry for the delay in posting these, hope you enjoy the progression. The soul patch I left behind was slowly disappearing so I'm actually completely beardless now.  After this session of beard trimming (a week ago) I hopped in the shower to clean off.  As I was washing the hair on top of my head I noticed quite a bit of it was left in my hands and in the shower drain. As a result I decided that it wasn't worth trying to hold onto.  It now feels much colder outside.

Yep, cue balled it up :-)

Uhoh

My nephew likes to pull on hair and my beard is starting to get to the shaggy stage.  This morning he got a nice handful and gave it a tug.  Usually this causes me to say ouch.  However, this time Will just made off with a chunk of hair and no pain on my side.  Looks like the hair is starting to fall out.  Any requests for beard/goatee/moustache styles for me to try as I proactively shave this thing off?  I'll take some pictures to share on the blog.  Act quickly as I'm not sure how fast I'm losing it yet and at the same time am not too enthused about shedding into my bowl at meal time.

Chemo Casual

Last week I discovered that regular crew neck T-shirts are not great for access to my ports.  So this week I wore a button up shirt for easy access.  However, walking out of the house this morning with my comfy Adidas sweat pants, I must admit the combination is a bit unorthodox.  What do you think?  I also figured I would pose next to my dancing partner, the rolling pole.  It gets to come with me on jaunts to the bathroom and I get to figure out ways to try and tangle myself in the tubes attached to it.

Round 2 Day 2

Sitting here getting my chemo.  It is noon and we are already to the cisplatin, the last drug of the day!  Granted, it does take an hour for this one to drip in and then it's at least another 2 hours of hydration afterwards to clean out my kidneys.  But it is looking like we will be out of here in just over 6 hours, this dual port is paying off!  Otherwise I would be sitting here for 10 hours. 

Mom is with me today.  Instead of Dad bringing her up this time Kendra and I went on a road trip to pick her up.  We took off from Seattle on Sunday to check on my place in the 'couv.  We were in town for less than 24 hours, enough time to grab some dinner with friends Sunday night then go to a doctor appointment Monday morning, and meet up for lunch with a few coworkers.  Next time I'll plan on hanging out longer.  It would be good to sleep in my own bed for more than one night. 

Kendra and I then headed east towards the Yakima Valley.  I decided to take Highway 14 instead of the dull I-84 route which was a good choice.  Fall was definitely in session and although most of the leaves had fallen the colors were still great.  Kendra is lucky that I forgot my camera in Seattle or I would have been tempted to pull over a few times (or I can just enjoy Alvaro's shots).  I did miss the motorcycle on the curvy roads but it was cool and raining so that probably wouldn't have been a good choice. 

On arriving at my parent's place in the Yakima Valley, mom had dinner ready and had invited some family over at the last minute.  It was good to see them and let them know I'm doing well.  I'm pretty lucky to have so much of my family so close together and I love that our way of expressing that we care is by enjoying food (Grandma Golob those brownies were amazing). 

Tuesday we headed over the pass which luckily had warmed up.  It had been closed Sunday night briefly due to the ten inches of snow that fell.  We will definitely need to keep an eye on those conditions in the future as mom will be crossing over often.  It was good Kendra came along as my copilot, even though I was too stubborn to let her drive most of the time :-)

Back in Seattle, we started Round 2 yesterday.  As always, they did some blood work before the doc decides how we continue (adjust dosages, etc.).  My results came back good!  The Neulasta shot is working as my White Blood Cells (WBC) were up.  The only concerning lab was that my platelets have dropped.  They are still in a good range but it would be bad if they drop the same amount again before the next treatment.  Something to keep an eye on.  I also talked with the doc a little about our post chemo plans.  It sounds like they are already starting conversations with surgical teams on how to address my case.  The next scans are planned for December 10th where we will find out how much the tumors have shrunk.  Until then we continue on with the chemo!

Doing Good

Day 4 nearly complete and besides some fatigue and an interesting case of hiccups things are going well.  Friday Mom and I even met Richard downtown for lunch and a little wandering around Pioneer Square.  The hiccups started Friday morning and have been off and on ever since.  The thought is the port is irritating some nerves that control my diaphragm.  The only thing that has been working is a muscle relaxer they prescribed but of course that adds to the sleepiness. Hopefully the nerves chill out soon, hiccuping all day isn't too fun.  Overall though things are going really good :-)

Day 2

(originally written on Thursday Nov. 1)

Alright, we made it to the big drugs today.  So far, no nausea, hooray!!!  Although that could be some early celebration as they piped some potent anti nausea in me before the meds.  Another good thing, my 10 hour day turned out to only be 7 hours thanks to the dual port.  They were able to pump two things at a time so we got out of there much earlier.  All in all, I am definitely feeling slow and fatigued.  The eyelids are heavy and its a good thing I can touch type (this little transformer device is working great).  Mom sat with me through the morning but then Richard took over in the afternoon, it was good to change things up a bit.  I also got presented a most awesome quilt made by my Aunt Chelle with squares filled of family photos outlined in Batman style "Smash" "Pow" "Kick" style pattern.  Pretty sure it gives me special healing powers during the chemo :)

They sent me home with my ports de-accessed (no longer had a needle and tube on the outside) so I finally got to see the scar and bulge.  Decent sized 2" scar just below the collarbone.  There are two prominent bumps and I can feel the line that goes up and over the collarbone. Kinda weird but I'll get used to it.  Glad that they will leave them alone for 12 days as they are pretty tender.

Hope the next few days will be similarly manageable.  I get a shot tomorrow to promote bone marrow growth to keep my white blood cell from dropping too hard but that's it on the agenda.  Short day tomorrow :)

Thanks for the messages, so far I've been able to keep up with just about everyone's questions and it is always great to get updates from my readers :)

Jokes and pictures are especially appreciated.